Movie info via Rotten Tomatoes:
When a nun in a remote convent claims immaculate conception, the Vatican sends a team of priests to investigate, concerned about an ancient prophecy that a woman will give birth to twin boys: one the Messiah, the other the Anti-Christ.
Review:
I hate it when a halfway decent religious horror flick like Deliver Us goes “Shining,” I don’t mind the occasional helicopter shot that tracks a lone car through a forest road. But more than three in a movie is rather pretentious. The same with the homicidal axe man shattering the door to bits. The whole ending of Deliver Us is essentially that routine with a Lion King opening homage thrown in. And all those scenes in a horror film where the best kills and thrills turn out to be a dream, or using the proper proto horror religious term “visions.” Apparently there is no God in these films other than Stanley Kubrick.
Deliver Us manages to keep everything moderately interesting with its stale plot of immaculately conceived twins- one maybe Satan incarnate in a onesie and the other Jesus II in a swaddling cashmere lux blanky- a secret society of misguided priests (the bad one has a scarred over eye) whose sacred duty it is to determine which is which and either abort it (not successful) before it can be saved by a goody two shoe pair of a Cardinal teaming up with a priest of ancient dead languages (handy for reading old scrolls with large picto-graphs and lots of cryptic text, one of which looks like Klingon :). There are several assassination attempts, a few possessions, a half ass exorcism and a few scenes of a nun and priest getting it on, and then the priest getting it on with his lover and soon to be wife. Obviously there is a lot of confusion as to what is good and what is evil baby and morally wise, which is never fully resolved. The nun and priest decide to let the cursed-blessed pair fight it out in the future sequel.
Co-writer, co-director and star Lee Roy Kunz (the less famous “Delirium”) bathes his movie in gloom, gore, and lots of faux Kubrick and loony tune Christianity, and possibly some great” a fallen priest, a pregnant nun and a cardinal walk into a bar jokes. (Leave the best one you can think of in the comments, if you don’t mind.) I never seen a director who has a good gloom cast but a total inability to develop the cinema trinity of forward motion, pace and mounting suspense. Whenever some serious theology gets aroused there is a nude scene. Deliver Us is in no hurry to deliver everything and nothing.
Deliver Us gets a 3/5 or a B. It’s streaming on Hulu.
Credits:
Directed by
- Lee Roy Kunz
- Cru Ennis
Written by
- Lee Roy Kunz
- Kane Kunz
Produced by
- Cru Ennis
- Lee Roy Kunz
- Isaac Bauman
Starring
- Lee Roy Kunz
- Maria Vera Ratti
- Jaune Kimmel
Cinematography
Isaac Bauman
Edited by
Music by
Tóti Guðnason
Production
company
World’s Fair Pictures
Distributed by
Release date
- September 29, 2023(United States)
Running time
102 minutes[1]
Country
United States
Language
English
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