Images in a Convent (1979) User Reviews

Joe Amongst the Nunnery

[BandSAboutMovies · 6/10 · 15 December 2021]

Originally called La casa del dio sconosciuto (House of the Unknown God), this movie starts by informing you that it was very loosely inspired by Prosper Mérimée's La Vénus d'Ille before quoting Blaise Pascal: "The last function of reason is to recognize that there are an infinity of things which surpass it."

Then a whole bunch of nuns get possessed and get it on.

I mean, you can lock up gorgeous nuns but in the Mondo D'Amato they are going to spend most of the movie flipping out, touching one another and rehabilitating a wounded man by repeatedly hiding the bishop. Yet that young man has brought the devil with him!

Paola Senatore stars as Isabella, the duchess who has been left in this convent for her own protection and that doesn't go so well. Marina Hedman is Sister Marta and you may remember her from Play Motel, a movie that rivals this one for sheer prurience. Aïché Nana plays the Mother Superior, which is probably an inside joke, as she's most famous for dancing an infamous striptease during a private party at the Rugantino restaurant and nightclub on the Viale di Trastevere in Rome that got so much attention, it caused a national scandal and inspired the orgy scene in Fellini's film La Dolce Vita. Sister Veronica is Giovanna Mainardi, one of the female guards of SS Experiment Love Camp. Sister Giulia is Maria Rosaria Riuzzi from Emanuelle and Francoise and Salon Kitty. Finally, the exorcist who tries to fix it all is Donald O'Brien, whose Italian film credentials are beyond reproach: Dr. Butcher, M. D.; Keoma; Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals; Yeti Giant of the 20th Century; The Sect; Ghosthouse and about fifty more.

This movie - moved along by the Nico Fidenco soundtrack - feels like a nightmare and then a dream and then another nightmare and then a priest leads the nuns through the convent trying to get Satan out of their midst while a murder happens and every nun unleashes their full wanton carnal needs as they struggle to the altar. Sure, it's exploitation, but in the hands of D'Amato, it approaches scumbag art.

Joe does it again.

[Ky-D · 7/10 · 1 July 2005]

During the 70's sleazy cycle numerous short lived sub-genres popped up to turn heads and enrage moralists every where. None were quite as offensive as nunsploitation and no nunsploitation was as trashy as this.

At a convent in Italy, a man arrives and the nuns begin feeling urges against their calling. It soon becomes clear that the devil has come and the nuns are under his control.

Though the plot suggests some exorcist-style horror, the film plays out much more like a quiet drama. A drama that includes oodles of explicit sexual activity. As the nuns fall into depravity the sexual stakes begin to rise. Of the assorted sored acts, viewers get to see some whippings, rape, oral sex, masturbation, hetero and homo couplings.

For a D'amato flick, it's surprisingly well made. Camera angles, lighting, pacing are all fairly good. Even the scripting and acting are better than the norm. So well is it made that I find myself wishing that all D'amato flicks looked this quality.

On a side note, it's interesting that with the exception of a short fellatio bit the hetero scenes are strictly soft-core while the lesbian scenes are fully explicit.

A well constructed piece of erotica, if one can get past the sacrilegious content.

7/10

OK, could have been better

[lazarillo · 23 March 2010]

A young woman (Paloa Senatore), who is involved in an incestuous affair with her uncle, is sent to a convent and quickly realizes it is a hotbed of carnal lust. While she is sleeping her first night and having an erotic dream about her a uncle, another young nun comes in and performs oral sex on her! Then the young nun is caught coming out of her room by the Mother Superior, who takes her off to another room and whips her (naked, of course), which leads to yet another lesbian scene. And this is BEFORE they all get possessed by Satan! The satanic possession involves a creepy statue of a grinning satyr and a mysterious injured man they let convalesce in the convent (and his idea of convalescing is to screw all the nubile initiates and try to do the same to the Mother Superior). Too late, the church tries to intervene.

