Killer Nun is an Italian Nunsploitation flick starring Anita Ekberg (Fellini’s La Dolce Vita) as sister Gertrude. Sister Gertrude works in a geriatric hospital and is recovering from neurosurgery. She is dependent on morphine to help with headaches which she experiences daily, and man does she has some track marks that can rival that dude in Requiem for a Dream. Her Mother superior (Alida Valli, Suspirira) deems her recovery to be on track and insists that the doctor stops prescribing her morphine. This leads Sister Gertrude to commit crimes to support her habit as she slips further into psychosis and morphine addiction…

Killer Nun was infamously put on the “video nasties” list and boy I have no idea why. This is a really cool flick, but there isn’t much skin, there’s a little bit of blood and gore and a pretty gross out scene with a face and needles and I will admit the needle vs. eye had me cringing. I am guessing that the depiction of holy women leaving the convent to fuck men and score junk is just too damaging to the audience of 20-40 year old males who this film is probably targeted for. I am sure this film inspired many a man to go to bars to flirt and pick up men and to kill poor geriatrics. This is one of the tamer video nasties, but don’t let that put you off.

Killer Nun seemed to me to be more of a hybrid of Nunsploitation and Giallo, the film lacked the overall extreme sleaziness of your typical Nunsploitation fare and worked pretty well with its Giallo emulating attempt in regards to the music, camerawork and the overall mystery/twist element. The film was attempting to be classier than it really was which of course lead to a bit of a comedic element to the film: the incessant picking on and torturing of geriatrics, lesbianism, Joe Dallesandro in a serious role, false teeth stomping… it’s an enjoyable flick all around. A little bit of class and a little bit of ass.

Anita Ekberg was amazing in this film, as an extra on the disc there is an interview with her from 2006 where she talks about only being offered roles which were rehashing her character in La Dolce Vita and how she wanted to do something different. Although noticeably older, she is still amazingly beautiful and seductive even through baring no flesh. It must be those eyebrows, she is so nice. And little Joe…ahhh that’s right Joe Dallesandro makes an appearance as a doctor which had me in stitches. He has to be the biggest and most hottest dumb actor ever, so seeing him portray a serious character with an overdubbed voice was fun. I didn’t get to see him naked so that kind of pissed me off, but I am sure that doesn’t really bother you guys.

If you’re looking for sex and gore then this might not please you, but for me it was a pleasure to watch a film that had junkie and lesbian nuns without being subjected to half the film being nothing but naked girls writhing around. Sure it’s ok for you guys, but I can do that myself in front of a mirror so there’s nothing very titillating or interesting about it to me. It’s totally worth buying if you like the idea of Nuns gone wild, but if you are after another satanic worshiping lesbian nun orgy then this will probably numb your buns.

Shameless Entertainment have put together Killer Nun on DVD for the first time in the UK completely uncut and have restored some scenes that are in Italian that were cut out of the film which are subtitled in English.

Extras:

There’s the Anita Ekberg interview which runs for approximately 6 minutes plus some trailers for upcoming Shameless releases.

Available on DVD from Shameless Entertainment.