The Film (4.5/5)

    In the first few years of my obsessive EuroCult fandom, I thought the films of Bruno Mattei and Claudio Fragrasso were everything that were wrong with Italian and Eurohorror. They were cheap, derivative, and I thought badly done. At some point after the beginning of the Blu-ray era, I found myself watching their films again, as one is prone to do when formats change, and I found myself having a blast. Hell of the Living Dead and Rats became  firm favorites, and the Intervision releases of his late period cannibal and zombie fare I found hysterical. I even went back and found a grey market copy of his Terminator/Alien hybrid Shocking Dark, which proved to be sheer bizarre brilliance.

   One film which I had not gotten to, even though it did have a prior DVD release through Media Blasters was one of a pair of early 80's Nunsploitation epics undertaken by Mattei The Other Hell (the other one being The True Story of the Nun of Monza).  Since I have a bizarre love for these films that became somewhat trendy after the success of Ken Russell's the Devils I was more than happy to catch up with this one. The film opens with a scene in the cavernous basement of a convent. A pair of nuns are undertaking the autopsy of a dead nun when another sister appears to watch. The nun undertaking the autopsy then goes mad, declares the dead nuns genitalia a gateway to evil, and then proceeds to kill the observing sister.

    If you, the viewer, were not paying as the movie started, I am sure this got your attention. From there we are to find out that the convent has had a series of murders. Into this comes comes a high priest to investigate. At first he believe that the murders, and other incidents of sexual misconduct are caused by someone among the faithful in the convent, but the further his investigation goes on the less he thinks the cause is natural, and the more he comes to believe it is supernatural in nature.

    Like most of Mattei's best films The Other Hell is absolutely insane. This is a film that has no issues with pacing, because it never stops. We go from one insane moment to the next, and Mattei and screenwriter and Fragrasso, are throwing everything they want to see at the proverbial convent wall. The performances in the film are solid, but mostly just fitting to the material. Carlo De Mejo does a standout performance as Father Valerio. Mattei's offers some nice solid visuals here. The film is dark and grimy, and he captures that sort of sleazy ambiance quite well. I have never been as visually taken by a Mattei film as I have been here, and after seeing the Other Hell am convinced that this is probably the best film I have seen by the director so far, and by a good distance.

Audio/Video (4/5)

    Severin Films presents Bruno Mattei's The Other Hell in a splendid 1:85:1 1080p AVC encoded transfer. Everything looks quite solid here, detail is great, blacks are inky and deep, which is important in this one, and colors are natural. There are soft spots, and not everything is perfectly cleaned up, but I can't imagine this one looking much better than it does here.  There are 3 audio tracks LPCM in English, Italian, and French all sound quite solid with dialogue and score coming through clearly. Optional English subs are included.

Extras (3.5/5)

    Severin has put together a solid extras package for this release. We get a commentary track with Claudio Fragrasso. Archival interviews with Mattei and Carlo De Mejo, a 13 minute interview with actress Franca Stoppi, and a trailer for the film.

Overall

    The Other Hell is quite possible Bruno Mattei's best film. The Blu-ray from Severin Films looks and sounds fabulous, and comes with a nice slate of extras. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.