June 14, 2014

The Convent (2000) - An Overlooked And Underappreciated Comedic Gore-gasm By Director Mike Mendez

A demon gets back in the habit in Mike Mendez's The Convent (2000)
A demon gets back in the habit in Mike Mendez's The Convent (2000).

       As a general rule, I like my gore served with a side of humor.  Photo-realistic depictions of violent atrocity just don't entertain me.  Luckily, the comedic gore movie is almost a sub-genre unto itself.  I originally committed to posting about Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990) for this year's Gore-A-Thon, owing largely to the fact that I covered The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986) last year.  Then I re-watched Leatherface, and I reminded myself that it's actually not very gory.  Worse, it's not very entertaining.  I proceeded to pore over my movie collection looking for a moist and meaty alternative.  Fortunately, I unearthed my copy of director Mike Mendez's The Convent (2000), a riotously entertaining throwback to the comedic gore greats of the eighties.  I'm pretty sure I heard a choir of angels singing as I pulled the disc from my movie vault.

Nuns at the St. Francis Boarding School want their students to worship the Dark Lord in The Convent (2000)
The nuns at the St. Francis Boarding School want the students to pledge allegiance to their Dark Lord.

      Director Mike Mendez is a talent I wish was afforded the opportunity to be more prolific.  Though I've yet to lay my hands on Killers (1996, aka Real Killers), his recent Big Ass Spider! (2013) is exactly the kind of gleefully silly and entertaining B-movie the SyFy channel wishes it could deliver.  The Gravedancers (2006), one of the best-selling releases from the first After Dark Horrorfest, is also a solid spook show, albeit more serious minded.  Sadly, those two flicks and the Showtime documentary Masters Of Horror (2002) are the extent of Mendez's directorial filmography since The Convent.  Meanwhile, hacks like Uwe Boll seem to release a new movie every other week.

Monica (Megahn Perry) bound and gagged in preparation for her sacrifice to the Dark Lord in The Convent (2000)
Monica (Megahn Perry) is bound and gagged in preparation for her sacrifice to Satan.

     The Convent is a textbook example of a familiar premise well executed.  Its story revolves around a group of college kids who break into an abandoned convent and unleash hell.  Only a reclusive older woman named Christine who quelled a similar incursion in the past (Adrienne Barbeau, absolutely bad-ass as always) can restore order.  What really sets The Convent apart, though, isn't the shopworn premise, but the frenetic visual stylings and wickedly funny performances.  Chief among these is the acerbically funny Megahn Perry as a goth chick named Monica.  When confronted with a self proclaimed Prince of Evil (an equally funny David Gunn) making a theatrically inept attempt to sacrifice her to Satan, Monica calls him out:  "Prince of Evil?  You work at fucking Dairy Queen."  Actual scripted humor is a refreshing change from the unintentional comedy and winking homage that litter so many like-minded B-movies.

A cheerleader with a peeled face accompanied by two former weekend Satanists in The Convent (2000)
A cheerleader with her face peeled off accompanied by a two former weekend Satanists. Go Team Demon!

     In fact, The Convent is defined more by its comedic elements than its horrific ones.  Aside from a stylish opening segment depicting the young Christine laying waste to nuns and clergy accompanied by the Leslie Gore song You Don't Own Me, the movie never really tries to be genuinely disturbing.  The Convent aims instead to be a cinematic love letter to the over-the-top gore fests with which director Mendez grew up.  Think Evil Dead 2, and you'll have a pretty good idea of what's in store.  Mendez even throws in a cameo by rapper Coolio and genre vet Bill Moseley as dickish local cops, lest viewers fail to recognize the tongue-in-cheek tone Mendez is cultivating.

Actress Megahn Perry gets demonized in The Convent (2000)
Monica (Megahn Perry) gets demonized as the Prince of Evil and his minion watch from across the room.

     Rest assured, though - even if The Convent is never truly frightening, the gore runs deep.  There are plenty of stabbings, face peelings, shotgun blasts, genital mutilations, and decapitations to sate even the most ardent gorehound.  Though Mendez trimmed a few seconds of the most gratuitous splatter to secure an R rating for the stateside DVD, he's been quoted as saying The Convent is still a "hard R".  Genre fans won't be disappointed.  With any luck, Mendez's prequel to The Convent, currently listed on IMDB as being in pre-production under the title The Devil's Convent, will arrive sooner rather than later.  Until then, grab a copy of The Convent, gather a few friends, and enjoy one of the most overlooked and underappreciated comedic gore-gasms around.




5 comments:

  1. The look of the film makes me think of the the Baz Luhrman Romeo and Juliet: a well-told tale done very visually with noticeable styling. I must see this now if just for the excellent use of black light I see in those stills.

    Great find, Brandon!

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    1. In addition to the black light effects, many of the demon "action" sequences are sped up and accompanied by driving musical accompaniment, which makes them absurdly heightened and cartoonish (in a good way, I think). I'm not going to lie, Carl - I was tickled that these screen grabs put you in mind of Luhrman's Romeo And Juliet. That's the last thing in the world that would have occurred to me, but I can kind of see it now on closer examination. I'd say Mendez is nowhere near as self-consciously arty with his choices, though I'll admit that my predominant impression after my first viewing was more of an over-riding "feel" I got from The Convent rather than a lot of particulars.

      I didn't mention the stunningly accurate portrayal of a guy high on shrooms and hallucinating dancing, prancing nuns to the tune of "Dream Weaver", did I? Well now you know.

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  2. Wow, I've only seen The Gravedancers and Mendez's Masters of Horror documentary. I've seen the cover art for The Convent many a time and I guess I always assumed it was yet another mimic of The Lost Boys so I always gave it a pass. But each image you have in this article sold me on it even more than the last. This may well be priority #1 now. Awesome write-up Brandon, can't wait to see this one!

    "I'm pretty sure I heard a choir of angels singing as I pulled the disc from my movie vault." From the look of those nuns, those may not have been angels...

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    1. That cover art - I assume your referring the cover of the young Christine with the sunglasses and cigarette - is unfortunately not very evocative of the movie. This would be a great candidate for a nice Shout! Factory package with some of their nifty new commissioned cover art.

      And yeah, it probably wasn't angels. lol

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  3. I caught this one a while ago back when my cable company still had FearNet (Fucking Time Warner...). I didn't get to pay attention to it but it seemed fun. I'll have to give it another shot.

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