Review: Killer Nun

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2021
Images from the Internet

Killer Nun (aka After Midnight)
Directed by Roberto Albanesi; Luca Bertossi; Davide Cancila; Francesco Longo; Daniele Misichia; Nicola Pegg; Davide Pesca; Eugenio Vallani
Demented Gore Productions; Moonlight Legacy Productions; Wild Eye Releasing; MVD Visual
85 minutes, 2018 / 2021
www.wildeyereleasing.com
www.MVDVisual.com

The original name for this Italian (with English subtitles) anthology is After Midnight, but it is certainly no surprise they changed the name to Killer Nun, considering the success of The Nun (2018), from The Conjuring franchise. I am totally fine with that. However, the one problem is it is too easy to mix up the title with the also-Italian giallo film, Killer Nun (1979; reviewed HERE). There is also a series of videogames with the same name. 

The opening piece is by Daniele Misichia, who gives us “Vlog: L’ultimo video di Sara (“Vlog: The Latest Video of Sara”; 2016). We meet a fast-talking vlogger Sara who is responding to her needing to block some of her viewers due to some sexist remarks. The rest of the film follows what happens after that. It’s a bit bloody, but there are some nice jump scares thrown in. Simply presented with a single camera in almost real time, it’s compelling, though read the captions quickly because she speaks fast. I really like when the topic of technology is current, unless it’s a “throwback” film.

For “The Taste of Survival” (2018), Davide Pesca presents us with a post-apocalyptic world after “the bomb,” where there are few survivors. One of them, a woman, is being chased by a trio of radiation scarred men interested in, well, you know. Is there a saviour for her, and if there is, what is the motive? One can easily guess, but the gore is graphic and well done in a Spaghetti Western motif (one character even has a bit of a Lee Van Cleef vibe). The look of the film is a bit washed out with a muted red lens, making everything nearly monochrome. This is both a mood piece and a gore-fest, so many should be pleased. I was.

There is a very good reason why the main character has “Nyctophobia” (“Fear of the Dark”; 2017). Francesco Longo offers a non-verbal (other than laughing) tale of strange hauntings around him, and eventually explains why. It is a mystery that is fun to try and figure out, and the make-up is quite spectacular for an indie short release. With sharp editing and a blue night filter, we see his fear and come to understand it over time. A couple of nice jump cuts and scares, and some really nice false endings are also prominently featured. It’s nicely atmospheric.

“Nel Buio” (“Into the Dark”; 2018), by Davide Cancila, boons us with a woman who has PTSD after… well, I won’t say, but her diligent brother has been taking care of her for a year. But as they must in genre films, the past has a way of catching up, whether it is memories or the shadow of things that were, and this jump-scare laden tale does a decent, if somewhat convoluted, way of doing just that. This story also tends to use the blue filter night lens that is almost monochrome.

The demonic nun finally comes in with Luca Bertossi’s “Io non le credo” (“I Don’t Believe Her”; 2017). Evil nuns, demons or priests do not surprise me in an Italian film, where the Vatican understandably still has hold, and tales of possession, devils and demons are part of the core of the Catholic culture. Have you ever seen an Episcopalian Exorcist or a Lutheran Devil film? I have found only the Baptists and especially the Evangelicals are as obsessed with evil creatures as the Catholics. This piece is short, but it is beautifully shot with almost still-picture-quality posing. And, yes, a blue night lens. A man feels his house is haunted by demons, and he calls in a priest to cleanse it. But will the priest be able to find and face the evil? Watch and see.

This time with a sepia-tone or blue monochrome – and sometimes none! – a woman is kidnapped by someone in a mask and an apron in “Escape from Madness” (2018) by Nicola Pegg. In a scene reminiscent of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, she wakes strapped to a chair at a table while someone cooks some questionable meat. In fact, there is a lot that is, well, let’s just say a homage to the Saw. But adrenaline is high for the entire story, and the ending is satisfying. While I would not make the choice in real life that was made by the central character, and would have stuck with the rock-paper-saw original plan (not going to give it away), the way it’s done is a lot bloodier, so I also aesthetically approve.

To be honest, when I first started watching Roberto Albanesi’s “Che serata di merda” (“What a Shit Night”, 2018), I thought it was the weakest of the batch, but at the halfway mark, when the film becomes meta-existential, I understood what I missed in the first half, and it became one of my favorites on the reel. Go figure. An annoying couple is being visited by a vengeful ghost, who has a hysterical conversation with one of the couple’s friends, the director playing himself. I actually went back and watched this whole short over and appreciated it a lot more. No color filter, too.

The final tale is “Haselwurm” (“Hazel Worm”, 2011), presented by Eugenio Vallani. For clarification, a hazel worm, or slow worm, is a legless lizard, that is not a snake, and not poisonous. For this story, it is so much larger, like a Komodo dragon, and has attacked a couple, biting the man. While not poisonous, that’s not to say that the bite doesn’t have an effect, which I will not reveal, but it does produce some nice SFX work. The story is a bit slow-and-steady paced and kind of predictable somewhat – though the ending was better and slightly different than I expected – the cinematography of what I assume is the Alps and in general is beautifully done. And yes, there is use of blue and sepia filters.

Many stories have to do with the nighttime and use monochrome filters, as I have said before repeatedly. If you watch the trailer below, it almost seems like the film is in black and white… or blue and white.

Even though it is inaccurate to the contents within, there is a great piece of horror art on the DVD cover. The extras are three company trailers (not for this film, though), and chapter choices.

Some of these shorts have existed independent of this collection, while others seem to be created specifically for the anthology. It’s all good, of course. What is part of the fun is that while some of these stories have been done before in some form or another, the Italian touch and influence makes them different just enough to make it almost like a fresh coat of paint on an old car: you’re driving in a similar direction, but everything feels shiny, with muted colors.