Far better than I remember thinking on my first viewing but that was a while ago and now I think of it one of my first in this field. Probably not a good one to encounter first because it really is such a strange one. Pretty surreal with nuns drifting down corridors, gowns splayed out behind and the dreams, imaginings and nightmares punctuated with goring killings and lusty couplings. Ekberg is fine but so is everybody and they all play weird so that this also helps to give the film an unreal feel even though it is firmly set in a convent and supposedly based upon a true case. A stand out moment is the crushing underfoot of the poor old lady diner's false teeth, as we cut from the vicious trampling to the squirming old lady, hands to her mouth. Music is pleasant enough and effective if a little derivative and if Dallesandro seems the most normal person on the screen that just goes to show something about this true one off.

In 1977, a middle-aged nun named Cécile Bombeek committed a series of murders in a Belgium geriatric hospital and inspired this piece of Italian scuzzy filmmaking.

It is a nun's vocation to suffer, so when Sister Gertrude (Anita Ekberg) returns to ministering to the elderly after surviving a brain tumor, she begins to worry that she will become sick all over again. Only Sister Mathieu - who is in love with her fellow bride of Christ - believes her. And even when Gertrude murders Mathieu's grandfather, she keeps covering for her and even getting her the drugs she needs to keep up her life of sleeping with random men in the city and reading horrifying accounts of the sacrifices of martyred saints to the kindly old folks dying in her care.

Some of those old people still like to get it on and much like teenagers at a sleepaway camp that let a young boy die, they pay the price for getting some. Also, another little old lady literally gets mutilated and no werewolves of London are even close by.

So who is the killer? And can one achieve the same ecstatic state as a saint by taking heroin or going cold turkey from it? And how angry do you think this movie made Catholics? And how does Joe Dallesandro keep showing up in so many movies and genres that I adore?

A section 2 video nasty, I kept from watching this for some time, sure that I would need it on some depressing day to break through the bleakness of life. Now, the fact that I pick movies where nuns have crisises of faith and murder old people may say more about me than I'd like to admit.

This is one of those Italian "nunsploitation" films (others include FLAVIA THE HERETIC and THE OTHER HELL),made in the decade after THE DEVILS and made to cash in on the same religious frenzy and sadistic depravity that seem to fill the minds of the holy in the movies. Sadly, THE KILLER NUN is a disappointing film due to the lack of violence on display, and moreover the lack of real power in the film. Due to this it's completely unmemorable, although not without its moments.

The film follows a strict, repetitive plot; a murder occurs, which is then followed by investigation and much suspicion, then another murder, and so on up until the twist finale (which isn't really that surprising, seeing as you never really see Ekberg commit the crimes she is accused of). As this is an Italian movie, there's a certain style to it which makes it watchable, and the crisp photography is nice to look at too, along with an expressive score.

The acting is pretty good as well, especially from Ekberg as the confused, tormented nun. The supporting cast may be full of unrecognisable Italians, but they all act professionally with the exception of a few over-the-top hysterical nuns. Gentle stalwart Massimo Serato plays a harassed doctor and cult star Joe Dallesandro has a minor role. Sadly it is the lack of incident which results in this film's downfall, that and the ending which makes you think "is that it?". It simply looks like they ran out of budget and had to draw the film to a premature close.

The murders, when they occur, are pretty good; they include death by suffocation, a bludgeoning followed by a fall from a window, and in the film's grisliest scene, a woman has pins pushed into her face - ouch! There are also individual scenes like when Ekberg stamps on an old woman's dentures which stick out as being quite powerfully portrayed. Although the sex was quite hyped up before the film, it's actually not that explicit, and instead kept to a sizzling undercurrent of lust and passion. THE KILLER NUN may be a pretty forgettable movie, but thanks to the Italian influence it's quite watchable as these things go.