The Convent

Summary

“They say that Father Ryan and the nuns still haunt this building, seeking revenge.”

While Halloween was approaching, my watchlist mainly consisted of horror films that fit in well with the season. Synapse Films has recently released two films by independent filmmaker Mike Mendez – his 1996 debut film Killers and his 2000 horror film The Convent. For The Convent, Synapse has gone all out and given that film a full blown 4K UHD release. Mike Mendez is an independent Los Angeles based filmmaker who has managed to stay in the industry by creating his own projects such as films with wild titles such as Big Ass Spider and Satanic Hispanics, while also serving as an editor for TV and film projects. I was in the mood for a fun and ridiculous bit of 2000s era horror-comedy, and The Convent definitely scratched that itch. I watched it the night before Halloween.

In 1960 – a teenage girl wearing sunglasses arrives at St. Francis Boarding School with a cigarette dangling from her mouth. She carries a can of gasoline and a bag with a baseball bat and a shotgun. She beats some nuns with the baseball bat and sets the place ablaze before blowing away Father Ryan and his nuns with a shotgun.

Forty years later – Sorority girl Clorissa (Joanna Canton) steps out of the sorority house and bumps into her old friend Mo (Meghan Perry.) Mo is a goth and hasn’t forgotten when Clorissa was edgier and would go to Misfits shows with her. Clorissa’s friends – cheerleader Kaitlin (Renee Graham,) jock Biff (Jim Golden,) drug dealer Frijole (Richard Trapp,) and Clorissa’s boyfriend Chad (Dax Miller) – pull up in a Jeep. They are heading to the abandoned convent to put their Greek letters on it before the other sororities and fraternities get there. Mo asks Clorissa to give her a ride there with her friends, and Clorissa resists because her friend group now is nothing like Mo. Mo basically extorts her, and Clorissa agrees. Clorissa is also shocked to see that her young nerdy brother Brant (Liam Kyle Sullivan) has tagged along as a pledge to the fraternity brothers. On their way to the convent they stop by the house of Christine (Adrienne Barbeau) who forty years earlier blew away the nuns. The idiotic Frijole hollers for Christine to come out. When a light upstairs turns on, they peel out and speed away. After breaking into the convent, Mo explains to the  group that a certain area is where “the abortion occurred.” Apparently, sixteen year old Christine was snatched in the middle of the night by Father Ryan and his nuns. They drugged her and performed an abortion on her. She retaliated by killing them and lighting them all on fire. When she was arrested Christine claimed that the nuns and father were devil worshippers before she spent thirty years in the nuthouse. Through a series of events, some of which will be surprising for the audience, the teens will soon find themselves fighting against demonic forces.

The Convent plays as a fun mixture between Lamberto Bava’s Demons, with a hint of Dusk ‘till Dawn, and a splash of Dark Castle’s remake of House on Haunted Hill with plenty of stoner comedy thrown into the mixture. The film is crass and crude and completely over-the-top in ways that seem off-limits for filmmakers now. By appealing to the basest natures of the film’s audience, The Convent works. This is not a serious film. It is not effectively frightening and the characters are some of the least deep to come along since the opening sequence of Final Destination 2. That is not a slight on the picture. The film’s aim is simply to offend and entertain. The picture lets the audience have fun watching a group of idiotic college kids get picked off and possessed by demonic forces before providing a kick-ass final showdown that involves a ton of shotgun shells, a baseball bat, and a motorcycle.

Writing about the performances in a picture like this feels somewhat ridiculous. The performances are intentionally pretty hammy, with a standout performance by scream queen Adrienne Barbeau as a shotgun-toting motorcycle-riding demon slayer. She delivers every ridiculous line with she is given with gusto and never winks at the audience. I also thought that the girl who played Mo, Meghan Perry was pretty sassy and enjoyable in her role. Richard Trapp also made me laugh throughout the film as the drugged up and sex obsessed Frijole. This film didn’t make anyone a household name, but everyone involved does more than adequate in their roles. I particularly enjoyed the casting of Coolio as a police officer. If you imagine that Coolio performing as a cop would be hilarious, you would be correct.

The script for the picture by Chaton Anderson is foul-mouthed, crude, ridiculous, and fun. The dialogue for all the characters seems to be written with the axiom of “what is the absolute stupidest or most outrageous thing a person could say here?” In doing so, the film rides a wave of blunt humor that I found appealing. The script also has some solid tricks up its sleeve that I appreciated, especially once the random satanists pop up thirty minutes into the picture. Mike Mendez realizes the script well with a ton of bloody practical effects and solid horror makeup for the demonic nuns. He claimed to have put twelve years of Catholic school rebellion into the picture, but the film is relatively tame in terms of sacrilegious jokes (minus one drugged out joke in the picture that was pretty minor.) Everyone works well within their means to deliver a short (80 minutes) but effective horror-comedy. 

Overall – The Convent is an extremely entertaining and crude horror-comedy that will appeal to fans of the genre. Synapse has done an excellent job of restoring the film, so fans will want to check it out.

Video

Synapse presents The Convent in 1.78:1 aspect ratio on 4K UHD. The transfer was sourced from the uncut version of the film and was supervised by director Mike Mendez. Synapse, as per usual, has done a terrific job on their presentation of the film with a reference quality 4K presentation. Fine detail is for the most part excellent. Clarity is very solid. There is a fine grain over the proceedings. That said, the presentation can only rise to the initial limitations of the filmmaker’s budget, which was obviously limited. I enjoyed watching this 2000 era low budget horror film partially for that reason. I can’t imagine that fans of the picture will be less than thrilled.

Audio

Synapse Video have provided a DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround track for The Convent. This is a solid audio presentation. Dialogue is clear and the score comes through well. While the track’s immersion is limited by the budgetary constraints of the picture, I can’t imagine any fan of the picture being disappointed here.

Supplements:

• Commentary #1 features cast and crew.
• Commentary #2 features the “Lords of Hell” – the actors who played Saul and Dickie-Boy.
• Behind-the-Scenes Featurette – this short archival piece features interviews with director Mike Mendez, writer/producer Chaton Anderson, and actors Liam Sullivan, Joanna Canton, Meghan Perry, Oakley Stevenson, Renee Graham, Kelly Mantle, Jim Holden, and Coolio. Given its brevity, it does a solid job of discussing how the project came together.
• “Houses of the Unholy” – in this new piece, director Mike Mendez, provides a location tour for his first two movies, “Killers” and “The Convent.” This is a fun piece.
• Deleted Scene
• Gore Outtakes
• Original Electronic Press Kit – a short but enjoyable EPK featuring executive producer Ryan Carroll, writer/producer Chaton Anderson, director Mike Mendez, and actor Coolio.
• Image Gallery
• Two Promotional Trailers
• Booklet – features an essay by Corey Danna.

Overall Scores:

Video – 4.25/5

Audio – 4.5/5

Supplements – 4/5

Overall – 4.25/5

I had a lot of fun watching the 2000 horror-comedy The Convent. Director Mike Mendez brought the best out of the outrageous script by Chaton Anderson with tight editing and numerous practical effects. This film is definitely low-brow, but it wears its influences on its sleeves and should particularly appeal to fans of Lamberto Bava’s picture Demons. The late Nineties and early 2000s are an often maligned time in horror filmmaking, but I can easily get behind horror pictures that delivered this much entertainment value on such small budgets. Synapse has brought the film to 4K UHD with a very well done transfer and solid surround track. The supplements are enjoyable as well. While this film will not appeal to everyone, I certainly had fun watching it. Recommended.