Nunsploitation films gained popularity in the 1970s. These are films in which nuns are abused. In these films, the abuse of nuns generally takes the form of sexual assault or violence. More distinct than "Nazisploitation" films and similar to "Women in Prison" films, the genre focuses directly on women. The abused women are isolated from society, just as in the other two genres. While this situation fuels hysterical emotions in the characters, in some films it also triggers lesbian tendencies among them. Inquisition trials, chastity, the transformation of cult objects into fetish tools, narcissism, masochism, sadism, and priests are indispensable elements of these films. What makes this significant for exploitation cinema is that the abused nuns are also cult figures themselves. All exploitation films feature a direct attack on cults; in nunsploitation films, this serves as the central backbone of the narrative. The cult has become the primary target of attack, embodied in the form of women. The abuse of nuns can be perpetrated either by ordinary characters or by other figures who themselves possess cult-like qualities. Although nunsploitation films contain some of the harshest criticisms of the Catholic Church ever made in cinema, their classification within the exploitation genre generally relegates them to the background.