This is kind of a supernatural "Exorcist"-influenced "nunsploitation" movie, perhaps closer to insane Mexican nun films like "Alucarda" and "Satanic Pandemonium" or Jess Franco's off-the-wall version of "Love Letters of a Portugese Nun" than it is to the earlier more serious Italian nun films. It's also a Joe D'Amato film, so it has great cinematography, even better music, and, of course, a WHOLE lot of sleazy sex. There might actually be TOO MUCH sex. (I like sex in movies the same way I like salt on my food, but D'Amato has a way of taking the top of the salt shaker and just pouring the whole thing on). There's even a brief hardcore sequence,which is not that graphic, but it's a rape sequence where one nun (Marina Hedman) is accosted by randy highwaymen. This scene is potentially offensive,but only if you can buy hardcore porn star Hedman (who looks like fifty miles of rough road) as an innocent virgin.

Paola Senatore is prettier and a much better actress than Hedman (she too did one hardcore film some years later when she was allegedly hooked on heroin in real life and several months pregnant--but even I'm not depraved enough to want to see that). She has a rebellious and particularly ambiguous character, who might or might not be in league with the satanic forces. The satanic forces themselves are pretty ambiguous (it could just be the group hysteria of the nuns). But in the end D'Amato goes for the sleazy nun sex and doesn't delve too much into this. This could have been better, but it's OK guess

The Images battle for possession of the Nuns

[jaibo · 7/10 · 18 July 2009]

D'Amato's stab at Nunsploitation feels like one of his lesser works, and in its own sub-genre it doesn't have the impact of Russell's The Devils, The Borowczyk's Behind Convent Walls or Franco's Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun. Like Franco's film, D'Amato's is based on a literary classic, in this case Diderot's La Religieuse. It follows Diderot's theme of a woman who refuses to accept her cloistering as a positive good, and D'Amato like Diderot appears to believe "the cloistered life (…) both unreasonable and unnatural" and that "the cloister and the insane asylum were strikingly similar".

As befits its title, D'Amato's film is mostly concerned to track down the linkages of the nun's behaviour to the images which surround them at the convent – the effigies of Christ and the Cross but also a statue of an "unknown god" which stands in the grounds, who is a dead-ringer for the devil. The Christ images spur the Nuns on in their devotions but when things slip to rather more fleshy concerns, the statue takes precedence. The unanswered question of the film is whether the Nun's various behaviour is driven from within, their own desires and drives towards sanctimony or sensuousness, or whether they are merely the pawns moved in a power play between inanimate images. The majority shots suggest a degree of motivation on the part of the sisters, as we stay close to their faces and see them reacting to events and phenomena from a subjective compulsion (as when one sister catches another sinning, whips her, sees the welts and then kisses the welts – she is clearly being driven by her own conflicting inner desires to these acts). Yet on a few occasions (privileged by their striking difference in an otherwise visually conservative film), involving both Christ and Devil figures, we get a bird's eye shot of characters performing their religious or saucy antics, and therefore the suggestion remains that the images are the governing principles at work.

After over an hour of various solo, lesbian and heterosexual softcore frolics (as usual in Nunsploitation, a virile man is sequestered in the convent) – all of which is slickly and dreamily shot but somewhat lacking in dramatic impact, we get a final act which goes rather barmy. The devil statue has been appearing where it shouldn't, over the altar and in the corridors, and so a nun is sent out of the convent for an exorcist. In a wood, she is attacked and raped by two rogues, a sequence which shocks by its sudden excursion into hardcore territory. It is as if the images we have seen in the convent, of the nuns, their devotions and their frolics, are being challenged by a sudden injection of horrid and grimy realism – D'Amato emphasising that the cloistered life is cut off from the real world (which the Mother Superior says is the case in her first speech in the film). This suggests an antagonism between the arty, soft-core demands of the genre and D'Amato's penchant for moments of graphic violence and sexual congress.

