Sacred Flesh

What we have here is a film designed to shock. Anyone who goes about making a film about the repressed sexuality of nuns realises and no doubt encourages the fact that some will be shocked by this. In my opinion this film makers tangle with this has left nothing but a laughable piece of amateur soft porn hoping to fool people into thinking it has deep, important themes by topping and tailing the sex scenes with terribly written and awfully acted discussions about the morality of sex and sexual repression. 'The Devils' walked the line between exploitation and art but due to the superb performances and clinical direction managed to avoid desending into voyerism, something this film can not claim.

I am sad to see that some people commenting have actually been taken in by the "moral arguments" that run through the film. All I see is a very weak device to allow a group of soft porn scenes to run their course. The rapid editing and camera movement does little to disguise them for what they are either.

The acting is terrible. I got the impression that the actors either had no clue what they were saying and therefore lacked any sort realism or were trying their hardest to remember the reams of dogmatic nonsense they spewed - which had much the same affect.

One hilarious element are the performers in the scenes of "sexual gratification". Most appear to have breast implants, full make up including lipstick, eye make up and nail varnish, and some even have pierced tongues, belly button rings and tattoos not to mention their incredibly neatly trimmed pubic hair. I'm no expert but I doubt that these things would have been common place in most Convents. This does not add up to a high level of realism and is just another example of the fact the film-maker's intentions were as far from high art or art house as you can get.

Avoid this film, if God exists he'll help you resist.

Nigel Wingrove's less than spectacular try on the nunsploitation genre is quite ridiculous a film indeed, on every level. A Mother Superior is suffering from an extreme form of horniness-induced delirium brought about by her reading the carnal confessions of her fellow sisters, who invariably are silicone pumped sex fiends prone to succumbing to the callings of their young flesh. She descends into a hallucinatory limbo where Mary Magdalene herself encourages her to stop the mortification of her flesh and instead save her sanity by giving in to her innate sexual frenzy. Whipping, masturbation, lesbianism and group sex follow, as they should.

This film sucks, but in a good way. Acting is terrible, costumes laughable and the soft-core sex scenes tame, poorly performed and devoid of any illusion of feeling whatsoever. I've always imagined the real sex life of nuns to be much dirtier, perverse and more demented.

That's not to say the time spent on this flick was wasted. In a right state of mind, with the right company, watching this piece of garbage can be an exquisite pleasure.

Recommended for true connoisseurs of the poopier side of cinema.

One has to have some justification for watching a film like this. Surely, we cannot be just voyeurs, are we? This is probably the ultimate in nunsploitation films. I am certainly not through investigation, but I cannot imagine something more perverse than this one.

So, we have to follow along with the writer/director who apparently wanted to justify the sumptuous feast of nun flesh in this film by having not one, but two or three philosophical discussions going on about mean and women, nuns, and satisfying your carnal desires. Bugger! Just fast forward through all that and get to the action.

And, what action you will see in this film. It stretched the line between soft and hard core porn so far that I actually felt it may bust through if there was one more scene. Full frontal nudity was the norm, and those none were certainly passionate about satisfying each other - or themselves if no one was about to help. A nunnery full of bodacious babes and all there for us to enjoy. Even the priests got in on the act somewhat as they wanted to make sure that a particular nun knew what she was sacrificing.

Whew! I am just overwhelmed at what goes on behind those walls.

British imprint Redemption Films have been releasing obscure Eurotrash films since the early 90s. Their early VHS releases of films such as Tombs of the Blind Dead, The Living Dead Girl and Virgin Among the Living Dead were instrumental in triggering my love of cult cinema when I discovered them at my local video store. In 1989 Redemption founder Nigel Wingrove made a short film, Visions of Ecstasy, which was banned outright by the BBFC on grounds of blasphemy. Wingrove fought the BBFC in court - losing his home and many of his possessions in the process due to the hefty lawyer costs - but lost the case. To date, Visions of Ecstasy remains the only film banned in the UK for blasphemous libel. Now it seems Wingrove has decided to stage a "comeback" with another "blasphemous" film, again of the Nunsploitation variety.

The basic plot of Sacred Flesh centres around Mother Superior Elizabeth who is possessed by devils. The convent's Abbess is rightfully concerned about her and writes a letter to a local Abbot requesting him to come and check her out and maybe exorcise some demons. That's about all there is plotwise, the rest of the film's brief runtime is taken up with the Mother Superior's nightmarish visions, long monologues on sexual repression within the Catholic church, and the typical lesbo-nun action, flagellation, bondage-crucifixion, etc.

Mother Superior Elizabeth is torn by Catholic guilt, between the repression of lust she is taught, and the sexual abandon she craves, her hallucinogenic revelations involve: on the one hand Mary Magdalene condoning sexual freedom and condemning the Catholic church, and on the other the "Death Nun" extolling the virtues of chastity and threatening hellfire & damnation. I imagine in Nigel Wingrove's mind he is probably quite proud of himself for producing yet another artistic, highly controversial piece of blasphemous filth but in reality this chunk of shot-on-video junk is basically low budget soft porn masquerading as highbrow art. Mary's rambling, awkwardly worded anti-Catholic tirades come off as pseudo-intellectual bullshit, that's purely there as an attempt to add some class to this low budget tits 'n' ass show.

For a medieval piece set in the early 1900s I find it strange that the nuns sport copious amounts of whorish make-up and silicone, some even flaunt bellybutton & tongue piercings and freshly shaved pussies. I wasn't surprised then to discover that half of the cast are actually British porn stars moonlighting as "actresses".

Now, usually I'd really dig this (or any) kinda sleaze especially when there's the added bonus of skanky nuns, but I think what initially put me off here was the fact that Wingrove is trying so hard to emulate the spirit of 70s European exploitation and completely fails (although the horrendous acting and shitty script didn't help much either). Trying to hide your lack of budget behind some flashy editing and lighting then throwing in some didactic bullshit does not a good film make.

Porn in Britain has an unusual history, often presented in bowdlerized versions (like horror releases, given to local censorship), and this distributor Redemption/Salvation Films released many a mainstream U.S. porn video of the '90s with all the explicit sex removed.

Here we have a sex film about nuns, made to capitalize on that genre and the ongoing popularity of Ken Russell's breakthrough "The Devils", that takes itself so seriously as to sap the energy and arousal potential out of a softcore feature. That being said, the attention to detail and visual creativity make it of interest nonetheless.

The story such as it is has a convent in turmoil, with the mother superior (an earnest NonSex performance by Sally Tremaine) seemingly going crazy, having conversations with Mary Magdalene (played acidly by Kristina Bill) who is presented (in her mind) as sort of a Devil. Many scenes of nuns having sex are presented but most of the film (shot on video) is a talkfest with protagonists wondering whether some satanic cult is at work.

I was interested to see several topflight Adult Cinema actresses (of the future) participating in the most explicit, though strictly softcore, action, notably Michelle Thorne masturbating with conviction but hardly recognizable as this was shot before she had her iconic huge breasts surgically created, the naturally buxom Hannah Callow in a lesbian twosome, and lovely Majella Shepherd pawed by two lustful clergymen, years before she so memorably (and comically) took on Mandingo in the American porn video "Chasing the Big Ones 13".