• Sign up or login, and you'll have full access to opportunities of forum.

Bondage / Captivity / Interrogation / Torture Scenes in Mainstream Movies

Go to CruxDreams.com
poem21045 said:
FYI: when I went to download, I got an infection warning from my security. I'd advise caution with this website.
Click to expand...
The download link didn't work at all for me - Probably because I'm running on Linux and thus my security level is higher by default
 
perhaps you may try here: https://m4uhd.tv/watch-movie-flavia-the-heretic-1974-228333.html. i've had the complete movie sometime but it was lost with the rest of my collection on the corrupted hard drive, alas.

this's typical italian old school exploitation of 70th (strictly say, the late nunsploitation classics) - partly pretty brutal, almost without limits on sex & cruelty, partly a few naive, basically quite moralistic despite massive fucking and violence - a proper catholic art :)

the plot is based on the true story of the 15 century when the ottomans invaded the apulia province in the south of italy. flavia is a dare, disobedient and free-spirited girl who was forcibly tonsured as a nun by her abusive father, the local big boss. the otranto convent where she's "imprisoned" in fact, is known for its extremely strict discipline however actually it's the true sink of iniquity, the most heinous depravity as well as various barbarity and violence, sexual and not only where holy fathers, priests, and monks (i don't remember what they do there), with a vengeance revel in bullying and torments of nuns and laic women.

flavia rebels against this male power of the devotee torturers, tries to fight it, then escapes from the convent but unsuccessfully and gets severe punishment afterward. surely she's destined to perish here one way or another. no wonder that when the muslim (ottoman?) army invades the rebellious girl throws off her nun's cap, renounces christianity (so, the heroine is apostate or renegade in fact, not heretic), joins the invaders, and together with them starts to take revenge on her former co-religionists, fellow citizens, father etc: actually she dreams of destroying this native but hostile to her world and now should "launch rivers of blood" (according to the movie's slogan).

besides flavia falls into mad dark passion (or lust?) to the muslim general minded to take her into his harem but sees soon that he's also just a brutal male, and eventually refuses to obey him too, so when invaders sail from apulia with plundered treasures and lots of enslaved christians, their leader leaves flavia and abandons her alone on the shore: beaten out, devastated, exhausted, the doomed renegade girl lays stretched out naked on the cold beach boulders, along which she will go barefoot towards the cruel torture and terrible death...

In final, her execution - skinning alive - is shown at the highest degree sparingly unlike all previous episodes of the atrocities, blasphemy and lechery, without those expressive graphic bloody details (splendid, really!) that we've seen recently in the french "martyrs". despite such minimalism, however, this is one of the most tremendous, suggestive, rich eros & tanatos, and simply arousing torture scenes in the world cinema, since the heroine's painful agony was skillfully identified here with her sadomasochistic sexual intercourse. flavia is fucking by herself literally, suffering and pleasuring at the same time while anticipating and enduring her agonizing execution: a long prelude to the sounds of drumming: the procession of priests and executioners with the victim in white sanbenito at the head is slowly climbing the hill of death along a kind of apostate's "via dolorosa" - shackled bare dirty feet on sharp road gravel is replaced the desperate look of defiant eyes - tormented face is demonstrating the signs of a twilight altered state of consciousness, a sort of subspace - a keen looking forward to forthcoming pain and pleasure is mixed with a vague memory of past pleasures and pains - a flap of skin heavily peeled off from a leg is stripping the trembling flayed flesh - the painful groan of anguish and voluptuousness turning into the shrill cry filled of pain-and-passion is melting into the boundless sky...

in my next post, i'll re-post the excellent web comment from an unknown to me person. guess his (or rather her) text describes the movie much more complete and deep than my note.
 
Biscoito writes (https://letterboxd.com/biscoito18/film/flavia-the-heretic):

"Flavia, the Heretic" goes far beyond the typical conflicts of nunsploitation. Demonic possession is rarely mentioned and although the effects of sexual repression are still important, they stay in the background. The desire for independence and freedom is what moves the protagonist and takes her on a brutal journey that will destroy the lives of everyone around her.

Since she was a child, Flavia has been condemned to a life of seclusion and servitude in a Catholic convent under the command of her father, a religious leader who uses faith to control the entire village.

The only man who showed her kindness, even if only through a smile, was a wounded Muslim soldier before he was beheaded by her father. Since then, she has been daydreaming about her Muslim savior and longing for an escape, for a different world where she is worth as much as a man.

Driven by an older nun, equally enraged by a life of servitude to men, Flavia bets everything and everyone on her only chance to be free.
Unfortunately for her, in medieval Italy, where torture and rape make for a boring Tuesday, sacrifices do not guarantee a happy ending.

