Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Darren Lynn Bousman
Starring: Sabrina Kern, Carolyn Hennesy, Courtney
Halverson, Seth Michaels, Trin Miller
Largely inspired by the notoriety around Ken Russell's
The Devils, the 1970s saw the birth of the sub-genre known as 'nunsploitation', a
cycle of films in which all manner of sexual and violent debauchery occurred
behind convent walls. It's no surprise that most of these films came from
Spain and Italy, made by Catholic filmmakers who no doubt grew up viewing
nuns with a curious mix of fear and desire. 2018 saw an unlikely revival of
the nunsploitation genre - The Nun; Luciferina;
The Devil's Doorway
- though in these prudish times, the sexual aspect has been removed as these
films focus solely on the creepier aspects of women of the cloth.
Where the aforementioned films have woven the supernatural into their
convent set stories, Darren Lynn Bousman's
St. Agatha may appear to initially have the trappings of the
paranormal, but it's grounded in one of the real life evils of the Catholic
Church, the once profitable practice of taking newborns from unwed mothers
and selling them to adoptive parents.
In 1950s America, Mary (Sabrina Kern) turns herself into a convent
after becoming pregnant and receiving little support from her con artist
boyfriend. Within minutes of being welcomed by the terrifying Mother
Superior (Jane Seymour lookalike Carolyn Hennessy) and her
rottweiler-like minions, the alarm bells should start ringing in Mary's head
to alert her that she isn't going to find much Christian compassion in this
particular establishment. The other young expectant mothers cower in fear
and warn the newcomer to keep her head down so as not to upset the Mother
Superior.
Director Bousman is best known for his helming of several instalments of
the Saw franchise, so it's no surprise to find much of
St. Agatha's narrative revolves around the prolonged torture of its protagonist. It's
a very different form of abuse here however, a mix of psychological -
guilt-tripping Mary into feeling like a harlot whose sins must be excised -
and physical - in a stomach turning scene, Mary is force-fed food that's
been pre-chewed by a nun - but though based in real practices, it stills
feel like Bousman is more concerned in simply shocking his viewers than in
educating them on the wrongs of the Catholic Church.
St. Agatha is an unwieldy mix of suspense thriller and social
drama, but Bousman doesn't have the chops to pull off any truly nailbiting
sequences, and his commentary on religious atrocities is too shallow to
function as a gritty condemnation of institutional horror. Remove the
rougher scenes of abuse and St. Agatha plays a lot like a '90s
era TV movie. Bousman pads out the running time with unnecessary flashbacks
that actually disrupt any potential tension that might have been mined from
keeping his story set within the claustrophobic confines of the
convent.
Everything here is just about 'fine'. The movie looks relatively slick for
its budget, and Kern and Hennessy throw themselves into their roles of
sympathetic prisoner and cruel captor. But it never quite hooks us enough to
fully invest in Mary's plight, and her prison doesn't really seem as
difficult to break free from as Bousman would like us to believe. Composer
Mark Sayfritz's score is the standout element, and is still
earworming its way around my brain now, but its '70s prog-rock sound jars
with the 1950s setting.
St. Agatha is on Shudder UK
now.