Just what I expected

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Nunxploitation is often called the bottom of the barrel of exploitation genres because they're the cheapest to make and the most devoid of imagination and entertainment. Rent some nun costumes, use a church as your set, use classical public domain music, have some orgies of both blood and sex, cut print done in one take.The first thing to know about nunxploitation is that they ALL follow the same theme. The secret lives of nuns reveal that nuns aren't really nuns, or even Christians, they're really Satanists. They're also all lesbians, rapists, and murderesses. Yup, ALL of them in EVERY movie! Hence their lives aren't really secret since we all know what's coming.That's pretty much what 'The Other Hell' is. It offers nothing new as far as nunxploitation other than being directed by Bruno Matti. Let me guess, he's going to title the film 'Terminator 2' and claim it was based on a Peter Benchley novel.The plot: set in... whenever, it's never explained. Present day? The Spanish Inquisition? We never know. It opens with a young nun discovering that one of her sisters (not literally) has murdered their sister (not literally) because she became pregnant. The crazed killer nun has ripped the woman open starting with her vagina which she says is the "gateway to the devil." The most amusing element of the opening scene is the vast array of boiling chemistry beakers. Seriously! Dr. Frankenstein never had a chemistry set this elaborate. So is this a lab, has the killer nun been doing unholy chemistry? Never explained! It's clearly just more nightmare fuel to add to the set to make it look scary. The satanic imagery is understandable as the character is a Satanist but why the elaborate chemistry set? All she's missing is the Tesla coils.So anyway, after confessing to her crime she kills the young nun as well. The convent conspires to lie to the investigating priests that the deaths were accidents. Accidents? She's cut in half! This reminds me of the scene in 'End of Days' when a character is crucified and it's ruled a suicide! Even if someone did try and kill themselves via crucifixion it wouldn't work! They'd run out of hands!The killer nun is ruled to be possessed by Satan and must undergo an exorcism while a younger priest disagrees arguing the woman is just mentally ill. Either way, shouldn't she be in a padded room somewhere? Not remaining in the convent? Basically Bruno Matti spends the entire film throwing as much nightmare fuel on the set as possible without explanation. Bedrooms have life size dolls hanging from the ceiling from chains without explanation. Tons of satanic images. There are even pitbulls and Dobermans in cages. All that's missing are the Tesla coils or posters of Chairman Mao to make things scarier. Even the nuns acknowledge their convent is creepy. When a priest tries to bless it they prevent him from fully exploring it. No wonder their sisters are turning homicidal living in a place like this! In conclusion I've never been a fan of nunxploitation and this film only reinforces my feelings. It's a genre built on cheap scares and no imagination. This is one to skip even if you're a fan of nunxploitation.Several reviewers have stated that is isn't bad for a Bruno Matti film. Given the true pain of Matti's other films this is hardly an endorsement.

Those looking for the typical sex and nudity expected in a nunsploitation film need to look elsewhere. This one is pure horror, with a genital removal starting the blood-fest.The evil Mother Vincenza (Franca Stoppi) provides the best performance despite the outrageous lines given to her.Father Valerio (Carlo De Mejo) is called in to investigate several murders that are reportedly the work of Satan. One suspects, along with the good father, that there is a psychopath lose in the convent. The answer may lie in the middle of both explanations.Exciting pieces with long periods of nothing in between. For serious fans of Italian horror, it will be a treat, but for others, it may not be so good.Great music throughout.

Mad, seemingly possessed nuns are butchering other nuns in a convent, leading to a wave of panic and hysteria. Seeking some help, Father Inardo (Andrea Aureli) is called in to try to cleanse the convent and rid it of demonic forces, but his efforts prove futile and he is engulfed in flames before he can complete his task. Feeling drastic measures are needed, an unorthodox young priest/investigator named Father Valerio (Carlo De Mejo) is drafted to get to the bottom of things. A self proclaimed "ecclesiastic detective," Fr. Valerio begins investigating the murders, scouring the convent for clues and going through the nun's personal belongings looking for some reasoning behind the senseless slayings. Initially doubtful that demons are actually involved, he senses something is a little off with stern, overprotective Mother Superior, Sister Vicenza (Franca Stoppi), who tries to keep her fellow sisters from talking, seems to be hiding something and refuses to let anyone get near the attic. Is it indeed a case of possession or are the nuns just finding therapeutic new ways to deal with their repression? Even though it drags from time to time, L'ALTRO INFERNO still has many things going for it. First off, the performances are actually pretty good. Stoppi, who has a very expressive, somewhat sinister looking face, gives the standout performance as the secretive head nun. De Mejo is also tolerable as the hero and all of the smaller roles seem to be done with some skill. Secondly, there's some imaginative set design inside the convent. One corridor is lined with hundreds of skulls, leading up to a secret alchemist's lab (?!) complete with a fiery cauldron, bubbling test tubes, beakers and coffins. Upstairs is another strange Bava-esquire room full of cobwebs and angelic-looking mannequins hanging from the ceiling. Another memorable thing about this one are some truly tasteless touches, notably when a crazed nun cuts the vagina (!) out of a corpse and a flashback sequence where a newborn baby is tossed in a pot of boiling water. The movie seems a little overloaded when it comes to the plot, incorporating most of the religion-themed horror bases; possession, stigmata, voodoo, the birth of the antiChrist... Surprisingly, there's almost no nudity. The score by Goblin I believe is mostly lifted from BUIO OMEGA (BEYOND THE DARKNESS).

When I think of Bruno Mattei, great horror films don't usually spring to mind; and The Other Hell does nothing to change that opinion of him. Much like his Video Nasty zombie flick, Hell of the Living Dead, The Other Hell is highly derivative of other, and better, genre films and came along some time after it's genre hit it's 'golden period'. Nunsploitation is most famous for sexually repressed nuns and tons of nudity, but this one adheres more closely to the Anita Ekberg vehicle 'The Killer Nun', as it features a Giallo style plot that puts most of its focus on murder and more or less completely ignores sex and nudity. This definitely does harm the film, and it's made no better by the fact that the mystery presented is hardly fascinating. The film follows a couple of murders in a convent. The Mother Superior believes that the nuns have become possessed by the devil, and a priest is dispatched to try and get to the bottom of the mystery (they'd have been better off with a detective...). Are the nuns really under the power of Satan, or is that what the Mother Superior wants everyone to believe? Not only is Bruno Mattei one of the less talented Italian filmmakers, he also has a rather annoying penchant for ripping off the better ones. The film features a score from Goblin, which the director has ripped off from Joe D'Amato's masterpiece 'Beyond the Darkness' (he also ripped off Goblin scores for Hell of the Living Dead), and he took D'Amato's lead actress from Beyond the Darkness, Franca Stoppi. Some of the sequences in the film are very well shot, however, and although it's obvious that Mattei was taking influence from masters such as Dario Argento and Mario Bava, it's only fair to give credit where credit is due. The cinematography is crisp and clear, although the locations often leave a lot to be desired as unlike other films in the nunsploitation tradition; the convent is pretty bare. The plot gets lost sometimes, and it has to be said that a fair proportion of this movie is rather boring; but it just about comes together at the end, and while the reasons for the murders are obvious all the way through; the ending itself isn't bad. Overall, I would recommend this to die-hard nunsploitation fans, but everyone else can feel free to skip it.