There follows a long exorcism sequence, in which the rather authoritarian priest wanders the cloister casting out the devil, a glazed look of determination on his face, as the writhing, sexualised nuns group around him. In the midst of this, the rebel nun and the sequestered man are coupling, a sexual act which culminated in her totally non-rationally motivated stabbing of him. It is as if the exorcism re-established the rule of the Christ effigy above and beyond the individual motivations of the Nun, and so she had to destroy the man who had previously been identified at times with the devil statue. This ending is the film's ultimate challenge to subjectivity – we can search in vain for some rationale as to why she stabs him but the film seems to be suggestion that she has been indeed a player in a contest between two sets of imagery, one Christian and the other Satanic. Whether D'Amato means to suggest a supernatural battle or merely a battle of images which people have themselves created isn't clear, although the film's title would suggest the latter. In which case, the film is an exposure of the sheer madness that is idolatry.

The Sleaziest Of The Nunsploit Joints That I've Seen So Far...

[EVOL666 · 8/10 · 25 May 2006]

Yes friends, D'Amato does it again with another sleaze film that is sure to burrow it's way into all TRUE trash lovers hearts...IMAGES IN A CONVENT is that rare kinda film that D'Amato is sooooo good at. A good mix of atmosphere and filth that works well on both levels. I found the story a little convoluted, but here goes:

A girl is brought into a convent against her will to keep her Uncle from abducting her. Around the same time a wounded male traveler is allowed to stay in the convent to recuperate from his wounds. He tries to bone everyone in sight. There's a Pan-like statue that means something - maybe it's the Devil, maybe it's not. The nuns all touch each other inappropriately. A head nun is sent to fetch a Father to expel the Devil and is raped along the way. The Father comes to the convent anyway because he "felt" that he was needed and all the nuns try to screw him...The End.

Honestly, I couldn't really make heads or tails of the storyline, but there is enough tits, ass, and 70's puss-fros to not really care what the hell is going on plot-wise. The dual assault on the traveling nun is suitably sleazy as she's subjected to some graphic forced fellatio. The nuns all going' buck at the end is cool as one of 'em is ravaged with a wooden dildo. I don't know if this film had any real "point" - but it sure delivered some "goods". Not as "well-done" as some of the other nunsploit films, and doesn't quite beat out my favorite, SCHOOL OF THE HOLY BEAST...but it comes close if for nothing else than pure sleaziness. I love you Joe D'Amato...8/10

Mr D'Amato making full use of his convent setting.....

[christopher-underwood · 8/10 · 25 August 2005]

This is a well shot, good looking erotic outing from Mr D'Amato making full use of his convent setting and realistic looking nun costumerie. There is a good old mix here of sex action, mainly but not exclusively girl on girl. Pretty explicit and suddenly, surprisingly hardcore for, of all things, the double rape in the woods. A story of sorts but this is really much as you would expect from nunsploitation but with just a bit more style and variation than usual. Slows just a tiny bit when the wizened little 'man of God' turns up to exorcise the place but we are soon storming to a super finale as the poor man walks the corridors splashing his holy water whilst the girls are inside their rooms making their own little splashes. In fact so carried away do they get that they are soon chasing after the little chap in various stages of undress eager to get him stripped off, God or no God!

So, this is what goes on behind convent walls...

[The_Void · 8/10 · 30 July 2006]

The jury is still out as far as nunsploitation and I are concerned; it's not that I don't appreciate sleaze in movies, just that the idea of a load of God-fearing women living behind convent walls doesn't really appeal to me all that much. It's lucky, then, that cult cinema God Joe D'Amato is on hand to spice this theme up a little, with a load of nymphomaniac 'nuns' getting up to all-sorts with each other and any man that that happens to stop by. It's obvious that D'Amato was far more interested in making a porn movie than a film about nuns and their beliefs, and this shines through as the focus is always on the sexual antics, and any whisper of a plot line exists only to string more sex scenes together. There is a plot, however, and it follows a convent full of nuns. After taking in a wounded man against all the convent rules, the nuns soon find themselves making this man the focus of all their desires. However, he has also brought with him the devil (in the form of a statue), and this leads the local priest to visit the convent in order to expel the demon, only he ends up featuring in the nuns' desires also...

