Don't Deliver Us From Evil (1971)

Caution: Spoilers Galore

Shipped off to religious boarding school by parents who ignored them, budding young women Anne de Boissy (Jeanne Goupil) and Lore Fournier (Catherine Wagener) became the closest of friends. Each night while in the convent, they would secretly share Anne's bed to read steamy passages together underneath the sheets. They exploited every opportunity afforded them to do wrong. Things they liked to do for fun included breaking rules, mocking Christianity, torturing pets, composing dark literature, and leading men into temptation. Together, they were preparing a very special ceremony to renounce Christ, and commit their lives to doing evil.

"Lore and me get such pleasure when we do
something wrong. To sin has become our chief aim.
Let the other idiots live their lives doing good.
We shall dedicate our lives to Satan, our Lord and Master."

As one might expect, all Hell breaks loose when Anne's parents, the Count and Countess, go away for the summer, leaving Anne all alone in the chateau, but for a few servants. Satan's willing, young slaves use this time to engage in some of their favourite pastimes, like arson, and leading even more men into temptation.

The beautiful Lore uses her god-given attributes to drive unsuspecting gents into a state of mad lust. Ample servings of sleaze follow the girls through several uncomfortable encounters of coerced near-rape for the purposes of fulfilling their Satanic mantra. What truly shook the foundations of this particular viewer was the way in which the diabolical duo leaped from one dangerously evil venture to another with blatant disregard for even their own personal safety. Clearly, these young women were not merely playing at evil. They were ready to give their very lives for it.

Ultimately, their summer of reckless abandon catches up with them. Lore breaks down before her friend, admitting that she is afraid of being caught, imprisoned, and separated from Anne. The dark, exotic beauty reassures the delicate, sobbing blonde that they will never be parted.

"When this fleeting life is done,
we will be together forever."

Mais ne Nous Délivrez Pas du Mal (Don't Deliver Us from Evil) is a taut, sleazy horror drama from French writer/director Joël Séria, based loosely on the notoriously fatal friendship of Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme. The pair made shocking headlines in 1954 when they murdered Parker's mother after making plans to escape to the United States to work together in literature and film. Parker and Hulme's bizarre escapades were detailed in the Academy Award-winning Peter Jackson film Heavenly Creatures.

Although the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has yet to recognize Séria's efforts in re-telling the story with a Satanic twist, Don't Deliver Us from Evil is a certified cult cinema classic, brought back to life (with subtitles!) by the good folks at Mondo Macabro. Many thanks to Karswell for contributing this titillating title to the Killer Kittens library!

5/5 Kitty Skulls = Pick of the litter!

The Pig is Dead: Susan Atkins Expires at 60

Manson Family member and murderess Susan Denise Atkins (aka Sadie Mae Glutz) succumbed to brain cancer late Thursday, September 24, 2009. Denied her last chance at parole on September 2, Atkins had been incarcerated longer than any other female in the state of California at the time of her passing. Although Susan was originally sentenced to death, her sentence was commuted to life in prison when the United States Supreme Court temporarily outlawed capital punishment in the 1970's.

Sadie Mae Glutz claimed to have found redemption in Christianity. With the help of her husband, attorney James Whitehouse, Atkins recited religious verse at her September, 2009 parole hearing. In spite of her best efforts to appear remorseful, reformed, Atkins remained one of the world's most hated women. Appearing before a parole board in 2000, she stated: "I don't have to just make amends to the victims and families, I have to make amends to society. I sinned against God and everything this country stands for." Her last publicly-spoken words before her death: "My God is an amazing God."

Unfortunately, God must have been on vacation when Atkins and other Manson Family cronies brutally murdered actress Sharon Tate and her unborn son Paul Polanski, along with Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger, Voityck Frykowsky, Steven Parent, Leno LaBianca, Rosemary LaBianca, and Gary Hinman.

"I don't know how many times I stabbed (Tate),
and I don't know why I stabbed her.
She kept begging and pleading,
and begging and pleading,
and I got sick of listening to it, so I stabbed her."

