5. Killer Nun (1978)
Banned in the UK as a video nasty, Killer Nun is a riotously naughty nun romp featuring Anita Ekberg as the titular Killer Nun - Sister Gertrude. Apparently a totally normal nun until she had to have brain surgery, Gertrude is forced back into her work as a nursing sister too soon by the Mother Superior and promptly goes bananas. She works in a geriatric hospital and introduces a tyrannical regime - firing the doctor, enforcing vigorous calisthenics upon the poor oldies, crushing an oldie's false gnashers in front of her and throwing out the window a patient who had sex with a nurse. As if this wasn't bad enough behaviour for a nun, Gertrude initiates a lesbian affair with a fellow nun and goes cruising for sex with men in a nearby town. Oh, she's also a morphine addict (nearly forgot). The Mother Superior determines to get rid of Gertrude, but will she be easily pushed? Killer Nun has no pretensions to comment on society or the church, it exists purely as a vehicle for titillation. I actually ended up cheering Gertrude on as she is such an ace villain - torturing old people, hunting down sex and jacking up on morphine. The film also has a terrific score but criminally, it does nothing with cult favourite Joe Dallesandro in his role as a doctor. He's just...there. I have reviewed this film a couple of times now on WhatCulture and I will say it again - I am continually gobsmacked by Sister Gertrude's full face of makeup. Surely a morally dubious conceit on the behalf of a nun?