While buying a copy of Black Narcissus on blu-ray a few years ago, a couple of snarky clerks working the Barnes & Noble Criterion sale started cracking jokes about nunsploitation. I doubt they were referring specifically to Noribumi Suzuki's 1974 film Convent of the Sacred Beast (aka School of the Holy Beast), but there's really not a title out there that more fully inhabits that descriptor. It's a film that piles up such nunsploitation/exploitation traits as s&m (lots o' whipping, sometimes with thorns!), lesbian nuns, dirty old bishops, and various perversions based in Catholic imagery. So, of course, it was only a matter of time before it showed up at the Hollywood Theatre's monthly Grindhouse Film Festival event.
Here's what the Grindhouse folks have to say about Tuesday night's presentation:
The Grindhouse Film Festival presents the only known 35mm print of the Japanese nunsploitation film Convent of the Sacred Beast.
Convent of the Sacred Beast (aka School of the Holy Beast) (1974) A young woman enters a convent to investigate the mysterious death of her mother. The convent turns out to be a steaming hotbed of immorality, and the woman must deal with a lesbian mother superior, a sleazy archbishop, and nuns who submit to S&M punishments for their sins. Filled with sex and violence, and filmed with beautiful cinematography, this is an erotic mix of giallo and sexploitation. This is one of a kind, and not to be missed.
35mm sexploitation trailers before the movie
Convent of the Sacred Beast plays one-night-only at the Hollywood Theatre on Tuesday, January 29th at 7:30pm. More info available here.
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