Staff pick

Nunsploitation ranked by blasphemy

7 films · August 2026

Ranked from the merely sacrilegious up to Ken Russell torching a cathedral. The habit comes off in reel one either way.

The Devils
1971 · UK · 111m
Obscurity: known
A great film about power, finally restored after fifty-five years.
Flavia the Heretic
1974 · France/Italy · 100m
Obscurity: cult
Far angrier and more political than the packaging suggests.
Alucarda
1977 · Mexico · 85m
Obscurity: cult
The most hysterical nunsploitation film ever made. A convent, two possessed girls, and constant screaming.
School of the Holy Beast
1974 · Japan · 91m
Obscurity: cult
The Japanese entry, and formally the most accomplished of them.
Killer Nun
1979 · Italy · 90m
Obscurity: cult
Anita Ekberg, morphine, and a plot that gives up around the hour mark.
Behind Convent Walls
1978 · Italy · 95m
Obscurity: cult
Borowczyk brings his erotic art-house eye to the convent. Beautiful, explicit and barely plotted.
The Nun and the Devil
1973 · Italy/France · 103m
Obscurity: cult
Convent politics played as Renaissance power-drama. More Borgia than bondage.

The Devils