At first, I didn't think this movie was going to work as a porn film because the first couple of sex scenes are far too rigid and it seems like the actresses are just doing what they're told. However, D'Amato soon bucks this trend with a plethora of tender and perverted scenes that feature some of the most buxom nuns I've ever seen! D'Amato makes great use of his actresses' bodies, and this is a big bonus for the film; as it's much more full on than a lot of the nunsploitation sleaze. Despite the fact that this is a low quality sleaze movie, the production values are really good! The picture is crystal clear, and most of the acting is passable even when they've got their clothes on. The soundtrack courtesy of Nico Fidenco is infectious, and helps to make the overall film more erotic. This film is also bound to appeal to anyone that loves sleazy trash movies, as D'Amato is happy to go a little further than just showing your basic sex scenes, and the film also features lesbians, rape and wooden dildo's... Overall, Images in a Convent is a surprisingly good slice of nunsploitation and comes highly recommended to fans of this type of movie.

Images in a Convent

[Michael_Elliott · 11 March 2008]

Images in a Convent (1979)

*** (out of 4)

Joe D'Amato's notorious nunploitation film is considered by many to be the most disgusting and brutal. At a local convent nuns find themselves possessed by Satan, which soon gives them the temptation of sex. As is to be expected, this film certainly delivers in the nudity/sex department, although it never gets too hardcore and the reputation is a tad bit misleading because this is actually a fairly well made film. D'Amato, who also served as the DP, makes the budget look a lot higher than it actually is and the story is entertaining, or at least the sexual nuns are. Not nearly as trashy as some of its ilk.

Superior nunsploitation winner from Joe D'Amato

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 9 April 2010]

Leave it to the notorious Italian exploitation trashmeister supreme Joe D'Amato to make one of the single most graphic and unapologetically sleazy entries in the infamous nunsploitation genre. The evil spirit of a diabolic statue possesses the nuns at a convent and causes them to engage in all kinds depraved and blasphemous perverted activities. A tough priest (an excellent portrayal by Donald O'Brien of "Dr. Butcher, M.D." fame) arrives to perform an exorcism, but this only makes matters worse. D'Amato does an expert job of creating and sustaining a deliriously torrid atmosphere of heightened eroticism that's both dreamy and steamy in equal measure; said atmosphere becomes more increasingly fervid and alluring as it eventually culminates in a gloriously arousing all-out climactic frenzy of jaw-dropping anything-goes carnality. Better still, the actresses playing the nuns are insanely gorgeous and totally uninhibited. Moreover, this film scrupulously covers all the smoking hot sensual bases: rampant tasty female nudity, lesbianism, heterosexual copulation, masturbation, oral sex, whippings, and even rape (two randy woodsman have their nasty way with one of the nuns!). Kudos are also in order for the sturdy acting from the able cast, with especially praiseworthy work by Paola Senatore as snobby, insolent countess Isabella, Aiche Nana as the stern Mother Superior, Giovanna Mainardi as handsome heel artist Guido Bencio, and Marina Hedman as the lustful, but morally upright Sister Marta. D'Amato's lush cinematography gives the picture an attractive glossy look. Nico Fidenco's melodic, pulsating score likewise does the trick. Well worth seeing.

Ahhh, those sexy nuns!

[armandcbris · 8/10 · 24 October 2005]

This is easily my favourite nunsploitation flick. The atmosphere was strangely haunting, and the nuns themselves were quite sexy...all the good elements to this genre are here.

The only scene I didn't enjoy was the rape of one of the nuns in the woods. Not only because it was ugly, but also the way she is made to seem completely helpless was unconvincing.

I suppose one could look at the nun's excursion out into the woods as her unfortunately confronting the ugliness of the world outside the convent, but I think D'Amato could of done better by it somehow.

Also, that scene is very ugly in relation to the other more beautifully erotic scenes between the nuns, especially those that occur during the final thirty minutes or so of the film. Though quite hardcore, they still are sexy, and even a bit humorous.

