Flavia, the Heretic (1974)

Director: Gianfranco Mingozzi

Starring: Florinda Bolkan, Maria Casares, Claudio Cassinelli, Anthony Higgins, Spiros Focas, Diego Michelotti, Raika Juri, Jill Pratt, Franca Grey

More info: IMDb

Tagline: She Launched A River of BLOOD

Plot: The year is 1400.  A young woman named Flavia is forced by her sexist father into being a nun. At the core of the story is her journey of self discover and freedom from the male’s in her life who have dominated her. As the story progresses she becomes caught up in her quests for vengeance against those who had done her wrong. Eventually leading too her own fall from grace.

My rating: 8/10

Will I watch it again? Yes.

Part of the Nunsploitation Project (July & August 2013). Click here for more naughty nun insanity!

This is one of the best of the Nunsploitation genre. It looks great, has a nice score by Nicola Piovani, great performances and a wonderful story.  This one also has something to say and it says it loud.

There's a horse castration that will leave you in agony.  While they don't show it happening, you do see the aftermath and it ain't pretty.  Ouch.  By the way, there's a fair amount of torture in this picture, on men and women, and it's pretty brutal stuff.

Yes, this really is a nude woman crawling into a carved out cow carcass!

Yeah, it's loaded with nudity, torture, gore and violence but it's the story and Flavia's transformation and character arc that takes the center stage.  Her journey is fascinating and unexpected and we're with her to the bitter end.  This is one that I would like to have kept going past the 101 minutes.  The Synapse DVD is the one to get.  It's light on extras but it's uncut and the print looks fantastic.