The Convent (2000)

User Rating:

4.8/10   

Director:

Mike Mendez

Writer:

Chaton Anderson (writer)

Release Date:

10 July 2000 (UK)

Genre:

Horror | Fantasy

Plot:

A group of college students break into an abandoned convent and become possessed by demonic spirits. |

Plot Keywords:

Convent | Nun | Virgin Sacrifice | Gagged And Bound | Murder

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Joanna Canton	...	Clorissa
Richard Trapp	...	Frijole
Dax Miller	...	Chad (as Jason Dax Miller)
Renée Graham	...	Kaitlin
Liam Kyle Sullivan	...	Brant
Megahn Perry	...	Mo
Jim Golden	...	Biff
Chaton Anderson	...	Sapphira (as Chaton Itae)
Adrienne Barbeau	...	Adult Christine
Kelly Mantle	...	Dickie-Boy
David Gunn	...	Saul
Oakley Stevenson	...	Young Christine
Larrs Jackson	...	Father Ryan
Coolio	...	Officer Starkey
Bill Moseley	...	Officer Ray

MPAA:

Rated R for strong horror violence and gore, and for language, some sexuality and drug content.

Runtime:

79 min | 80 min (uncut)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Certification:

Canada:16+ (Quebec) | South Korea:18 | France:-12 | Germany:18 | Spain:18 | UK:18 | USA:R | Philippines:R-18

Company:

Alpine Pictures

Quotes:

Saul: The time is nigh for you to take your first step into darkness, so why don't you take the Dagger of Dispair, you know and plunge into thine virginal heart?
[none of Saul's followers move]
Saul: ...Today.

Movie Connections:

References Sixteen Candles (1984)

An Overwhelming Dissapointment

Let me begin by saying that I dont believe a movie needs to be "good" to be entertaining. I myself am in love with some of the worst movies ever made, and find myself watching them over and over again. If you'd like to know what they are, drop me a line.

This movie, however, is miserable. The gore isnt gorey. The Horror isnt horrifying. The jokes arent funny (and are WAY out of place).

This movie was given a lot of hype a few years ago. Trailers of the film were all over the web, and they were interesting. It was hinted that it was too graphic and violent to be released, and "oh, please help us find this future horror masterpiece a distributer before it fades away into obscurity and is never seen." Well, maybe that would have been best.

This movie semed to steal the plot of "Night of the Demons" and mix it up with some banal Scooby Doo episode. They even offer characters ripped out of Saturday Night Live's "Goth Talk".

It opens in 1959 with the torching of a all girls Catholic school/convent by a disgruntled student. She hauls guns, gas and explosives into the chapel and destroys everyone in sight, all to the tune of Leslie Gore's "You Don't Own Me". Next, we are brought into present times with two girls, one a simple sorority pledge and her former best friend, a goth chick. The goth chick is the only interesting/sympathetic character, so of course she is the first to go. Some more 'zany teens" show up, and all head off to "The Convent". Its become the local urban legend hot spot and make-out point.

That is really all you need to know. You know where its going...you know where it's gone. Someone gets possessed, they, in turn, possess someone else, and so on, and so on, and so on. Until someone has to run and get the chick that torched the place 40-some years ago in the first place.

Its just horrible. Im so sorry for Coolio, who has a sad little cameo in the film. Im so sorry for Adrienne Barbeau who apparently doesnt have anything else to look foreward to.