St. Agatha

I don’t understand why there’ve been so many one-star ratings at the beginning, St. Agatha is not that tragic. That lowered my expectations a lot, and I waited throughout the film for the moment when things would get so unbearable, but somehow it didn’t happen. Surely, the film won’t get an Oscar for its screenplay, but worse atrocities can be found in the horror waters. This time, Bousman delivers at least flawless craftsmanship, as well as solid performances (mainly, the evil nun) and an atmospheric score. So, compared, for instance, with the atrocious 11-11-11, Agatha is a winner on all fronts. Plotwise, it’s stupid both in the details and as a whole, but show me one sophisticated nunsploitation movie. On the other hand, when I think of it as a parable of a community that a higher power cut off from funding and had to find a new model to operate, I think it does have some basis for meaningful content. But I don’t want to give the impression that I’m praising the film – my rating is around five points out of ten – but I feel that the other reviewers so far maybe didn’t sleep well before the screening and have been way too strict. (09.02.2019)

A boringly-filmed and foolishly written horror film, whose original theme is meaningless (nuns supervise pregnant girls and care about them giving birth to healthy children, but do not hesitate to torture and maim them in various ways during pregnancy just because they are on a "strict regime"). The film interrupts and prolongs the events in the nursing home unnecessarily every now and then with scenes from the protagonist's past, without sufficiently justifying their existence. The characters behave illogically according to the script's instructions, so that at one point the nuns hear every rustle, but at other times they seems to be deaf and blind. The end is terribly naive, even ridiculous. Of the performances, only Carolyn Hennesy in the role of the demonically kind Mother Superior is worth mentioning. Unfortunately, due to the flatness of their characters, the others do not have much to work with. (10.10.2018)

In the beginning, St. Agatha looks interesting, but with each passing minute, it makes less and less sense, piling up one ridiculous plot motif after the other – numerous scenes are so nonsensical that they don’t even fit the film at all! In fact, it’s as if the whole thing had been re-written and re-edited multiple times (well, there must be four screenwriters for a reason). For example, the entire film is covered with flashbacks that reveal the protagonist’s past, but those completely fail to make a point, as they don’t contribute by the slightest amount to the plot that follows. The characters are utterly superficial and merely limited to sinister sadistic nuns or naive victims; no one boasts any finer feature and nothing surprises. And the final escape plan of the main heroine is an ultimate insult to the viewer who was expecting at least some decent conclusion. [Sitges 2018] (09.10.2018)