L'altro inferno

A priest is sent to investigate an outbreak of apparent demonic possession at convent.There is certainly something dark and sinister at work there,but is it really Satan or maybe has it something to do with the Mother Superior's gloomy secrets?"The Other Hell" by Bruno Mattei is an atypical Italian nunsploitation flick.There is absolutely no sex or nudity,still there is a little bit of gore.The film offers some rather tasteless moments like genital mutilation or blood-vomiting nuns.The acting is terrible and the dialogue is stupid,but the film is fast-paced and surprisingly entertaining.So if you like Italian horror films give this one a look.My rating:7 out of 10 and that's being very generous.

Jean-Paul Satre once said "The Other Hell is a half-arsed Bruno Mattei film." He was wrong, because all Bruno Mattei films are half-arsed, but most are entertaining. The Other Hell doesn't even FEEL like a half-arsed Bruno Mattei film, and that's where it doesn't quite work.

In an unspecified year that starts of like its the middle ages but slowly becomes clear its the 20th Century, a badly-acting nun is working on the corpse of another nun and gibbering about how the genitals are the gateway to the devil to another, more sane nun. The crazy nun then stabs the corpse in the fanny and removes said sinful genitals before going nuts and killing the other nun.

For some reason this doesn't go down too well with the local bishop (Tom Felleghy), so he sends a priest out there to the convent to check out what's happening. His answer to things is to exorcise the entire building, but the shifty Mother Superior won't let him in the attic, where a masked nun dwells. This priest's methods of 'having a good old pray' don't seem to work as weird stuff keeps happening, so the bishop then brings in a young hip priest (Carlo De Mejo) to sort things out.

Carlo is a modern priest who claims God's greatest gift to man was a brain, and he therefore is looking for a logical reason why things are a bit mad in the old nunnery. What can he find logical in bibles going on fire, nuns suffering from stigmata, and the murders of various nuns? When the other priest gets turned into a tandoori dish by a fireplace, Carlo grabs his trusty video camera and seeks to find out the truth...

You'd think a supernatural nunsploitation film made by Bruno Mattei would be a blast, but I swear the first half of the film limps all over the place before settling on some sort of plot. There's all sort of demonic goings on from Franco Garofolo being attacked by dogs to a baby being thrown in a boiling pot of water, it's just a shame that there's no real concrete backdrop to hang all these images on. The acting is truly atrocious from all and sundry, except maybe Garofolo, who could give Klaus Kinski as run for his money in the googly eye department.

I didn't hate the film, I just feel that it could have been much more than it was. Not sure what went wrong here. I read somewhere that actor Garofolo refused to kill a chicken for a certain scene, and Mattei had to do it himself. How many chickens have died in the name of devil worship films?

THE OTHER HELL (1980) *** Franca Stoppi, Carlo De Mejo. In this Bruno Mattei film, a young priest (De Mejo), is sent to a convent to investigate a series of bizarre and brutal murders. The nuns think Satan is to blame; the priest thinks the murders are the work of a psychopath. The truth turns out to be something in between. Stylish direction by Mattei, a stunning performance by Stoppi (who was even more brilliant in Joe D'Amato's Beyond the Darkness), and a pulse-pounding score by Goblin combine to make this a solid offering. Recommended.

A priest is sent to a convent to investigate the sheer lunacy of a bunch of nun's gone nuts performing acts of lust and depravity. But the closer he looks into the situation the more supernatural it becomes. Does the devil roam the halls terrorizing the nuns or is it something a bit more sinister.

I'll get Mattei credit; he tries to inject a little something more in your average, ordinary (nunsploitation storyline (if there is such a thing). It's not entirely successful in that regard but never-the-less he manages to pull off this entertaining but a little slow and the bit of a Stephen King twist to the ending helps it out.

From its dark opening in a catacomb filled with stacked bones and skulls, to the gruesome autopsy in the lab -complete with bubbling green chemicals!- it's apparent that THE OTHER HELL is one of the more ghoulish of the nun exploitation films.

Indeed, the devil is loose in the convent, causing madness and bloody murder to reign.

Director Bruno Mattei fills his movie with gore and macabre trappings bathed in red and green light. If Bava or Argento had made this sort of movie, it would probably look a lot like this.

Far more serious and grim than most such epics, this movie plays up the horror aspects as much as the exploitative. Dreadful images and set pieces help to conjure up a bleak atmosphere of doom. Yes, nuns do go wild, but in a demonic frenzy, as opposed to the usual lustful abandon.

Religious symbols are used to great effect, adding the perfect backdrop for the satanic assault. Animals are also employed, along with hideous imagery. Watch for the cat, the owl, the bat, and the faceless nun. Never has a nunnery been more terrifying!

To be fair, this movie has its share of clunky moments, but it still works as one of the best examples of its sub-genre.

A wickedly good time...