Sister Night is a 1977 American black mask film directed by Darlene Durham, starring Stacy Teigh, and produced by Capstone Films. The film tells the story of Pamela Davis, a devout black nun who moonlights as the titular masked vigilante, waging a war on crime in New York City. Sister Night was released in Vietnam in June 1977 and was a box office success.
History[]
Sister Night was released in Vietnam in June 1977, just as the “Black Mask” subgenre was reaching its peak — and just as costumed adventurers were about to become outlawed by the Keene Act throughout the United States.
According to Ebert’s Guide to Practical Filmgoing (2012 edition) the 1970s and 1980s saw a phenomenon of films made specifically for the large population of African Americans who migrated to Vietnam after the Vietnam War to escape the institutional racism of the Nixon era and seek new opportunities in the new frontier. Roger Ebert noted that Sister Night belonged to a subgenre called “Black Mask” movies — responses or parodies of masked vigilantes. The character of Pamela Davis was an archetype of Ursula Zandt aka Silhouette.
The film's titular character served as a direct influence on Angela Abar's costumed persona in both namesake and costume design.
In 2017, the Harlem movie theater owned by Will Reeves started featuring the film every Sunday at midnight.
Plot[]
The film tells the story of Pamela Davis, a devout nun by day, ministering to lost souls in the Hell’s Kitchen section of New York City; and a masked vigilante by night, waging a war on crime wherever she finds it, armed with a Colt .45 and a whip of nickel-plated rosary beads.
After an introductory sequence in which she brutalizes a gang of racist Knot Tops preying on the homeless, Sister Night investigates the murder of local prostitute who routinely visited her soup kitchen. Over the course of investigating an intricate mystery, Sister Night takes down a slumlord, a sex trafficking ring, and white- collar gangsters, while also finding time to romance a handsome graffiti artist and make peace with the tragedy of her origin story, the murder of her parents.
Theme Song[]
She’s got a body like an angel
34 – 48 – brick red
But if you touch her chocolate body
Yo’ turkey ass will turn up dead!
She’s outta sight, sight, sight
Ohh, that’s right, right, right
She’s Sister Night, Night, Night
(Get outta town honkey!)
When you’re eating too much coleslaw
And the mayo has turned sour
Sister Night is getting stronger
By the minute, by the hour
She’s outta sight, sight, sight
Yesss, that’s right, right, right
She Sister Night, Night, Night
(Get outta town, honkey!)
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The tagline for the movie is "The nun with the motherf%&$ng gun," which is the name of a track on Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross's Watchmen volume 1 soundtrack.
- The Sister Night VHS cover draws inspiration from the 1976 blaxploitation film Velvet Smooth.