Susan was born on May 7, 1948 in Los Angeles. The runaway teenager met Charles Manson while living in a commune in the Haight Ashbury district. Manson re-named her Sadie Mae Glutz, and helped deliver her baby after she became pregnant by one of the other "family" members. He named the child (a boy) Zezozose Zadfrack. To date, the child's whereabouts are unknown.

Since her incarceration, Atkins married twice: once to an eccentric Texas millionaire, and then to Whitehouse, who, in spite of his obvious mental issues, graduated from the ultra-prestigious Harvard Law School. Before Atkins died, Whitehouse served as one of her attorneys.

Rest in pieces, Susan (one of her legs was amputated for medical reasons -- did I forget to mention that?). I hope your brain cancer was delicious!

Susan Atkins with her husband at September, 2009 parole hearing

Brenda Ann Spencer: "The silicon chip inside her head gets switched to overload..."

Brenda Ann Spencer fired 36 rounds from a semi-automatic rifle through her bedroom window at a bustling schoolyard on January 29, 1979. Her shooting spree left two adults dead, and another nine people wounded (eight of them children). The rifle had been a Christmas present from her father, Wallace Spencer.

Amid the six and a half hour standoff, which eventually led to her arrest, she was asked what had compelled her to do such an unfathomably horrible thing. Young Brenda, only 16 years old at the time of the shootings, provided an equally horrifying response: "I don't like Mondays. This livens up the day."

Like many people my age, my first exposure to the life and crimes of Brenda Ann Spencer came courtesy of the highly popularized song by The Boomtown Rats. Singer/songwriter Bob Geldof had been in the midst of giving a radio interview when news of the tragedy came through on a Telex machine. Although the song has become a Monday morning radio classic across the globe, it is important to remember that it all began with a messed-up young woman, a telescopic rifle, and the haunting phrase which has since become ensconced in popular culture.

Today (August 13, 2009), Brenda Ann Spencer will sit before a roomful of legal officials as she has a number of times before, to request parole from the California Institution for Women, where she has been incarcerated for the last 3 decades.

While Brenda has, in recent years, provided a somewhat clearer explanation for her terrible crimes than her initial 'Mondays' claim, it doesn't look like this broad is getting out of the Big House any time in the near future. Still very clearly detatched from what she did on that frosty morning back in '79, she claims to remember very little about what transpired that day, and nothing at all about the actual shootings. "I don't remember, but I'm sure that I did it."

Update (08/13/09 @ 10:15 PM): Sorry, Brenda -- looks like you'll be eating fruit cocktail for at least another decade. Better luck next time.

• Channel 6 (San Diego, California): Parole Denied to Female School Shooter
  
  

The silicon chip inside her head
Gets switched to overload
And nobody’s gonna go to school today
She’s gonna make them stay at home
And daddy doesn’t understand it
He always said she was good as gold
And he can see no reasons
Cos there are no reasons
What reason do you need to be shown?

YouTube Links

Brenda Ann Spencer School Shootings Part 1
Brenda Ann Spencer School Shootings Part 2
Brenda Ann Spencer School Shootings Part 3
Brenda Ann Spencer School Shootings Part 4
Brenda Ann Spencer School Shootings Part 5

Karla (2006)

Caution: Spoilers Galore

This film, directed by Joel Bender, was released amid a considerable amount of opposition from the Canadian public, especially those who had been somehow touched by the brutal crimes of Paul Bernardo and his wife, Karla Homolka, either by relation, geography, or a profound sense of compassion for their young victims. Society in general seems to be comfortable enough with the idea of violent films, just so long as the facts and details don't "glorify" the real thing.

Karla was released nationwide, though it was not shown in the areas where the crimes had actually occurred, out of respect for the victims and their families. I can recall a fair amount of debate about whether or not it was appropriate to see a film (and thus support its creators financially) about such tragic, and unfortunately real events. I watched the movie out of sheer curiosity, having followed the story as many other Canadians did at the time; after all, it was a sensational case, and the media was eating it all up, in spite of a Canada-wide publication ban until legal proceedings had ceased.



