The Convent-2000
Director Mike Mendez
Starring Adrienne Barbeau
Scott’s Review #1,246
Reviewed April 16, 2022
Grade: C+
I debated whether to give Adrienne Barbeau top-billing recognition for The Convent (2000).
After all, she doesn’t even appear, save for a quick silhouette scene that probably wasn’t even the actress, until the final third of the film.
Since I am a fan of Barbeau’s work, mainly the television series Maude, and films like The Fog (1980) and Escape From New York (1981), I decided to throw caution to the wind and cement her star status.
The film itself is not very good and could use all the help it can get. It’s campy beyond belief, amateurish, hokey, and poorly acted, with enough ridiculous one-liners to make me wonder whether director Mike Mendez was purposely trying to make a bad film.
But before I get all curmudgeonly and smack this film in the face with an ‘F’ rating, I’d like to justify my more-than-generous ‘C+’ rating.
If The Convent had tried to take itself seriously and produced shit like this, I would have gone for the jugular in my review, but it knows it’s a silly film and instead embraces this fact wholeheartedly.
Still, I kept wondering whether the film was some nod to the slasher film genre that took over the world from the late 1970s until the late 1980s, or if it feebly tried to merge the slasher and zombie genres to produce something fresh.
If made in, say, 1985, The Convent would have fit snugly amongst the heaps of other similarly themed films patterned after superior feasts like Halloween (1978) and Nightmare on Elm Street (1984).
The film opens impressively enough when a young woman named Christine walks into a convent and goes batshit crazy, shooting every nun she sees and burning the place to the ground.
I grinned because Christine looked exactly like Uma Thurman’s character in Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 masterpiece, Pulp Fiction, with bright red lipstick and dark shades. Even her outfit looks the same.
Unfortunately, that’s where any parallels end. From this point, the plot is basic and uninspired.
A coed named Clorissa (Joanna Canton) joins her best friend Mo (Megahn Perry) and a group of college students on a dare to venture into the aforementioned convent (now rebuilt) and tangle with nun and priest spirits rumored to be inhabiting the structure.
After Mo is left alone and the rest of the bunch dine at Denny’s, the plot goes from standard to wacky as the returning students are bitten and become possessed by Satanists who want to beckon Satan back to earth.
There is an attempt to sacrifice a virgin among the group to help with this.
Conveniently, Christine (now older) lives down the street after spending a thirty-year stint in the loony bin. The badass woman comes barreling to the rescue with her motorcycle and an arsenal of machine guns to kick Satan’s ass.
The fun begins when Barbeau finally appears. With her dangling cigarette and macho talk, the actress is in her comfort zone. The dialogue between her and the other characters is so bad that, once again, I wondered whether this was the intent. I truly hope it was.
The robotic heads twitching and the green-eyed students now glowing align perfectly with the gimmicky art direction and juvenile special effects. I’ve seen better on a 3 pm daytime soap opera.
Rapper Coolio easily plays the most irritating character in a ridiculous role as a loud policeman. This attempt at comedy fell completely flat, and I was more entertained by the gay satanist who cleverly decides that if he and another virgin boy have sex, they will be spared.
Once the credits rolled, I was happy not to have to endure any more of the one-hour and twenty-minute experience.
After my five-minute reflection, I decided to interpret the film as a comical satire rather than anything more.
The Convent (2000) isn’t distinct enough to earn the ‘it’s so bad it’s good’ award because it lacks any identity.
However, for a midnight movie that is so goofy and over-the-top that there is plenty to mock, the film is a fun time.
And, it’s always a joy to see Barbeau in anything she is willing to appear in.
