Can a convent of drug-addicted nuns offer true redemption in a chaotic world?
In short: In Pedro Almodóvar’s 1983 black comedy Dark Habits, a cabaret singer fleeing a murder investigation finds sanctuary in a crumbling convent. The nuns, led by a drug-using Mother Superior, have abandoned traditional piety for idiosyncratic vices, creating a surreal exploration of faith, hypocrisy, and the desperate search for human connection.
Released in 1983, Dark Habits (Entre tinieblas) marked Pedro Almodóvar’s fourth feature film. The story centers on the Humiliated Redeemers, an order of nuns who have drifted away from God to focus on the miseries of fallen women. Within the convent walls, the sisters indulge in bizarre distractions: one nun hallucinates on LSD while cooking, another writes lurid novels under a pseudonym, and the Mother Superior struggles with drug addiction and a passionate, unrequited love for the singer Yolanda. Almodóvar uses these eccentricities to examine the anachronistic nature of institutional religion in contemporary Spain, framing the convent’s decline as a reflection of a world increasingly defined by hedonism and moral ambiguity.
The film’s production was originally commissioned by millionaire Hervé Hachuel to showcase his girlfriend, Cristina Sánchez Pascual. Almodóvar initially envisioned a story inspired by Marlene Dietrich’s adventures in the 1932 film Blonde Venus, but he pivoted to focus on the nuns after realizing the limitations of his lead actress. This shift allowed him to lean into a unique aesthetic blend of saturated primary colors and baroque, unsettling atmospheres. Drawing influences from Douglas Sirk’s melodramas and Hammer horror films, Almodóvar crafted a visual language where love and passion drive characters toward both wonderful and appalling extremes.
Upon its release, the film faced significant controversy. It was rejected by the Cannes Film Festival and labeled blasphemous by some organizers at the Venice Film Festival, where it premiered on 9 September 1983. Critics were sharply divided; some saw it as a scandalous attack on Christianity, while others hailed Almodóvar as a successor to Pier Paolo Pasolini. Despite the backlash, Almodóvar maintained that the film was not anti-religious. Instead, he argued that the nuns’ attempt to love sinners—and to become like them—represents a truer form of religion. By juxtaposing the sacred with the profane, such as using a handkerchief imprinted with Yolanda’s face as a surrogate for the Shroud of Turin, the film highlights the inherent corruption and incongruence of seeking existential purpose in a chaotic, secular society.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Dark Habits
- Also: Wikidata — Dark Habits · CC0
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