Cover Art

Credits

Director: Nigel Wingrove Starring: Sally Tremaine, Moyna Cope, Simon Hill, Eileen Daly Screenplay: Nigel Wingrove Music: Steve Pittis Tagline: "In the midst of life we are in death" Country: UK

My first exposure to Sacred Flesh was a trailer I watched when reviewing Shockheaded. The trailer certainly raised a few eyebrows I can tell you, so my perception of Sacred Flesh was that its strengths were in the sex scenes. It looked to be a truly hardcore nunsploitation film, and no matter what faults it might have, it would be enough to generously satisfy fans of this genre. The sex scenes within the movie definitely put it in the soft-porn category though, and are handled with such good taste and delicacy, and at times with such beauty, that I can't put the term 'exploitation' to this film. In fact, I don't know what box this movie goes in. The trailer for Sacred Flesh certainly got me interested, that's for sure, but the feature let me down as gently as a brick dropped off the Empire State Building. The only thing exploitive about it is the fact that they are nuns in a convent; they are good looking, and they bare skin. To my disappointment, not one nun is found splashing around in a tub. I really had my hopes set on a nun-in-tubby-with-a-rubber-ducky scene. Ok, Ok I'll get on with the story.

Mother Superior (Sally Tremaine) is getting increasingly concerned that evil is creeping through Europe's convents, corrupting the pure virtues of nuns who are now engaging in the sinful pleasures of the flesh. This could be symbolic of the black plague that ravaged Europe on more than one occasion in the past. With this concern Mother Superior confides in another nun who has kept her faith and purity intact. She goes through each case as she provides her concerns and opinions about them. As we go through each sex scene, er I mean each case, Mother Superior falls further and further into the pit of mental despair and turmoil. She literally has a breakdown and steadily falls from grace as the movie progresses.

Now any religious theologian could easily write a hundred page thesis about the sexual repressions of the Catholic Church, and the symbolic imagery depicted like the visions and dreams of Mary Magdalene, but why bother? If there ever was a moral to this story it would be; 'you reap what you sow' or 'life's a securely packaged DVD, until you open it you never know what you're gonna watch'.

We have lots of beautiful nuns getting their kits off and freeing the bonds and shackles of Catholic sexual repression to indulge in the sinful pleasures of the flesh (go girls!). We have solo, nun on nun, and hetero (yes, the naughty men of the cloth take advantage of the situation and provide their own resolve to 'out with the devil and in with Jesus'). There's also some kinky stuff to boot like the crucifixion sex scene which really is the highlight. The Australian ratings people have rated it R for high level sex scenes, I guess they are, but I have seen much higher in the same rating category.