Nuns: An Italian Horror Story
BayViewThe second most popular subgenre to come out of Italy after spaghetti westerns is giallo thrillers: mystery films with slasher elements, usually set in gothic locales around Italy. It was popularised by Mario Bava in the 1960s but disappeared almost entirely due to the rise of cable television programming.
Giovanni Aloisio’s NUNs: An Italian Horror Story aims to recapture these highly influential genre films, but unfortunately fails on almost every single level. A key feature of giallos is the central mystery, related either to a killer’s identity and intentions or to a supernatural entity’s origin. NUNs starts with an intriguing enough premise, where a deaf-mute woman (another staple of the genre) is hired as a housekeeper by Bruno, the caretaker of three nuns who live in a secluded convent. The place doubles as a cheap accommodation for whoever needs it. Cue a series of characters who spend the night in the nunnery, only to find themselves terrorised and violently murdered by the nuns.
What keeps this narrative from ever being engaging is that there really is nothing more to it outside of its premise. There is no complicated lore around the nuns and Bruno, the new housekeeper lacks any semblance of personality or interesting characteristics. Themes of religion and physical and psychological abuse are barely even touched upon (another element in many films of the genre), and the endless stream of killings adds nothing of value to the story. It does not take long to figure out that this 101-minute-long feature was originally a short film, aptly titled NUN and released in 2016. The absence of any real plot or characters are what ultimately made this a senseless series of poorly constructed horror vignettes, leading to a climax that is as predictable as it is abrupt, leaving audiences confused as to what writer-director Giovanni Aloisio was going for.
A lacklustre story could be easily excused if the execution rendered it more exciting. After all, both giallos and slashers are often remembered for their menacing villains and gruesome death scenes. Unsurprisingly, none of that is to be found in NUNs. The way the film is put together, especially during its horror sequences, is bordering on incompetence, making the whole production feel rushed and poorly thought-out. Right from the opening sequence, there is shoddy editing, trying to cut around the slow rhythm of the visuals and performances, often relying on jump-scares that are poorly staged. The general soundscape of the film borders on incompetence, as much of the sync sound is very noisy and often clips when characters scream, the mixing is completely off at times (voices range from excessively loud to barely audible in the same scene), and the mixture of stock sound effects, musical cues, and basic plugins only amplify the low budget of the post-production. Add to that questionable editing choices and colour grade, digital zooms that distort the intended aspect ratio, and overuse of lighting gels to mimic the main inspirations, and the final product ends up being far less enjoyable than intended.
NUNs: An Italian Horror Story is admirable in trying to bring back a now-abandoned subgenre that once made Italian cinema a force to be reckoned with but unfortunately fail to effectively hearken back to the glory days of giallos. With more visceral death scenes, better planning of the scares in pre-production, and more time spent polishing the final edit, this could have been an entertaining throwback film, but there is an inherent lack of knowledge of basic cinematic and narrative techniques that doom this film to the bottomless pit of quick cash-grabs. But hey, at least the poster design is cool!