"Deliver Us" (2023)

by Joseph Perry and Mike Imboden

In our “The Good, the Bad, and the Verdict” film reviews, Joseph and Mike give their thoughts on a slice of cinema. For this installment, it’s Deliver Us from Lee Roy Kunz, Cru Ennis, and World’s Fair Pictures.

Synopsis

According to an ancient prophecy, a woman will give birth to identical twin boys; one the Messiah, the other the Antichrist. After a Russian nun claims to have immaculately conceived twins, the Vatican sends a priest to investigate. There he discovers a secret society, Vox Dei, that plans to kill the Nun and her children.

The Good

Joseph: Deliver Us offers atmosphere to spare, along with a different take on the “birth of the Antichrist” cinematic chestnut in that the devil reincarnate is born at the same time as the rebirth of Christ — but which is which? That’s the dilemma that the protagonists face, as well as the antagonists to a degree, with the mother who claims immaculate conception believing that both should be allowed to live to basically balance out the universe. Kunz and Ennis offer up plenty of both violent and sexually charged set pieces certain to raise the hackles of many a Catholic viewer, while others of the faith may find intriguing commentary on the current state of the religion. The film looks great, with splendid cinematography from Isaac Bauman, and the cast plays their roles of the conflicted, the relatively innocent, and the evil quite well.

Mike: There’ve been plenty of religious-based horror movies, and in particular the coming of the Antichrist (the stand-out, of course, being The Omen), but Lee Roy and Kane Kunz make things interesting with Deliver Us by giving us an immaculately conceived set of twins who are the Antichrist AND The Messiah and it’s this original spin that propels us forward as we dive into a conflicting battle of right, wrong, and the gray area in-between. There’s Father Fox who portrays these conflicting ideologies as he goes from a Catholic priest on the cusp of leaving the church, to pining for Sister Yulia which gives us the ultimate (?) sin of putting a desire to seek satisfaction ahead of God. On the other hand, there’s the secret society of the Vox Dei who want to avoid the end of the world but in order to do so must kill the newborn Messiah alongside the newborn Antichrist.

The Bad

Joseph: A problem with Deliver Us is that it seems to pack more ideas into its running time than 103 minutes including credits can handle. The secret society of Vox Dei feels a bit more like a plot device to introduce villains than a fully formed plot point — some more backstory would have helped here. Father Saul comes off as a rather generic evil priest, though Thomas Kretschmann does a solid job of keeping him this side of being a mustache-twirling bad guy. The mind control dealt out by the evil baby seems a tad on the far-fetched side.

Mike: For the most part, Deliver Us is a rather effective moody and atmospheric film, but it seems to move at an odd pace. There are times that seem like the characters are in no real rush to outrun their pursuers, and other moments that seem like too much time has passed for the amount of nothing that has played out. The script and plot are smart, but introducing the Vox Dei secret society seems like it should have been so much more than what we got. It’s like they wanted to do this grand amount of worldbuilding, but only had the time and budget to give us the equivalent of a Hollywood backlot facade. Instead of the mysterious Vox Dei and the prophecy of the ‘virgin [who] will give birth to Heaven and Hell’, we get a bit of a muddled and confusing presentation peppered with plenty of full frontal nudity that seems to serve as not much more than a shiny, distracting object (although Maria Vera Ratti is certainly a welcome distracting object).

The Verdict

Joseph: Although Deliver Us doesn’t quite reach the potential on offer, the film does serve up enough originality and plenty to ponder over that aficionados of religious horror and nunsploitation should find it a worthwhile watch.

Mike: I feel like this could have been much better than it was. While Deliver Us is by no means a bad movie, it does suffer from some pacing issues, a little self-important sounding dialogue, and too many missteps in worldbuilding with the not-fully-formed Vox Dei bad guys and too much time spent on drilling it into our heads that Father Fox is a flawed and imperfect man.

The film looks suitably cold and dark with some nice cinematography both inside the convent where Yulia lives, the wintry forest, and the bleak city streets, all of which adds to the overall feeling of conflicting beliefs that are on display.

Hesitantly recommended for fans of religious horror and stories of the birth of the Antichrist.

Deliver Us, from Magnet Releasing, is in theaters and on VOD on September 29th, 2023.

Deliver Us