I’m a big fan of Peter Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures. I feel it’s one of the most overlooked films of the 90’s, and a turning point in Jackson’s career. After having seen it, I became really interested in the true-story behind it, one of two girls whose lives were so mundane and boring that they needed to create a fantasy world with one another to make it through the day, and would even resort to murder to keep their imagined world whole. So imagine my surprise as I was watching Joël Séria’s Don’t Deliver Us From Evil and noticing many similarities. A quick Google search confirmed that Don’t Deliver Us From Evil is indeed loosely based on the same story. That alone would make it a pretty scandalous film for 1971, but add in all of the anti-Christian sentiments and teenage temptresses and you have a film that would still ruffle many feathers today.

Best friends Anne and Lore attend school at a Catholic convent, but have become tired of the ways of the church. After discovering and reading forbidden texts in the attic of the convent, they become fascinated with the satanic side of religion. It all begins innocently enough, with them making up things to confess to the priest, stealing, and so on. Once their summer vacation begins however, they begin becoming more and more sinister, from taunting the locals with their bodies, setting fires, and killing animals. The worst though is yet to come…

It’s pretty easy to see how this film created an uproar in its native country of France, resulting in a banning of the film for some years upon its initial release. While not overtly sexual or violent, it features some scathing sentiment towards the Catholic Church. The two girls are completely enthralled with Satanism, and the actresses spout lines with impressive conviction. Séria isn’t afraid of including some much believed taboos about the church either, like lesbianism among nuns and a priest who appears to get sexually excited about such things when hearing about them. Another factor not helping the film in the eyes of the censors is that the actresses, while being 19 and 20 respectively at the time the film was made, look no older than 14 or 15, and seeing them playfully tempt men obviously much older than them in their bra and panties is as uncomfortable watch, and one that even today would surely send many viewers for the hills in outrage.

While this all sounds pretty exploitive, and it certainly is, the film overall is actually handled with shocking class, something I definitely didn’t expect. The film owes just as much to François Truffaut’s The 400 Blows as it does to the true-life crime it’s loosely based on. Much of the film feels like a coming-of-age story, one of two girls rebelling against what their parents have told them is proper, and playfully spouting off blasphemies. It’s only when they let things get too out of control do you see these girls, one of which you could argue is more of an innocent along for the ride due to her devotion to the other, in a more sinister light. And the film presents a much more challenging question than many of its ilk; what exactly drives these girls to act the way they do? There are no supernatural elements on display here, and the girls aren’t just plain evil; they show remorse for things that they’ve done more than once. Whether you chalk it up to boredom, inattentive parents, feeling pressured into Catholicism, or another factor altogether, its left wide open for interpretation.

Capped off with an ending that’s sure to leave many shocked and disturbed, Don’t Deliver Us From Evil is a film that should leave a lasting impression on anyone open enough to give it a chance. Partly a vehement condemnation of the church, while also being an artistically directed coming-of-age story with lurid exploitation elements, the film is one of the more unique entries in the “Satanic Cinema” genre. True cinephiles should find much to appreciate here.