Directed by: Sergio Grieco
Actors: Françoise Prévost, Jenny Tamburi, Paolo Malco, Franco Ressel, Corrado Gaipa
Language: Italian (English subs)
Country: Italy
Also known as: Le scomunicate di San Valentino, Amartoles kalogries tou Agiou Valentinou
Description: To say The Sinful Nuns of Saint Valentine is one of the finest examples of nunsploitation would be an exaggeration. Sure there’s the gratuitous nudity, lesbianism, and of course, an evil Mother Superior with sinister plans for her charges, but as a movie in general, it suffers from choppy pacing and a lackluster script.
Lucita’s parents have stashed her in the Convent of St. Valentine while at the same time, sending men to hunt down Esteban and, of course, siccing the Inquisition on him. C’mon! It’s a nunsploitation movie. Don’t tell me you didn’t see the Inquisition coming? Wounded in a swordfight, Esteban hides out in the convent while he recovers. Lucita, meanwhile, discovers that everything is not as it seems to be…. Of course, we’d be disapointed otherwise.
Her cellmate, Josefa, is an insatiable nympho who never misses an opportunity to hit on Lucita. In a bizarre ritual, the nuns strip and flog one of their members. The torturous scene seems to arouse Josefa who takes Lucita’s hand and tells her how she wishes she were in the abbess’ place. That night, Josefa is murdered. Who do the nuns find standing over her bloody corpse? Lucita of course. She is brought before the Inquisitor, stripped, strung up and interrogated.
The inquistor’s face glows as he talks about the execution he has planned for Lucita. As Lucita is taken to Seville, the Abbess discovers Esteban’s hiding place. Strangely, she doesn’t turn him in, but rather, changes his bandage and cares for him. Meanwhile, the Inquisitor discovers the sinful goings on in the Convent of St. Valentine. A mass grave is uncovered in the garden — the victims of the Abbess’ lust. Then, in the most twisted part of the movie, the Inquisitor issues his judgement upon the abbey.
He orders the convent to be sealed up and the nuns to be buried alive. The nuns, Lucita included, dying of starvation, thirst and deprivation, begin spiraling into dementia. They run around the convent half naked, screaming and wailing. Starving, they try to eat candles and lick moisture from the walls. They fight over imagined scraps of food.
One of the actors Corrado Gaipa also participated in another nunsplotation film The Eroticist, made in 1972.
