School of the Holy Beast

School of the Holy Beast a.k.a. Convent of the Sacred Beast (聖獣学園, Seijū gakuen) is a film in the nunsploitation subgenre of Pinky violence made by Toei Company in 1974.

School of the Holy Beast
Poster to School of the Holy Beast
Directed byNorifumi Suzuki
Written by
  • Masahiro Kakefuda
  • Norifumi Suzuki
Starring
Music byMasao Yagi
Distributed byToei
Release date
  • February 16, 1974 (1974-02-16) (Japan)
Running time
91 minutes
CountryJapan
LanguageJapanese

Plot

edit

A young woman Maya (Yumi Takigawa) becomes a nun at the Sacred Heart Convent to find out what happened to her mother Michiko years earlier. She encounters a lesbian mother superior, lecherous archbishops, and uncovers many dark secrets. The convent also practices brutal discipline and encourages masochistic rituals such as self-flagellation. In one scene, two nuns are forced to strip to the waist and whip each other severely with heavy floggers. Later, Maya is tortured and whipped by a group of nuns armed with rose-thorns. Eventually she discovers the seemingly kind priest of the abbey raped her mother and hanged her, revealing that he is her father. After killing the mother superior, Maya sleeps with her father before revealing her true identity, and stabbing him in the back with a crucifix.

Cast

edit

Critical appraisal

edit

Praising the work of writer/director Norifumi Suzuki as well as the leading actors, critic Donald Guarisco of Allmovie says, "This Japanese shocker manages to [be] shocking and artistically stunning all at once."[1]

In TokyoScope: The Japanese Cult Film Companion, Patrick Macias calls the film a "comic adaptation and a blasphemous sermon of high camp and knowing literary intelligence." He continues, "Trashy as it may sound, Suzuki's film is absolutely gorgeous to gaze upon."[2]

Availability

edit

The Cult Epics company released School of the Holy Beast on region-1 DVD on August 30, 2005. The extras on the DVD included the original theatrical trailer, and interviews with lead actress Yumi Takigawa and film critic Risaku Kiridoushi.[3]

Notes

edit
  1. ^ Guarisco, Donald. "School of the Holy Beast : Review". Allmovie. Retrieved 2007-10-10.[permanent dead link]
  2. ^ Macias, Patrick (2001). "School of the Holy Beast". TokyoScope: The Japanese Cult Film Companion. San Francisco: Cadence Books. p. 182. ISBN 1-56931-681-3.
  3. ^ "School of the Holy Beast". Amazon. 30 August 2005. Retrieved 2007-10-08.

Sources

edit
edit