Spooky season is in full gear and teenagers (and older) are eager for a real-life fright by visiting haunted properties. For some reason, they believe the closer we get to Halloween, the more psychic activity kicks up. Just around the block from me is an old historic mansion that people swear you can see the widow in the window after dark. During the days before Halloween, the owner hires private security to cruise the surrounding streets to make sure wannabe ghost hunters don’t sneak into the house. People are welcome to linger on the sidewalk. So far no one has caught the haunted sight on their cellphone camera to post online. The Convent is a thrilling horror film with comic moments about what happens when college kids get inside a haunted place.
Back in 1960, a car pulls up in front of the St. Francis Boarding School. The most badass Catholic school girl gets out. How badass is she? She’s drinking Jack Daniels straight from the bottle without removing the cigarette from her lips. She kicks in the front door, heads in the church and proceeds to attack the nuns and a priest with a baseball bat and shotgun. She finishes it off by pouring out the gasoline and lighting the sanctuary up. Forty years later, Goth college student Mo (The Gravedancers‘ Megahn Perry) needs a lift to the abandoned convent that she’s willing to blackmail her old pal Clorissa (Joanne Canton) for a lift. Clorissa is supposed to go up there with frat boys to paint her sorority’s Greek letters on the walls. It’s a hazing ritual. Before they ride up, they stop in front of the house where the wild Catholic Schoolgirl now lives as an adult. While Mo hunts around for Satanic references inside, the cops show up. She has to hide since she’s in a bit of trouble and this might get her kicked out of college. The kids get escorted off the property. Mo however gets nabbed by something worse than the law. Satanists are lurking inside the convent. They are ready to sacrifice her so their leader can summon Satan back to Earth. But are these Satanists serious since Mo recognizes the leader as a Dairy Queen employee. How can he summon Satan when he can’t even get the Blizzard machine to work?
The Convent is a scary charmer of horror film. This is a perfect Halloween flick because it has just enough sacrilegious undertones to frighten your Holy roller great aunt. The nuns on fire have an artistry to them on the screen. Even with such an impactful opening, there’s so much more outrageous action to come in the film. The Convent moves at an amazing speed. The comic moments are swept up by real horror scares so it’s not just a campy comedy. The special effects have a feel of what was experienced during the Last Wave of Italian Horror especially in the faces of the demonically possessed nuns.
The cast of young stars brings the fun and the fear. Megahn Perry is a Goth princess as she’s tied down for sacrifice. Kelly Mantle cracked me up as Dickie-Boy. The late rapper Coolio plays a pissed off local cop who isn’t wearing his police hat so we can see his trademarked hairstyle. He’s so good as a cop that you’ll swear he’s still laying it down to Michelle Pfeiffer in the “Gangsta’s Paradise” video. He’s so intense you don’t quite notice the other cop is Bill Moseley (Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2) don’t want to give away the plot, but you need to know that during the big finale, Adrienne Barbeau is in charge. She’s strapped with weapons like she’s doing a better sequel to Escape From New York. As a side note, Barbeau and Moseley would reunite a few years after this film on HBO’s Carnivale.
The Convent premiered at Sundance in 2000, but had release issues. First it had to be edited twice to get the MPAA to give it a precious R-rating. Then the distributor went under. It appears to have not been given a theatrical release. Instead the new distributor went straight to VHS and DVD at the end of 2002 after Halloween had passed. The good news is that the version on 4K UHD is the uncut version. You’re getting all the visuals that the MPAA couldn’t handle with a better resolution that the watered-down tape you checked out of Blockbuster. The Convent remains as scary as a room full of nuns with rulers.
The Video is 1.78:1 anamorphic. The 4K remaster of the uncut version was supervised and approved by director Mike Mendez and mastered in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible). The Audio is 5.1 DTS-HD stereo surround mix from the original 16-track audio masters. You’ll hear the nuns paddling away on wayward girls. The movie is subtitled in English.
Blu-ray has the movie and bonus features.
Cast and crew audio commentary features director Mike Mendez, Liam Kyle Sullivan, Megahn Perry and composer Joseph Bishara. Mendez jokes that his family wasn’t too happy with the opening since they sent him for Catholic school for 12 years and were friends with nuns. They had an 18-day production schedule.
“Lords of Hell” audio commentary featuring Saul (David Gunn) and Dickie-Boy (Kelly Mantle) in somewhat in character as they talk about their experiences in the film. They are hilarious in their weird memories. The Universe was on their side to get them cast together. If you listen to one commentary track this Halloween, let it be Saul and Dickie-Boy.
Video tour of both The Convent and Killers film locations (14:33) has director Mike Mendez guide us. Turns out the opening of house in Killers is his family house. His parents weren’t so thrilled. They shot his first film in Glendale, California. We learn the sad story of what happened to the main house in the film. It’s not a happy indie film financing story. The St. Francis Boarding School is now a wine bar. They used the same house as the People Under the Stairs movie.
Vintage “Making of” featurette (8:33) has a younger Mike Mendez and Chaton Anderson talk about how the film was part of their Catholic rebellion. Anderson talks about how scary her visit to the abandoned convent was as a kid. The cast talks about barely getting to sleep since they were shooting overnight.
Original studio Electronic Press Kit (11:33) hypes the filmmakers’ Sundance connection. They talk about the horror and humor that would work in the marketplace. The production company had worked with Mike Menedez on The Killers. Chaton Anderson talks about the real home for wayward girls that inspired her script. This film is so much of her life.
Booklet includes the essay “It’s Always Something with a Virgin” by Corey Danna.
Deleted scene (0:31) takes place in the diner.
Gore outtakes (5:54) has a lot more fake blood squirting all over the scenes.
Still gallery (6:26) includes press photos and posters from around the world.
Promotional trailers include the first (1:44) and second (1:45) lets us know something weird is happening inside the abandoned convent.
Synapse Films present The Covenant (2-Disc Special Edition). Directed by Mike Mendez. Screenplay by Chaton Anderson. Starring Joanna Canton, Liam Kyle Sullivan, Megahn Perry, Richard Trapp, Jim Golden, Dax Miller, Chaton Anderson, Renée Graham, Adrienne Barbeau, Kelly Mantle, David Gunn, Coolio and Bill Moseley. Running Time: 80 minutes. Rating: Not Rated. Release Date: October 8, 2024.