Well, the genre being such as it is, I guess there's no room for subtlety! Recommended for those who enjoy erotic 70's cinema, with women with real curves, real sexiness and a bit of the arcane strangeness of the genre and the era.

A Classic in every sense of the word

[slayrrr666 · 9/10 · 25 September 2008]

"Images in a Convent" is a classic of the genre and is really worthwhile.

**SPOILERS**

Arriving at the Santa Floria convent, Countess Isabella Di Lagnano, (Paola Senatore) a ward of the Church becomes the pet project of the Mother Superior, (Aïché Nana) who runs the convent with a loving touch at the insistence of her father. Due to her wild ways, she becomes the immediate disdain of the higher ups in charge, and soon she manages to turn fellow nuns Sister Marta, (Marina Hedman) Sister Consolata, (Paola Maiolini) and Sister Giulia, (Maria Rosaria Riuzzi) to understand what she means to the future of the convent. While trying to get her training underway, she begins to become aware of a strange statue on the grounds that starts making the others act strangely. Eventually convinced that the statue has to deal with the devil, she manages to convince a local Exorcist, (Donald O'Brien) to visit the convent and banish the evil before more of them are seduced to the dark side.

The News: This here is a bona-fide classic of it's genre. This one here has a ton of nudity in here, which is it's best feature. Most of this is done from the lead actress, who delivers one of the best entrances in the genre. The very first image of her in here is something to behold, as the girl greets her in a nun-habit positioned so that her bare breasts heaving out for the world to see. It's a really memorable view that leaves an incredible impression on where the film is going from there on out. There is no shortage of steamy lesbian couplings in the film, with gorgeous, lithe bodies grinding against each other, perfectly naked from the neck down but conveniently veiled from the neck up so you never forget these are nuns going down on each other. The fact that almost all of the sex in this film is of the lesbian variety, with whipping, licking and actual hardcore fingering and dildo play thrown in. The last ten to fifteen minutes, where all Hell breaks loose in the convent and every nun begins diddling herself with wild abandon, is quite memorable, as all of the nuns become possessed and work themselves into a sexual frenzy. As he wanders the halls chanting, nuns in various states of undress posing in the hallways, showcasing their perfect bodies, lending even more credence to it's sleaze factor. It's something to behold as the Father is attacked by the sexually possessed women. Several of the cutaway shots during this, from the shots of the nuns pleasuring themselves to doing it with others or even the straight scene going on at the time with leave a great mark, as the incredibly heavy doses of nudity present, as well as throughout the rest of the film, really help this one. One of the greatest scenes, though, occurs early in the film, when one of the younger nuns sneaks into her room at night, then gets busy as she lies sleeping in the throes of an erotic dream. Caught by one of the other nuns, she is forced to take care of the lustful sin by taking her down to the cellar and whips her with a rope as punishment, then proceeds to fondle and go down on the girl. The one incredibly straight scene is a vile rape scene shown with a very erect penis and some brief hardcore oral. However, that itself is perhaps the biggest flaw to be had in this one, beyond the simply huge sleaze count. The very fact that it is included, and with as much sleaze as it does, completely throws up a red flag as to it's very inclusion. Much like the fact that it's so dirty and sleazy to begin with, the fact that there is one of them to begin with is an absolute mountain for some to get over in here, and those who can forgive these are going to be a little shocked at how much it shocks and repulses. That alone is enough for some to completely write-off the film, which is the main thing to get over in this. There's also the film's rather fun atmosphere, since the Satanic and Pagan leanings in here are nicely used to make up a Gothic atmosphere of nice order, and there's also the film's wonderful-looking convent itself, which is nicely designed and manages to get a lot out of the overall look. These lend the basement scenes extra oomph and manage to make them somewhat enjoyable. There's even a couple of mildly-effective scare scenes in here, as the moments when they enter the Church and are confronted with the sights of the statue appearing before them unexpectedly, offering up a couple of nice scares. This here is the film's only problem.

