Reviews

O.k let me be the first one , I guess. This is a low budget Italian horror film that has some aspects that elevate it above the usual independent horror fare. First of all is the cast: Here we have some genre icons of the classic «video nasty» Italian horror period (early eighties) reuniting. We have Cinzia Monreale, best known for her role as Emily in Lucio Fulci's The beyond (and other horror films like Beyond Darkness) and Giovanni Lombardo Radice (one of the most characteristic actors of the Italian horror boom in the late seventies/early eighties). Sergio Stillaveti (Fx master, director) also makes a cameo. All of them look great in this film. Another aspect is the music, a no-nonsense horror soundtrack that adds to the atmosphere of the film. Claudio Lattanzi (of killing birds fame, which I like despite the very low IMDB rating) is the director. In fact I learned about this film from the extras of the Killing Birds Blu-ray were he mentions Everybloody's end.

The plot : in the midst of a pandemic (hehe) that is destroying the world a bunch of strangers unite in an abandoned industrial facility to escape from the exterminators, who are a military force that is killing (by crucifixion) the infected. A theologist professor, two young women and an older woman. A doctor is added to these people. The plot seems straightforward but every person has his/her own secrets that are unveiled in the last 20 minutes. We see some unrelated, at first glance, scenes at the beginning of the film with a threatening figure killing a woman. That's it. I don't want to post spoilers because the plot takes a very unexpected (and I do mean VERY unexpected) turn at the last 20 minutes. The ending is iconic to say the least.

The movie is only 75 minutes long and could use a bigger budget. 1-2 CGI shots don't look good. Fans of Italian genre films though have learned to live with such restrictions, hence we love these films because of these restrictions. The acting is very good, the atmosphere is pure Italian (which means much fog, dusty surroundings, threatening corridors e.t.c), the gore is light but what gore there is , is extremely well done. The film also tries to be modern, not just a copy of older films. My only issue is that it should have been longer, the final act should have been more expanded. Oh well, still a delight and perfect for repeat viewings. The movie is available on an English-friendly Italian Blu-ray/dvd (Italian language, English subtitles).

The movie plays as a homage to both Italian horror and post-apocalyptic films and has the craziness in its final act that we have come to love from the Italian genre films. Don't try to compare it to any American films (even indie ones) or mainstream horror films , this is an entirely different beast. Fans of Italian horror films will like this.

I can't help but smile at some of the negative reviews. Let's get one thing out of the way...."the nun" is not like the conjuring films. In fact it bears no resemblance to most American or Japanese (some folks even compare it to...Ju on loooool) horror films. This is a film strictly inspired by eurohorror , mostly Italian horror films of the late seventies/early eighties. There is a very dense and creepy atmosphere that uses every cliche in the book, foggy cemeteries, creepy castles, scary woods. The whole movie feels like a Fulci film , even some scenes are straight from "city of the living dead" like the hanging of the nun in the beginning or the coffin scene. There are no real jump scares, the movie shows surrealistic monsters and entities without trying to make you jump scare through fast cuts, the scenes with monsters are drawn out and intense not "blink an eye and you will miss them" jump scare scenes. The movie is like an American version of "dark waters" (like another reviewer correctly points out the Russian-italian film not the Korean one) or "the church" but since most people haven't actually watched these films they don't know what they are talking about. If your definition of good horror is lost footage movies like "paranormal activity" (like many people are mentioning this atrocity as an example of...good horror) or pseudo "artsy" stuff with trash stories like hereditary then stay away from the nun. If you want a nice homage to the surrealistic/nightmarish atmosphere of Italian horror films of the past with good production values and jaw dropping photography then this movie is for you. Unfortunately the reviews got me and I missed it in the theaters which is a shame since the movie must have been something else on the big screen with that setting and photography. Oh well , thank God for the huge TVs we can enjoy today.

I haven't watched a single original guinea pig film. Reading the synopsis for these films was more than enough for me, due to them having no real story. I stumbled upon this and my curiosity got the best of me .

So this film is four guys dismembering two girls while filming a snuff film. Now where to begin ? The film is shot on bad quality vhs cameras to give the illusion of a snuff film except it shows the people actually filming this snuff film so the illusion is lost immediately. The acting is terrible, porn quality, as you would expect . The jokes are unfunny. The girls are being injected with lsd so they don't react at all and all you are left with is 90 minutes of some guys exercising in special , gore effects. Having the victims not reacting takes any shock element away from the film but considering the level of "acting" we could expect from these girls maybe that's a blessing. The film is also too long, at least the Japanese films knew how to keep things short , this drags on for what seems like an eternity.

Oh and there's a "shocking" ending with a cute baby crying and a kid, obviously having the time of his life being in a movie and all, that we are supposed to be repulsed with because these buffoons are supposed to slaughter them for their next , more extreme , snuff film. Seriously guys , the Italians did it much better in the late seventies/early eighties. You had a guy eating his intestines in anthropophagus, necrophilia and gore in beyond the darkness, a girl puking her insides in city of the living dead and so on and so on. Of course these films had a disturbing story too while this 90 minutes "film" will test your patience. For curious people that can stomach gore effects and have a lot of time in their hands only.

First of all most people reviewing this film are hypocrites. Didn't you know what you were about to watch ? Are you living somewhere where the internet doesn't exist ? This is an infamous movie that people that couldn't stomach it shouldn't attempt to watch it and then when it surfaced on YouTube it had millions of views and hundreds of thousands of comments, most of them warning us ....not to watch it but all of you did anyway !

Other than that the film has its successes and its failures. Its biggest failure is actually the "look how extreme I am" attitude which leads to some laughable scenes. For example the baby scene might seem Ike the most horrifying scene ever put on film , when reading about it, but on the screen it comes off as completely fake, stupid and uneccecary. The villains are all cartoony looking and cliche and that takes away from the shock factor, it would have been better if they looked like regular people. The sex scenes are also laughable. Had the film been more suggestive than in your face , would have made it far more effective

On the other hand the film has a great leading actor that gives it proper weight. Most of these extreme films have terrible actors that take you away from the story, this isn't the case here. The main actor gives a fantastic performance that really makes you sympathize him and feel sorry about him. His performance is daring and extreme. The last few 20 minutes are really difficult to stomach and are the ones that actually give this film its notoriety. Even so the tragic ending is being nullified by the villains, that come to continue their ungodly "job", being so stupid looking like comic book villains. Had the film ended with the death of the family would have made it much sadder and effective.

The film doesn't hold a candle to proper extreme classics like cannibal holocaust, salo e.t.c but it is head and shoulders above what passes off for extreme cinema these days (with terrible films like human centipede, American guinea pig e.t.c) since it is professionally directed and acted. It's not for the faint of heart , though people (that have actually watched it)should stop preaching about how bad the people that are ....watching it are.