FILM REVIEWS

School of the Holy Beast

Reviewed By

Tristan Sinns

I just love a girl in uniform.

Norifumi Suzuki's School of the Holy Beast tells the story of inquisitive young Yumi Takigawa who is in pursuit of the details of her mother's fate within the Sacred Heart Convent. She takes a religious vow and manages to gain access to the convent by becoming one of the young nuns in attendance. There, she is witness to all sorts of heinous oddness and masochistic (some outright torturous) behavior as she slowly unravels the mysteries and secrets hidden within the private order.

Naked nunnage, lesbianism, masturbation, bondage, whippings, and even a golden shower for Christ (or at least a representation) are some of the many highlights of this film. It is not shy about providing what it feels the audience is here for, and that is a good healthy dose of nunsploitation.

For a genre that is often rife with flawed products, this film really does stand out. It is reasonably, even well, shot, and the acting and style of the film shows a professional enthusiasm for the art. Sometimes it seemed slightly confused as to whether it was going to head straight into camp with a tongue-in-cheek humor, or go the other route into an intense exploration of bondage and submission. Many of the sexploitation films out of Japan have a heady intensity (e.g., A Wife to be Sacrificed, In the Realm of the Senses) about them that is arguably, for the most part, humorless (at least by intent). School of the Holy Beast seems to be a mild exception to this generality, in that there are definite bits of humor in the film that are intentional and effective. However, this is not camp. The heavier scenes are tense and true, the desperation and pain of the participants is evident in excrutiating detail. There are parts of this film that will very likely manage to make a few people rather uncomfortable.

This is one of the more infamous nunsploitation films to come out of Japan, if not of the entire genre, and it is deserving of this infamy. Fans of sexploitation, of nunsploitation, or of just plain odd cinema will all likely be pleased.