Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Lee Roy Kunz, Cru Ennis
Starring: Lee Roy Kunz, Maria Vera Ratti, Thomas Kretschmann, Alexander Siddig, Jaune Kimmel
I've always felt that if Hollywood decided to take another stab at
remaking The Omen (at time of writing,
a prequel
is on the way), the best approach might be to centre the story on the
Lee Remick character rather than Gregory Peck. In the original, Remick
is killed off before she knows the truth about her son, so we never get
to see how she might have reacted to the revelation that her little boy
is the Antichrist. We can buy gruff old Gregory Peck manning up and
offing his kid, but would a young mother be equally willing to do the
same? Or might she attempt to keep young Damien safe from those who know
his true nature, i.e. the Catholic church?
Perhaps Lee Roy Kunz has similar feelings, as
Deliver Us - which he stars in, co-directs with
Cru Ennis and co-writes with Kane Kunz – has a similar
setup. Here the Antichrist hasn't yet been born though. He's in the
belly of a pregnant nun, along with his twin brother, who happens to be
the Messiah.
It's the sort of premise that would have played gangbusters if it had
been brought to term by some mad Italian filmmaker in the 1970s. But we
live in the era of "elevated" horror, so what we get is a stodgy, dimly
lit snoozefest with an overly-complicated narrative that keeps the
viewer asking questions when they should be immersed in the
terror.
Kunz plays Father Fox (a name which sounds more befitting a puppet in a
Catholic kids' cartoon), a Russian based American priest who wants to
leave the church because he's fallen in love and impregnated an Estonian
woman, Laura (Jaune Kimmel). The church insists that he do one
last job before he quit, and so he's sent to a convent outside St.
Petersburg where a young nun, Sister Yulia (Maria Vera Ratti), is
pregnant with the aforementioned twins, the result of an apparent
immaculate conception.
Joined by Cardinal Russo (Alexander Siddig), Fox doesn't believe
Yulia's claims about the twins in her tummy but he comes to suspect
she's in grave danger. When a one-eyed Thomas Kretschmann shows
up as Father Saul, who is on a mission to abort the twins, Fox, Yulia
and Russo flee to Estonia, where they hide out in the remote home of
Laura's late grandfather.
It's from here that things start to get messy as it turns out that
Laura's granddad was a prophet whose attic is filled with paintings
predicting the very events Fox and friends are currently experiencing.
We're told the world is experiencing apocalyptic events, but the film
doesn't have the budget to visualise any of this so we just have to take
its word on that matter.
There are a few too many shocking moments that are revealed as
nightmares, which considerably lessens the stakes. By the final act,
when the shit really does hit the fan, the movie has cried wolf too many
times for us to heed its screams. There's a lot of schlock here, but
it's rarely fun. In lieu of any sort of brooding atmosphere we get a
monotonous score and a colour scheme that's so washed out you wonder why
the filmmakers didn't just opt for black and white.
The performances are equally monotone, save for Ratti, who adds an
ethereal quality to her portrayal of Sister Yulia and keeps us guessing
as to which side of the good/evil dynamic she's really on. As the mother
of a tot who may well destroy the world, Yulia is by far the most
interesting character here, but Kunz makes the mistake of centring his
movie on the played out figure of the priest in crisis. The film wraps
up at a point that hints at a more interesting narrative in a possible
sequel, but I'd struggle to sit through any more of this theological
tedium.
Deliver Us is on UK/ROI VOD
from February 19th.
