The Other Hell (1985)

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Another pointless and mostly boring film from Italian schlock director Bruno Mattei. The movie itself is a mess. The plot isn't very coherent and it is often hard to discern exactly what is going on most of the time (or what the whole point of the movie is). It also lacks any real tension or scares throughout most of the movie and just falls into a boring monotony of nonsense. The Goblin soundtrack just sounds very strange and out of place here. Maybe because it isn't really an action film and the setting just isn't right for the synthesized music. The only thing I can say about the movie that isn't at least somewhat negative is that I was entertained by the movie's ending. The acting (albeit very over the top) wasn't the worst I've encountered in an Italian horror film either. Bruno Mattei himself seems to almost disown this film in an interview on my DVD copy so you know that this has got to be pretty bad.

The mysterious deaths of nuns is investigated by the Catholic Church sending a new breed of priest in Father Valerio(Carlo De Mejo), hoping to find a killer in the convent. Valerio believes that the idea of a supernatural evil force lurking in the convent ran by Mother Vincenza(Franca Stoppi)is pure rubbish, instead seeking a demented psychopath amongst them, committing murders. What Valerio doesn't realize is that Vincenza is in league with Satan, having cavorted with the lord of darkness, hiding their female spawn in the attic of the convent. The nuns under Vincenza's watch have been driven to fear, with many of them overcome by demonic possession..any opposing threats, such as the elder Father Inardo(Andrea Aureli)who tries to use the rites of exorcism in cleansing the nunnery of it's evil, are destroyed. Vincenza will do whatever it takes to keep anyone from taking her daughter away. In other words, Valerio has a spiritual and physical battle on his hands.Bruno Mattei mentioned in an interview for the DVD release of "The Other Hell" that this flick was remastered from an obscure 16 mm print, having been a flop during it's initial release and abandoned. I guess, even though it's such a bizarre demonic horror nunsploit that often lacks in coherency opting to blindside the viewer with unhinged behavior and gory violence, that we should be somewhat thankful that this film can be seen at all. I can sure say it wasn't boring. Franca Stoppi sure lets it all hang out as the evil Mother Superior, wielding a knife at the end ready to viciously stab anyone that got in her way. There's this witches' den with a burning cauldron, coffins containing murdered nuns, a slab for "wicked nuns who committed sinful atrocities" where we actually see one dead corpse get her innards plucked, laboratory tubes and flasks bubbling with liquid, etc. There's this cool tunnel leading to the den containing rows of skulls, kind of a "cryptic" form of art. We actually see a possessed nun tormented by blood-oozing stigmatic attack. The priest, Father Inardo is set on fire in his attempts to exorcise the nunnery. We see Franco Garofalo's grounds-keeper/animal wrangler/cook Boris' hand covered in maggots and bitten by a dog..he's later attacked in the throat by an unleashed dog. We see an actual rooster beheaded for later din-din. Vincenza and Satan's spawn lives in a small room where dolls and mannequins hang from the neck. We see a previous Mother Superior actually attempting to boil Vincenza's infant daughter in a pot on a stove(..and for goofy effect, which might have many chuckling with glee, Vincenza's infant, clearly a doll, telepathically murders the Mother Superior). Plenty of audacious moments on display certainly to entertain those craving the twisted delights Mattei and writer Claudio Fragasso churn out in doses. I guess this is probably Mattei's best film..quite an outrageous concoction of surreal and horrific images. I think it, if anything, will entertain those that are not offended by the blasphemous material. The Goblin score, used from Buio Omega, somehow actually works in this film.

When I think of Bruno Mattei, great horror films don't usually spring to mind; and The Other Hell does nothing to change that opinion of him. Much like his Video Nasty zombie flick, Hell of the Living Dead, The Other Hell is highly derivative of other, and better, genre films and came along some time after it's genre hit it's 'golden period'. Nunsploitation is most famous for sexually repressed nuns and tons of nudity, but this one adheres more closely to the Anita Ekberg vehicle 'The Killer Nun', as it features a Giallo style plot that puts most of its focus on murder and more or less completely ignores sex and nudity. This definitely does harm the film, and it's made no better by the fact that the mystery presented is hardly fascinating. The film follows a couple of murders in a convent. The Mother Superior believes that the nuns have become possessed by the devil, and a priest is dispatched to try and get to the bottom of the mystery (they'd have been better off with a detective...). Are the nuns really under the power of Satan, or is that what the Mother Superior wants everyone to believe? Not only is Bruno Mattei one of the less talented Italian filmmakers, he also has a rather annoying penchant for ripping off the better ones. The film features a score from Goblin, which the director has ripped off from Joe D'Amato's masterpiece 'Beyond the Darkness' (he also ripped off Goblin scores for Hell of the Living Dead), and he took D'Amato's lead actress from Beyond the Darkness, Franca Stoppi. Some of the sequences in the film are very well shot, however, and although it's obvious that Mattei was taking influence from masters such as Dario Argento and Mario Bava, it's only fair to give credit where credit is due. The cinematography is crisp and clear, although the locations often leave a lot to be desired as unlike other films in the nunsploitation tradition; the convent is pretty bare. The plot gets lost sometimes, and it has to be said that a fair proportion of this movie is rather boring; but it just about comes together at the end, and while the reasons for the murders are obvious all the way through; the ending itself isn't bad. Overall, I would recommend this to die-hard nunsploitation fans, but everyone else can feel free to skip it.

(aka: THE OTHER HELL) Nowhere near as good as Gianfranco Mingozzi's FLAVIA THE HERETEC (1974) or Mariano Baino's DARK WATERS (1994), this one ranks at the bottom of the barrel as far as 'nuns from hell' films is concerned. Even director Bruno Mattei in the DVD extra admits as much. We start with a nun who is embalming a dead nun, suddenly going berserk and cutting out the dead nun's uterus. She then stabs to death another nun who is assisting her with the embalming. A little later, she starts to bleed from her hands, mouth and feet as if she is being crucified. She basically winds up bleeding to death on her bed. It's a couple of so-so scenes. Believe me, this whole thing sounds more dramatic than it really looks. A priest is called in to investigate this and suddenly his bible catches fire. Then a younger priest (Carlo DeMejo) is called in to assist the older priest in his investigation. As the older priest is alone in his study tending his fireplace with a poker, he suddenly catches on fire and burns to death. The devil takes the form of a distorted mask with red-glowing eyes (looks cheap) or a faceless nun who looks like she has white linen pulled over her face. What the distinction is between the two, is never explained. Then the mother superior, who earlier in life had an aborted baby by the devil(?) stabs the younger priest. Just as she's ready to finish him off, the devil now appears as a young girl with the lower half of her face horribly burned. The Mother superior stabs the young girl from behind, but then suddenly, the corpse of the gardener (who was killed earlier by the dogs) chokes her to death. There's even more to it than that but I'm not gonna bother... You'll have to find it out for yourself. If this whole thing sounds pretty messed up, it is. This convoluted mess looks like it was done on the fly very quickly with little coherence to the script. Plus the Goblin soundtrack sounds ridiculous and out of place for a convent setting. Why not use an old recording of a Gothic choir instead? The Shriek DVD has an interview with director Mattei where he explains that the film flopped in Italy (not surprising) and that the ex-convent where it was filed at is now home to the Italian secret service. (laughs). It was shot in 16mm, blown up to 35mm but the widescreen transfer looks OK. Still, I really think this whole thing should have stayed in the can where it belonged. It's pretty sloppy. 3 out of 10