SCREAM AND STREAM AGAIN: FLAVIA, THE HERETIC (1977) ***

(Streamed via Drive-In Classics)

Flavia (Florinda Bolkan, who sort of has a Laura Gemser quality about her) witnesses her father decapitating a helpless soldier on the battlefield, so he has her locked away in a convent. There, she is subject to humiliation and torture at the hands of her fellow sisters. She tries to escape, but she is captured and brought back to suffer some more.  Flavia then shacks up with a Muslim warrior whose army has sacked the city, and together they take over the convent and get revenge on those who wronged her.

Flavia, the Heretic is more of a nunsploitation flick than an outright horror film, and director Gianfranco Mingozzi’s handling of the admittedly lurid material is more artsy than exploitative.  However, there are several unsettling sequences here that are sure to shock you.  Heck, there was even a moment or two that made this dyed-in-the-wool gorehound squirm in his seat.  From the order of horny “Tarantula Women”, to the rape in a pig sty, to the disgusting horse castration scene, there’s something here to offend just about everybody, and I mean that in the best possible way. 

But wait, there’s more.  There are torture scenes, nipples cut off, flogging, pissing, orgies, and even cannibalism too.  The nightmares, hallucinations, and sequences of blasphemous visions are effective too.

It also helps that Bolkan delivers a heck of a performance as the hateful, spiteful Flavia.  If only Anthony Higgins, who plays Flavia’s lover was the slightest bit intimidating.  Instead, he looks more like a member of an early ‘00s boy band than a Muslim warrior.  In the spirit of the nuns featured in the movie, I think I can forgive him.

Ultimately, Flavia, the Heretic is too long and sluggishly paced to be considered a classic.  Devotees of naughty nun cinema will sit up and take notice of the wild imagery and sacrilegious antics though.  It’s so nasty, you’ll probably feel the need to go to confession after you see it.

AKA:  Flavia:  Heretic Priestess.  AKA:  Flavia the Rebel Nun.  AKA:  Flavia, Priestess of Violence.  AKA:  The Heretic.  AKA:  The Muslim Nun.  AKA:  The Rebel Nun.