Our Nunsploitation Double Feature gives you two of the wildest entries in one of the most superbly sleazy subgenres of exploitation cinema! School of the Holy Beast begins at 8 PM with The Other Hell following at 10 PM. Tickets to the individual screenings are $7 or see both for just 10 bucks.

SCHOOL OF THE HOLY BEAST (dir. Norifumi Suzuki, 1974)

“This movie has it all: Topless sisters whipping themselves and each other, soft-focus lesbian trysts, vicious catfights, a rapist priest, and a healthy balance of voyeurism, masochism, torture, blackmail, and murder. It’s the kind of environment where a nun can say, ‘Let’s strip to help clear the suspicion,’ and nobody bats an eye.” -Scott Tobias, The A.V. Club

Directed by legendary Toei filmmaker Norifumi Suzuki (SEX & FURY), SCHOOL OF THE HOLY BEAST is the supreme queen of “nunspolitation” in Japan, and a film that might even be more outrageous than Ken Russell’s THE DEVILS. The movie follows initiate Maya (Yumi Takigawa, Nami in the first NEW FEMALE PRISONER SCORPION film), who takes the vows at the Sacred Heart Convent in order to discover what happened to her mother many years earlier there. What she uncovers – including corruption, acid vats, bondage, murder, lesbianism, and topless nuns whip-fighting – pales in comparison to the truth of her mother’s disappearance and Maya’s own real identity. Deeply transgressive, sharply photographed, and almost supernaturally beautiful, SCHOOL was largely unknown to English-speaking audiences until the past decade and is now a pinnacle of Japanese cult cinema.

THE OTHER HELL (dir. Bruno Mattei, 1981)

“If the subgenre name ends in –sploitation, it’s likely that Bruno Mattei gave it the old college try. Directing under a flurry of pseudonyms, Mattei churned out a hefty catalogue of everything-sploitation films on a tight budget, cycling through Nazis, women’s prisons, cannibals, rats, sharks, zombies, Vietnam, nuns, and multiple combinations therein. (No spoiling which combination concludes The Other Hell, but it’s bonkers.)” -Elle Carroll, Vulture

At the peak of his excess in the 1980s, Bruno Mattei stunned audiences with THE OTHER HELL — a Nunsploitation ripper about a series of brutal murders in a depraved convent. While Mattei is typically known as a maestro of crude rip-off films (ROBOWAR, CRUEL JAWS), this is a surprisingly artful — yet blasphemous — orgy of stabbings, Satanism, and zombies that ranks among his very best. Written by the infamous Claudio Fragasso (TROLL 2) and featuring a score “borrowed” from Goblin’s greatest hits, THE OTHER HELL feels like a sleazy Nunsploitation version of SUSPIRIA on a budget of $50. In other words, don’t miss it.

This screening is part of Arkadin’s month-long NUNS HAVING FUN series, featuring films that show what really goes on behind the habit.