A trio of hard-talking women manages to get a large number of drugs stolen and have no way of back paying the dealer in this flat exploitation film. Mads (Bella Thorne) also has an unhealthy obsession with Jesus Christ (who makes an appearance late in the proceedings in the form of Wacko Jacko’s daughter Paris Jackson – a casting that gave Habit a little bit of pre-release furore). So she suggests that they dress as nuns to collect some money on the street. Unfortunately, this doesn’t raise enough, and with the local crime lord Queenie (Josie Ho) on their tale, they end up holed up in a convent.
While the plot might sound familiar, there’s nothing in writer/director Janell Shirtcliff’s film that comes close to the success of Sister Act. It will even rank lower than the woeful Nuns on the Run. The problems start with the characters. There isn’t a likeable one here at all. Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale attempts to convince as a faded TV star but fails to make an impact. Shirtcliff has attempted to make a movie with the shock power of the likes of John Waters and the style of Quentin Tarantino and sadly comes up short on both counts. Likewise, the dialogue isn’t as edgy as the filmmakers believe it is, and the girls’ actions are nowhere near as outrageous as they try to be.
Perhaps Habit was made as an attempt at gaining a cult following, and it’s possible that could happen, but likely for all the wrong reasons. We can’t see many people wanting to sit through the film more than once, even though its running time is a lean 80 minutes. On the plus side, there’s an impressive decapitation, but it’s too little too late to save the picture.
Habit is available on digital outlets now.
