Don't Deliver Us From Evil / Mais Ne Nous Delivrez du Mal (1971)
Dir: Joël Séria
Country: France
Language: French
Released on DVD by: Mondo Macabro

drama / horror / cult / lesbian interest / arthouse

Anyone who reads a word I've been typing up lately knows that Mondo Macabro films I've overlooked are now smack-dab-center in my radar. Silip-Daughters of Eve(which deserves more extensive coverage - its own thread) and Aswang-the Unearthing were my last two MM experiences of the past few days. They were extremely well done. So well done and unique, that I decided to finally seek and explore this baby, Don't Deliver Us From Evil, which was banned in its own country of origin due to the controversial content.

Two Catholic school girls(Anne - Jeanne Goupil and Lore - Catherine Wagener) have a wild, sick itch to scratch - a desire that is in constant occurrence. A life of sin is the only worth living. The duo practice sacrilege and devote their souls to Lucifer, himself. Non-comformists. Anarchists. Cravings for destruction of beauty. Anne seems to be the one who easily becomes bored, living out in the rural of France, as an only child(same as Lore). This boredom leads to an insatiable want to do evil and become evil. Lore more or less goes along with things and is very impressionable. It's more of her true love for Anne that helps her commit the acts that they do. Arson, murder, animal cruelty, defiling and making a mockery of "God," these girls know how to have fun. They also know they are cute as hell and use this to an advantage - 3 times Lore was nearly raped because of the teasing manners they presented themselves in. Yeah, this wasn't simply dressing provocatively, this was being undressed and using obscene gestures and stimulating words.

The acting is top notch. The realism is there. It is based on the true murder between those two gals, that took place in New Zealand. The Parker-Hulme murder. Peter Jackson also touched up on this matter in Heavenly Creatures, though DDUFE is more loosely based. Jackson took it to the extreme of... absurdity. I love the guy's past work, but the actresses were just a bit too much for my liking. The girls also had "charm," within Jackson's vision. There is nothing lovable about the wenches in DDUFE. They taunt the mentally-impaired. Set fire to OPP(Yeah, you know me). The finale to this demented time capsule is... just incredible.

Alucarda has been put next to DDUFE as a similar film. I sort of nod in agreement. Alucarda relied on surrealism, while the title at hand conveys the opposite. There is no excessive screaming from our lead ladies, either. Blasphemy agogo.

I'd suggest it be watched by those who enjoy a little shock in their arthouse. The girls are real cuties, too. Anne, the brunette is just an utterly lovely creature in my eyes.

Here's a fan-made video with snip-its of the movie. Don't watch if you want nothing ruined. Love the tune. Love the editing.

Feedback! -=yay=-  My making a thread wasn't all for naught. This movie was too cool, yes.

Sounds great to me. I'll give my thoughts once i've downloaded and viewed it in a couple of months.

Okay, watched it. And i'm early by one month! This is my first MM picture actually and it was an amazing first. Very beautifully shot with really nice music and lovely lead actresses with wicked hearts. This had one of the best endings i've ever seen. Wow, thankyou for this.

"They've gone mad! AAAARRGGHHH"

Super glad you enjoyed it. This movie did go out with a MFing BANG.

Mondo Macabro is all over the map. Nunsploitations. Pinku. Bollywood horror. The majority of what I've seen are exceptionally good. One that I can say for sure that was kinda lame was THE WARRIOR with Barry Prima. The guy annoys me. He can be watchable when dubbed over with plain ridiculous dialogue like in Ferocious Female Freedom Fighters. Loyd K's intro to FFFF is peeerty funny.



I visited MM's catalogue recently and noticed that Satanico Pandemonium is OOp and going for 60 bucks  I WANTED that. Anyways, I decided to view Watcher in the Attic today - a pinky delight.

This film is on my to buy list

Yeah SILIP is another one I want as well.

Well, I can see where the controversy emanated from, because these gals looked like they were 13. Running along the countryside, cockteasing everything with a...well...cock. Dangerously explicit at times. A few attempted rapes only made me feel that much dirtier for watching this (makes you question men in general when the rational thing to do with a 13 year old cockteaser is to violently rape her).
I found it curious when the girls were split-up the evil-doings were put into a much different perspective. They obviously felt shameful and remorseful for their actions, until they were brought back together to form some unconscionable monster. Once scene in particular, when the black-haired girl--recently separated from the blonde--goes out on her own to torment the groundskeeper again by murdering one of his birds. She had such a violent reaction to her action shortly thereafter, you couldn't help but feel sorry for how utterly lost she was in life. Says a lot about pack mentality, and how easy susceptible children are without reinforcement. All their carefree arrogance, and wicked nature simply didn't exist it seems without their anti-authoritarian bond. So, with all that in mind, I didn't detest the little brats. They were given some dimension, yeah? A brief side of their humanity was exposed.
And of course, all that just made the ending that much more spectacular. I've seen many a school-play in my life, and I would kill to be witness to such an event.