"Nympha" DVD Review -- Written by Anthony Thurber

Nympha
Year: 2008
Director: Ivan Zuccon
Stars: Tiffany Shepis, Carolina De Cristofaro,
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Studio: MTI Home Video
Running Time: 104 Mins
Official Website: http://www.ivanzuccon.com/nympha.html



Nympha is a film that I’ve personally wanted to see, since reading a review for the film on the Gorehounds United blog late last year and seeing the film’s trailer online. The film looked very shocking. Well after watching this film, this film was indeed shocking.

Nympha is a young woman named Sarah (Tiffany Shepis), an American who travels to Italy to take her vows into the “New Order” Convent. Their rules are strict to the point that you could consider it torture. Her violent path is divided into four steps that she must hear, see, touch and talk to the lord. Suring this journey that she has embarked, she begins to be frightened with vision of a young woman (Carolina De Cristofaro), whose life was ruined by religious fanatic grandfather. He believed that he had direct communication with God, but in reality, he was insane. Now that the madness begins to haunt Sarah, as she will experience the torturous madness that lies within the walls of the Convent.

Nympha is a very dark and gothic supernatural horror film. Ivan Zuccon, who directed this film, does a great job with the overall production level of the film. The film comes off as creepy and intelligent supernatural film while avoiding all the cheesiness that low-budget supernatural horror films have. His direction was very dark and gothic, which is needed for a film like this. Zuccon does that by making the images and effects dark and shocking so that it generates effective scares. I liked how he also shot this film, as it added to the dark atmosphere that Zuccon is trying to project, especially with the film’s very erotic scene with actresses Tiffany Shepis and Carolina De Cristofaro. That scene all in itself adds to the film’s gothic tone, which makes this film successful. The film also has a very good score from Richard Band (brother of Full Moon Entertainment head, Charles Band), who did the scores for such classic horror films like Re-Animator and Puppet Master. His score for Nympha helped the dark and gothic tone that the film is going for.

Ivo Guzzarrini’s screenplay of the film was very haunting. The main reason for that is that tone of the film and his story is dark throughout. It helps generates scares and makes horrified of the film’s action. The screenplay also does a good job of developing the stories of Sarah and Nympfa. It makes you connect with each of the characters, as you see how they are alike in the situation that they were in. That makes you feel horrified of what’s happening to these characters, as they both innocent. His does a good job in the backstory of the sisterhood that Shepis’s character is trying to get in. Guzzarrini does that by exploring the sisterhood’s obsession with their religion, which made them terrifying.

But the thing about this film that was so great was its lead performances from both Tiffany Shepis and Carolina De Cristofaro. This is a film that shows how far Shepis has come in her acting ability from her first film appearance in Lloyd Kaufman’s Tromeo and Juliet. Her performance is what makes this film very good. She portrays this innocence that is needed for a role like this. Shepis also makes her character very scared and terrified of what’s happening to her. She hits all of her dramatic notes very well which helps makes you feel sorry for the character’s ordeal, as this is a very hard role to pull off, which Shepis pulls off very well. Not to be out here, the film also has another very good performance from little known actress Carolina De Cristfaro. She does a very good job bringing her character Nimfa to life, as she almost steals this film from Tiffany Shepis.

Nympha is a very dark chamber drama that provides great acting and some shocking scares.

Review Rating: 5 Stars

Dvd Extras:

Behind the Scenes
Bios
Photo Gallery
Deleted Scenes
Trailers