Father Javier is a man with a mission, and an addiction. His mission is to visit families with family members who are under some kind of spell. Javier does not believe that these incidents are nothing more than psychological or mental issues that can be corrected with the right prescription. Javier addresses his own issues with medication as well. Heroin. Heroin he keeps in a hollowed out crucifix.
Javier wakes up abruptly in a basement, his mentor Ramon at his side. Javier recalls to him a troubling pattern. Every family he visits disappears. All that is left behind are signs of extreme violence and a strange marking indented in the walls. Except this last time Javier woke up from his drug induced blackout to find three other priests in the apartment with him, performing a violent and ultimately deadly exorcism.
Was it a hallucination brought on by a bad trip? Was Javier imagining things? No. Those other priests are very real and very much tracking down demons and casting them out with little to no scruples, by any means necessary. They’re short one member and Javier has a specific skill that they need. Evil is breeding in the city and they have taken up the position of the offensive. As one of them says, “It's not about feeling fear. It's causing it.”
“I kick arse for the Lord!” Father McGruder
To date I’ve watched Pedro Cristiani’s ambitious horror film Deus Irae three times now. Last year after its world premiere I watched it a couple times for programming consideration for festivals I work with. Recently I took advantage of a screening at Morbido and I went once more into the fray, watching it again as a refresher. I can almost, confidently say that I thought I knew what was going on in it. So, with doubt lingering in my mind, I went to Cristiani directly and they more or less confirmed what took me a few tries to figure out on my own.
… the only way to crush Evil is by becoming something even worse. because demons are not morally perverse, they just follow their monstrous nature, their feeding cycle-- the problem is, following their nature also means using us [humans] as sustenance or incubators. Now, if we want to defend ourselves against such creatures, then we have to betray, to corrupt our very nature-- we have to become something more brutal than them. we have to become something worse. And those are the Deus Irae. They are the monster's monsters.
Who are the Deus Irae? We have our lead actor, Pablo Ragoni, as Father Javier, teetering between madness and acceptance as he learns more about the demonic underbelly of the city, and as he experiences the consequences of becoming a Deus Irae. Gastón Ricaud’s Father Marcos is the leader of the group and the prime example of what serving as the Deus Irae is and what it does to a person. We briefly see Agustin Rittano as Father Garbriel during Javier’s hallucinatory spell. When they return as the Confessor it is one of the centerpieces of the whole film, rife with imagery that remained stuck in my brain from those very first viewings last year. And we will fully admit that we sort of fell under Sabrina Macchi’s spell in this one, with a look reminiscent of Tilda Swinton if we’re to be so bold. There is a scene where she, as Sister Helena, rolls a cigarette from a page torn out from The Bible and we did not have an issue with it. We should have but damn if we didn’t want to take up smoking right there and then. We might just find religion again because of her. Helena’s commitment to the cause is intense.
On the production side, the artistry in Deus Irae is second to none with amazing iconography, creating images that linger in the brain long after. Cristiani told us, “... the purpose of the film was to use the powerful visual and mythological role that Christianity has in the LatinAmerican imaginary, and slowly pervert it”. Oh it does. It does. The best thing that can happen to Deus Irae is that the Church catches on to it, gets offended by what they see, then starts yapping about it.
The film earns top marks for production design and the visual effects are in camera as much as possible. Puppetry plays a key role in demon seed portrayal. Creature and makeup effects are fully practical. Cristiani would not confirm nor deny that no monsters were harmed in the making of this movie. And we have to tip our hats to Pablo Isola’s original music and scoring which drives into your brain like a sonic hammer.
As impressive as this all looks we do remind ourselves that it took us a trio of viewings to sort of catch on to what Cristiani wanted to say. Is that to its detriment? That’s subjective. Random jumps back and forth in time and into dreamscapes presented a challenge for us when watching it. We believe that may be part of what is leaving us behind as the narrative moves forward. The to and fro scenes and images, mixed with trying to keep up with the story via subtitles… maybe we’re just making excuses and we’re too dumb to follow what is going on here. The disorienting nature of the narrative reflects Javier’s own inability to grasp what they are experiencing. We felt the nightmarish, sensorial descent that Cristiani was planning on when making their movie.
… we follow the descent of Father Javier from his own point of view [that is why we use a non-linear narrative], as he experiences the consequences of becoming a Deus Irae. He starts losing his grip with reality, with his identity and even with his own sanity.
Then there is the ending. All we can say to this is that it is clear that Cristiani has more they want to say about the Deus Irae after this movie. It is how they ended this first movie that left us… Well, we were really enjoying the ride up to that point, is all we can say.
We feel that if you have ever been involved in the Church, any of the liturgical or orthodox denominations, especially the Catholic church that a lot of what you will see in Deus Irae is going to trigger a deeper response in you above a casual viewer who thinks that everything looks effing cool. For us, with our relationship to a faith community most of our lives, that was very much the case. It takes religious horror to levels of high artistry and imagery before dealing out punishing blows of violence and horror. Some of it is completely random and will not make sense, for the moment, we just have to trust that if Cristiani can continue to share their vision that this randomness will make sense down the line.
We’re glad to have revisited Deus Irae once again. We’re glad that for the most part we seem to have caught on to what Cristiani was doing here. It is a movie that despite its challenges is still super engaging and interesting to watch, and experience. It’s a bit of a mind fuck and has the potential upset the applecart held on to by those who like their faith to be something safe.