DELIVER US FROM EVIL (Denmark 2009) ****
Directed by Ole Bornedal

DELIVER US FROM EVIL is writer/director Bornedal’s extremely scary film because the film deals with issues so real and close around us, that the dormant evil within us could emerge at the right (or wrong) moment.  In a small Danish town that suffers from Xenophobia (the fear or hatred for anything foreign), a Bosnian refugee Alain (Bojan Navojec) is framed for a hit-and-run with the angry mob out to lynch Johanne (Lasse Rimmer) and his family when Johanne decides to do the right thing and protect him till the police arrives.

The film begins in a bleak yet stunningly photographed landscape where a lone narrator delivers the story’s prologue, with a description of what is good and evil.  The debate of what evil is, is debated when Johanne’s wife explains to her children that there are no evil persons, just those who are sad as a result of the lack of being loved.  As much as this statement sounds right and just, director Bornedal slowly pulls the carpet under our feet by proving otherwise in a scene where she grabs a knife to stab the man who had just raped her.  The film has scenes reminiscent of Sam Peckinpah’s STRAW DOGS, with the violence taken one step further.

The film poses an important question: Should the wife stand behind her man even if he puts the entire family at death’s door while doing what is right?
Bornedal is unafraid to show the violence like women beating, killings, and more but he substantiates these with valid reasons.  Lars bets up his girlfriend’s lover because he wants to marry her and change his wife.  The killings result when the kindly religious major has been pushed past his limit that he takes matters into his won hands.

At 90 minutes, Bornedal moves his film at a fast pace.  At the start, he introduces all the story’s characters really quickly, requiring the audience to pay full attention.  He keeps the anticipation throughout resulting in a very compelling film.

Though the film has no happy ending resulting in a rather unpredictable one, Bornedal presents once again the narrator offering the epilogue which brings the film to a satisfying closure.  DELIVER US FROM EVIL is one of the best horror films not dealing with the supernatural, ghosts or zombies though the segment where the townsfolk attack Johanne’s house sure looks like a scene from a zombie movie.