The horror genre is undoubtedly more diverse than any of cinema's other genres, and while that does mean that there's a lot of different and original horrors; it also means that any good idea liable to be done more than once. This has become a big problem for the modern genre with the recent wave of remakes. The Convent isn't a remake by name; but it could easily be a remake of the eighties classic Night of the Demons as the basic plots are more or less identical - but at least enough of it has been changed to ensure that it gets away with being a different film. This is how remakes should be done! Anyway, anyone that has seen the aforementioned eighties horror will recognise this story instantly. The film begins with a cool sequence that sees a young girl brutally execute a bunch of nuns with a shotgun. Fast forward fifteen years and a bunch of school kids are planning to break into the convent where it all happened to see if it really is haunted by the dead nuns...
It has to be said that this film isn't a piece of high quality film-making. The acting is largely ridiculous and the special effects are so bad that they make the majority of the cast look on par with some of the greatest performances of all time. However, the film was clearly never meant to be seen as great horror; and thankfully it does work as a fun, trashy horror comedy. There's always plenty going on and the film never really has time to get boring, which is certainly to its credit. The majority of the characters are rather dull, and this is not helped by the fact that the most interesting one is killed off towards the beginning; but the loss of her presence is somewhat made up for the appearance of a couple of bumbling 'Satanists' that provides the laughs. The film also features a few cameo appearances; we've got rapper Coolio and Bill Moseley as a couple of coppers; and even better Adrienne Barbeau as motorcycle riding demon killer. Overall, I really wouldn't recommend anyone goes out of their way to see this film; but it's fun enough for what it is and people that enjoy this sort of film surely wont be too disappointed.
It has to be said that this film isn't a piece of high quality film-making. The acting is largely ridiculous and the special effects are so bad that they make the majority of the cast look on par with some of the greatest performances of all time. However, the film was clearly never meant to be seen as great horror; and thankfully it does work as a fun, trashy horror comedy. There's always plenty going on and the film never really has time to get boring, which is certainly to its credit. The majority of the characters are rather dull, and this is not helped by the fact that the most interesting one is killed off towards the beginning; but the loss of her presence is somewhat made up for the appearance of a couple of bumbling 'Satanists' that provides the laughs. The film also features a few cameo appearances; we've got rapper Coolio and Bill Moseley as a couple of coppers; and even better Adrienne Barbeau as motorcycle riding demon killer. Overall, I really wouldn't recommend anyone goes out of their way to see this film; but it's fun enough for what it is and people that enjoy this sort of film surely wont be too disappointed.