Don't Deliver Us from Evil (1973)

"To sin has become our chief objective." - Anne

Two young Catholic girls rebel against their upbringing.
Starring: Jeanne Goupli, Catherine Wagener, Gerard Darrieu, Michel Robin, Bernard Dheran

Link to IMDB

Anne and Lore are two girls growing up in rural France, attending Catholic school and generally being bored with the lack of things to entertain them. The girls see the hypocrisy that all the adults around them practice, so they decide that rebelling against the church would be fun, and they make a pact to sin every chance they get.

The girls steal from the church, spit out their communion wafers, and use their burgeoning sexuality to tantalize men. They also delight in torturing a simple minded gardener named Leon. Anne and Lore even pray to Satan, and they trick Leon into helping them with their chicanery, but he seems clueless as to what's going on.

Anne and Lore

Leon

I was expecting the girl's sinning to start escalating, but it doesn't. They don't even really seem interested in being evil, and they don't have a clue on how Satanism actually works. They just want to rebel against the only thing they know, which is the banality of church life.

The story drags along at a snail's pace, with very little actually happening. The girls are just as much likely to ride their bikes for fun as they are to burn crops or flirt with older men. The "evil" here is usually very tame.
Eventually, near the very end of the movie, Anne and Lore do get into a serious predicament when their "sinning" goes too far, but by that time it felt like too little too late.

Having fun with Leon

Since this movie had been banned in France, I was expecting something shocking, extreme or outrageously Satanic to occur.... But nothing does. (Well, except for maybe the very last minute.)

The entire movie focuses on Lore and Anne being mischievous, not evil, but once I accepted that fact I did eventually come to enjoy what the movie was doing. It examines how the girls see the adult world as insincere and without passion, so they choose to live in their fantasies instead. And it is easy to get pulled into the sordid fun that the girls create around them.

I'm surprised that many people consider the movie to be shocking. It's incredibly tame compared to other films in similar genres, and it barely fits the criteria to be called an exploitation film.

I was disappointed with the lack of "evil" here that the premise suggested, but it's still a decent little movie with a twisted sense of humour and two unconventionally provocative protagonists.


Does the movie deliver on the Don't...
4 out of 10
Although the girls revel in being bad, they don't do much that is truly evil.

Be sure not to miss:
- Anne's daydream of the priest ranting.
- The priest's excessive handkerchief usage.
- The actresses are actually 20, although they seem much younger.

Internet review:
"A viewing experience one will certainly not forget." - Witchfinder General

Should I watch it?
It's a big maybe.

Where can I find it?
Here on YouTube. (it's not actually that long though.)

Don't Deliver us from Evil gets...