The Final Verdict: An absolute blast for fans of this type of film, this one is full of all the usual elements that they will enjoy. Fans of the creative side, European-sleaze or Nunsploitation in general are urged to seek this out immediately, while those who have no desire for this one due to it's content are advised to ignore.

Rated UR/NC-17: Continuous Full Female and strong Male Nudity, strong sex scenes, a strong Rape Scene, Mild Violence and some Language

Sexual Revolution in a Convent

[andrabem · 10/10 · 27 June 2007]

"Immagini di un convento" is a nunsploitation film that really delivers - I would rather call it "Sexual Revolution in a Convent". There's something weird and fascinating in the notion of women being locked or locking themselves behind convent walls, where they have to lead a life that denies their identity of women, all of it to serve an abstraction called God. But our lives are ruled by abstractions. Are they really necessary? But that's beside the point. Let's go to the film.

Joe D'Amato, in an interview featured in my DVD (Exploitation Digital), confesses that he always felt a kind of attraction for nuns. They lived in his fantasies (maybe something to do with the forbidden fruit).

The film credits say that the film is loosely based on Jacques Diderot's "La Religieuse". Very, very loosely, I should say (I've read the book). But that doesn't matter either. Anyway the film is really very interesting (in all senses). Our senses be praised!

"Immagini di un convento" pulls no punches. The film begins with the arrival of a noble woman, Isabella (Paola Senatore), who was confined against her will in the convent. The first thing she does when introduced to the Mother Superior is to uncover her breasts as a protest. The Mother Superior is aghast with shock (or maybe secretly excited) and orders Isabella with a trembling voice to leave her and go to her cell. This is just the beginning! We are then introduced to the nuns (all of them very beautiful). Suddenly a thunderous noise outside is heard. All the nuns go running to see what it is. They find a man lying on the ground bleeding, maybe he was another victim of the robbers that abound in the surrounding forest. They lodge him in a hut near the convent. He is an artist and also a veritable Don Juan with a magnetic charm. In the park that circles the convent there's a statue of Pan, the satyr with horns (or maybe the Devil). It's a laughing ironic statue with strange eyes. Strange things begin to happen in the convent. Lesbian affairs, whips, dildos, masturbation, and even rape (and what a rape!).

An exorcist is called, but the nuns are already wild and hot. While he tries to purify the convent, nuns are masturbating in their cells, one nun using a dildo on another, some are licking and kissing in a state of frenzy, while the Mother Superior is wildly throwing herself around the bed pressing her legs together, nearly out of her mind. And the serene exorcist proceeds along the corridor saying prayers in Latin and sprinkling holy water around. The nuns, naked or semi-naked, emerge from their cell doors and begin to follow the priest and... Well, I think it's not necessary to tell more. I think that by now you know what you're in for.

"Immagini di un convento" is very interesting, it is the strongest nunsploitation film that I've seen so far. Good cinematography. Highly recommended!

Debauchery in a nunnery

[SororInversa · 8/10 · 28 December 2012]

In every film, even those of trashier variety, there's always something to be learned. In this classic piece of 70's Italo-sleaze, it's the fact that building a nunnery atop the ruins of a pagan place of worship is a serious mistake – unless you plan on inducing the poor nuns to a frenzy of sexual debauchery and possession, that is. Sexual repression and monastic discipline in an all-female community do not mix well with remnants of ancient fertility cult: especially leaving a plaster statue of Pan visible on the yard can make controlling the overflowing powers of female perversion impossible.

This fine specimen of the noble genre of nunsploitation by Joe D'Amato presents the viewer a cavalcade of female nudity, flagellation, lesbianism, masturbation, possession, rape as well as a scene where a cardinal's attempt at exorcising the sex-starved nuns ends up in an ecclesial orgy. Naughty, naughty.

Acting is rather rigid, especially the sex scenes, but it's backed by an atmospheric score. Especially the organ-driven theme is memorable.

I'm loving this stuff way too much to try any kind of impartial assessment. A must see for any exploitation enthusiast.