Mais ne nous délivrez pas du mal (1971)

Director:

Joël Séria

Writers:

Joël Séria (dialogue)
Joël Séria (scenario)

Release Date:

18 March 1972 (Japan)

Genre:

Drama | Horror

Tagline:

At First It Was Just a Game

Plot:

Anne and Lore, neighbors and best friends, barely into their teens, board at a convent school where they have taken a vow to sin and to serve Satan...

Plot Keywords:

Nun | Convent School | Murder | Blasphemy | Saphism

Cast

Jeanne Goupil	...	Anne
Catherine Wagener	...	Lore
Bernard Dhéran	...	L'automobiliste / Motorist
Gérard Darrieu	...	Émile
Marc Dudicourt	...	L'aumônier
Michel Robin	...	Léon
Véronique Silver	...	La comtesse / The Countess
Jean-Pierre Helbert	...	Le comte / The Count
Nicole Mérouze	...	Mme Fournier / Mrs. Fournier
Henri Poirier	...	Monsieur Fournier (as Henry Poirier)
Serge Frédéric	...	Le curé / Priest
René Berthier	...	Gustave
Frédéric Nort	...	Le facteur
Jean-Daniel Ehrmann	...	Le commissaire (as Jean Daniel Ehrmann)
Dominique Ney

Also Known As:

Don't Deliver Us from Evil (USA) (alternative transliteration) (USA) (DVD title)
But don't deliver us from Evil (Europe: English title) (literal title)

Runtime:

102 min | USA:110 min (DVD version)

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono | Mono (Dolby 2.0) (DVD version)

Certification:

France:-16 (re-rating) | France:(Banned) (original rating) | USA:Unrated (DVD rating)

Company:

Société Générale de Production

Goofs:

Continuity: During the Satanic Mass and the following Lake Scene, the two girls wear see-through dresses. During the Mass, one can easily notice that Lore is wearing black panties, but, during the Lake Scene, she evidently wears nothing under her dress.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Settling the Score (2006) (V)

Shocking and disturbing

This obscure French film, still unavailable in English, is a more fictionalized and much more exploitative version of the same real-life murder later covered in Peter Jackson's "Heavenly Creatures". The two girls in this movie, however, are decidedly less sympathetic than the heroines of the later movie and they commit not only murder, but every form of religious sacrilege, as well as some unforgivable cruelty to some birds belonging to a poor, retarded handyman. It is thus pretty hard to feel much sympathy toward them (even if I could understand most of what they were saying).

The two girls are also decidedly younger than their juicy counterparts in "Heavenly Creatures" and the scenes of them prancing around in their underwear or one of the nymphets deliberately enticing a much older man and nearly being raped TWICE make for some decidedly uncomfortable viewing. To the movie's credit these scenes are obviously intended to shock and disturb much more than titillate (and anyone who finds themselves being turned on by them probably has a lot bigger problems than this movie). The ending is very memorable and truly shocking. I would kind of like to watch this movie with English or Spanish subtitles, but I'm not really sure I could sit through it again.