The film opens with a narrated letter to Karla (Laura Prepon) from her psychiatrist, Dr. Arnold (Patrick Bauchau). Having served 8 years of her 12 year prison sentence for her part in the abduction and murder of Tina McCarthy and Kaitlyn Ross*, she will soon be eligible for parole, pending an extensive evaluation of her current mental state. Surrounded by the imposing atmosphere of the prison, the two make small talk as though they are old friends meeting over coffee. Karla informs her doctor that she has recently obtained her degree (in Psychology, from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario) via correspondence, and he commends her on this accomplishment before directing their conversation down darker avenues. He presents her with a photo album full of pictures of her ex-husband, Paul Bernardo (Misha Collins), and she begins to tell him how they came to fall in love.



Paul and Karla meet at a hotel bar while she is attending a pet care convention on behalf of the pet store she works for. Hours after they meet, she brings him up to her room for a night of wild sex, while their friends look on uncomfortably. Soon after that night, Karla brings him back to her parents house for even more sex, and produces a set of handcuffs for Paul to place on her.

"What if I were a rapist?" he asks her, after binding her arms and pushing her down on the bed. "That'd be cool," she replies, her voice a sultry whisper. The film ends with a white-washed, lazy zoom in on Karla's face. She is staring straight ahead, eyes blank, while her voice provides a narrative in which she bluntly states that she is not a psychopath.

If I didn't know anything about the actual case of Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka, I would probably say that this was a satisfactory movie. It was reasonably well-filmed, adequately-paced, and decently-acted. The material was violent, and at times even downright disturbing. The film definitely had a low-budget feel to it, like a made-for-TV movie, but in spite of that, I still found myself on the edge of my seat a number of times as I watched it. Also, I must admit that I was anxious to see what That 70's Girl would do with such a meaty role as that of Killer Karla.



While I must give credit to Laura Prepon for successfully swabbing her 70's show character from my brain while I was engaged in this picture, I don't think she was the right choice for this role. Physically speaking, Homolka and Prepon look nothing alike: Prepon being tall with an athletic build, while Homolka stood much shorter in stature and was by most accounts rather "diminuitive" looking. Homolka was also much more of a girly-girl than Prepon, who at times seems almost masculine to me, with her husky voice and deadpan delivery.

Moreover, both of the young women who played the victims of the gruesome twosome, Kristin Honey and Sarah Foret, outshone all the other players in this film by far. The two girls did an extremely good job making such utterly agonizing situations appear real enough for the viewer so as to gain their sympathy. Sarah Foret stood out a little further in her role, her star shining even more brightly, perhaps due in part to the fact that her character had more time with the Bernardo's on-screen, as well as in reality.



Misha Collins was acceptable in the role of Paul Bernardo. I had a hard time believing him as a serial rapist-slash-murderer, but that was part of Bernardo's thing in the first place: the fact that nobody could believe that such a "normal," even charming man could do such terrible things. He was the boy next door! Collins' role was clearly secondary to that of Ms. Prepon, and really didn't factor all that heavily into the overall feel of the film. The movie is named after Karla, after all.

Given that I do know a considerable amount about the case (due mostly to Stephen Williams' book Invisible Darkness), I found it absolutely appalling that the filmmakers decided to portray Homolka in the same manner in which the Canadian justice system had: as an unwilling participant in her husband's heinous crimes, after having been verbally, psychologically, and physically abused into submission. In spite of mountainous evidence to the contrary, Karla Homolka has been victimized as much in this film as in the courts and media. Clearly, I was very disappointed. Clearly, I was expecting a fresh (and perhaps more accurate) point of view.


2/5 Kitty Skulls = This movie should have been aborted in the first trimester.




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ENDNOTES
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* Substituted for the names of the teenage victims. The name of Karla's psychiatrist, Dr. Arnold has also been changed.