One of the most interesting aspects is that Flavia isn't treated as a saint or a hero. She's just a poor soul who was tortured until she became a monster. Her revenge is instinctive and as depraved as the punishments her father gave to disobedient nuns.

When we see the diabolical result of her actions, the only thing we can feel is pity for the dead and for her. It's just the old cycle of violence that never stops spinning. Having a noble motive in mind doesn't save you from punishment for the atrocities committed in pursuit of it.

From vicious punishments that would make Pinhead jealous to graphic scenes of rape, castration and violation of sacred images, "Flavia, the Heretic" has some of the most shocking and audacious scenes I've ever seen in a nunsploitation. Really extreme content that would never be filmed these days.

Finally, I can't finish without talking about the big star of the movie.

Florinda Bolkan, a Brazilian star who deserves much more recognition for her glorious career in Italian horror cinema, commands the story with absurd scene control. Her furious eyes radiate intensely the different nuances of such a complex character. She constantly transitions between anger and curiosity until she's overcome by disappointment and finally apathetic acceptance.
Isn't that the path we all follow in life?

Starring the muse Florinda Bolkan and filmed in the beautiful Italian city of Trani, "Flavia, the Heretic" is a brutal and audacious nunsploitation that involves its characters in several layers of conflicts and inspires the audience to reflect on universal themes that are still relevant today.
Click to expand...
 
nsur1 said:
I've just checked my offline files, and I do have a copy of Flavia The Heretic. Can't remember whether it was the Wipfilms version or from a different source, but the video quality is very good for a 1974 film so I would think it's a DVD remaster. Here is the final execution scene by flaying.

View attachment 1215185
Click to expand...
It seems to be their first flaying XD. Normally, you start at the neck:
2022-08-05 10_06_37-Window.png
 
Ovid said:
It seems to be their first flaying XD. Normally, you start at the neck:
View attachment 1215386
Click to expand...
Wow that is so fucking hot! :p

Crucified slut said:
Unfortunately you only see a small part of the flaying however given how rare flaying clips not just in mainstream films buy in general, I'll take whatever I can get.
Click to expand...
I guess that recreating a full flaying on film would be a really complex technical exercise, especially back in 1974, although not impossible - but certainly way beyond the budget of the average exploitation film...

I did think it a little strange that they started at her ankles though - I always thought starting with the back would have made more sense, but again that might come down to budget again. I'd be interested to know if there was ever a standardised historical method, or would it have been different in each case, perhaps dependent on the whim of the executioner?
 
Just found a cover image for the Shameless Entertainment DVD release;

flavia-the-heretic-3-dv.jpeg

The tagline really cracked me up so I just had to post it here :D
 
Crucified slut said:
Unfortunately you only see a small part of the flaying however given how rare flaying clips not just in mainstream films buy in general, I'll take whatever I can get.
Click to expand...
About flaying alive, here are a few vidcaps from Pascal Laugier's movie "Les Martyrs" (the original, not the Goetz brothers' remake).
The movie was quite "gory". But rather nebulous and did not leave me with an unforgettable memory.

LesMartyrs00.jpgLesMartyrs01.jpgLesMartyrs03.jpgLesMartyrs04.jpgLesMartyrs05.jpgLesMartyrs06.jpgLesMartyrs07.jpgLesMartyrs08.jpg
 
ducon007 said:
About flaying alive, here are a few vidcaps from Pascal Laugier's movie "Les Martyrs" (the original, not the Goetz brothers' remake).
The movie was quite "gory". But rather nebulous and did not leave me with an unforgettable memory.

View attachment 1215860View attachment 1215861View attachment 1215862View attachment 1215863View attachment 1215864View attachment 1215865View attachment 1215866View attachment 1215867
Click to expand...
Yeah that's the only other flaying scene I know
 
Thomas Chaser said:
Amazon has the Unrated version which is the version with the most gore. It's a pretty good homage to "Hostel", with a dig at religion.
Click to expand...
It's easy to find on the...ahem..."usual sources", but to be honest I was disappointed. For one thing, the flaying scene was a total let down - OK you see the girl being turned over and her expression as the knife bites, but then it cuts to when she's been completely skinned, which is fine, but it would have been cool to see a bit of the process too, but maybe the budget didn't stretch to this as it's not going to be a cheap effect to pull off in a semi-realistic manner.

Incidentally, one other film I saw years ago which did have a somewhat related scene was Revelation (2001), a kind of religious conspiracy story with elements of Tomb Raider, Stigmata, National Treasure etc - Quite a good film IMO, though the critics didn't like it much (which is usually an instant mark of quality). In that movie, you don't see the actual flaying (at least not in the version I have on DVD - and in any case the victim is a guy anyway so whatever...) but you do get a brief glimpse of the skin hanging up in a pseudo-crux pose.

I thought it was a pretty good film to be honest, well worth checking out if you like religious conspiracy movies.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom