Don't Deliver Us from Evil Review

Purportedly based on the same Parker-Hulme murder case that served as the basis of Peter Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures, Joël Séria’s Mais ne Nous Délivrez pas du Mal concerns itself with the friendship of two French schoolgirls who rebel against the nuns of their Catholic boarding school by smoking, reading pornography, and worshipping Satan.

As their crimes progress through tormenting the servants on to thievery, arson and murder, this pair of wicked lolitas nibble away at our sympathies, but can’t devour them completely. Of course, they end up going way too far.

Jeanne Groupil (who was actually 19 at the time) is amazing as the teen hellion Anne. Séria, in his first feature, spins a delicate but powerful thread of subtle challenge, giving his tale an air of inevitable doom much like an American film noir tale relocated to the placid French countryside. The ending is a shocker way beyond that of the source material. Another great discovery from the folks at Mondo Macabro.