Flavia the Heretic (Italian: Flavia, la monaca musulmana, lit. "Flavia, the Muslim nun") is a 1974 Italian-French nunsploitation film directed by Gianfranco Mingozzi.
Flavia, a young woman in the 13th century, is sent by her overbearing father to a strict nunnery in Portugal. After witnessing the unjust practices inside the convent as well as questioning her own faith, Flavia escapes from the nunnery, but is soon recaptured by the primarily male Church leaders. She is then subjected to torture, rape and whippings by the Church leaders, as punishment for her defiance. Battered and beaten, Flavia then starts planning a violent mission of revenge against the Church and everyone in it. She soon finds herself in a position of freedom and ultimate power, and with a Muslim army in tow, she leads her warriors back to the convent to castrate, rape, and kill all in their path.
Tropes:
- Antagonistic Offspring: After destroying the convent, Flavia leads the Muslims to sack her father's castle and kill him.
- Aristocrats Are Evil: The first act of the new duke when he arrives from France is to rape one of the farm girls in the pigsty.
- Battering Ram: The Muslim warriors leads to attack the convent use a battering ram to smash down the doors.
- Breast Attack: During her Cold-Blooded Torture, Sister Livia has her nipples cut off.
- Chemically-Induced Insanity: After capturing the convent, Flavia feeds the nuns a potion made by the Muslim herbalist to drive them into a Bacchanalian frenzy.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: When Sister Livia is condemned, she is given to Flavia's father to be tortured to death.
- Flaying Alive: After being captured by the Christians at the of the film, Flavia is punished as a runaway nun by being skinned alive.
- Force Feeding: After capturing the convent, Flavia feeds the nuns a potion made by the Muslim herbalist to drive them into a Bacchanalian frenzy. The Mother Superior spits it out, so the warriors force her mouth open so Flavia can pour it down her throat.
- Hanging Around: The morning after Flavia's attack on the convent, one of the nuns is found hanged from the bell rope.
- Hemo Erotic: Flavia and Ahmed have sex in the convent after they capture it. Ahmed lights a brazier that produces narcotic smoke. After inhaling the smoke, Flavia sees the picture of St. George on the wall start to bleed. The blood runs down the wall and pools on Ahmed's back. Flavia ecstatically drinks it off his back before they have sex again.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: When Sister Agatha mocks him, the duke hurls his lance at her and she is impaled upon it; the point emerging from her back.
- Karmic Rape: After capturing the duke, Flavia brings the girl he had raped to him so she can rape him as he had raped her. When this does not go as well as she had hoped, Flavia turns the duke over to two of the Muslim warriors who rape him before killing him.
- Locked Away in a Monastery: The nobleman father of Flavia beheads her lover and locks her away in a seaside convent.
- Misplaced Vegetation: The movie takes place in Italy circa 1400. At one moment Flavia and Abraham are on the beach eating roasted ears of corn.
- Naughty Nuns: Flavia feeds the nuns a potion that drives them into a Bacchanalian frenzy. They rip of heir clothes and have sex with their Muslim captors, each other and (possibly) a stallion.
- Nature Tinkling: Sister Agatha takes a perverse pleasure in hoisting up her habit and peeing on the ground.
- Off with His Head!: When he sees Abraham being hugged by Flavia, Ahmed charges toward them on his horse and beheads Abraham with a single swipe of his Sinister Scimitar.
- Protagonist Title: Flavia is the Villain Protagonist.
- Role Called: If you consider 'heretic' to be a job.
- Significant Haircut: Flavia has her long hair shorn short when he father sends her to be locked away in a convent.
- Spiteful Spit: When Flavia is being given A Taste of the Lash, she is told to beg her father's forgiveness. She instead spits in his direction.
- A Taste of the Lash: When Flavia is caught and returned to the convent, she is whipped for having had the audacity to run away.
- Villain Protagonist: Battered and beaten, Flavia then starts planning a violent mission of revenge against the Church and everyone in it. She soon finds herself in a position of freedom and ultimate power, and with a Muslim army in tow, she leads her warriors back to the convent to castrate, rape, and kill all in their path.
