Let Us Prey premiered at the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival on 17 April 2014.

The Irish Film Board and Creative Scotland jointly produced the film. But lots of other companies were involved with the production. And just about every country had a different distributor. No one distributed it in the United States, as far as I know.

The title “Let Us Prey” is clever in the abstract. But it is a lousy title for this film. The Portuguese-language title is Aprisionados (Brazil) and Encarcerados. They both mean roughly “The Imprisoned.” That’s much better. The French-language title is Colère Divine (“Divine Wrath”), which isn’t great but is certainly much better than the English-language title.

It is one of my favorite horror and religious films. Pollyanna McIntosh plays Rachel, a new police officer working her first night. Liam Cunningham plays Six, a mysterious man held in jail on vagrancy charges. So there’s your Scottish-Irish connection!

Everyone else is just awful. It has the feel of Dante’s Inferno. And that makes sense. Six is actually Satan, come to town to collect souls. But he is not what modern Americans normally think of. Satan is more like he is in the Book of Job. He is the prosecutor.

But Let Us Prey does not stick to the Bible. The subtext is that Yahweh and Satan are having a disagreement. Yahweh is all about mercy. And Satan is all about justice. And given the characters in this film, we side strongly with Satan.

The overall story is that Satan is lonely, and he has found a woman he can love. The police station ends in a blaze of fire with all the bad people killed. But in that context, we get one of the most romantic endings to a film I’ve ever seen.

I cannot recommend this film highly enough. If you are a horror fan, you need to watch it. But remember what I said about the Inferno. It’s no more disturbing. But it’s also no less!

Other April 17th Anniversaries

Filmmakers:

• William Holden (1918-1981): Hollywood legend in movies such as Sunset Boulevard, The Wild Bunch, and Network.
• Olivia Hussey (1951-2024): Actor in, among others, Black Christmas.
• Roddy Piper (1954-2015): Actor in Hell Comes to Frogtown and They Live.
• Sean Bean (1959-): Great actor in countless films including Silent Hill.
• Jennifer Garner (1972-): Elektra in Marvel films.

Films:

• Things To Come (1936): Humans rebuild after a century of war; based on the novel by HG Wells.
• The Strange Case of Dr Rx (1942): Police search for a vigilante killer but it turns out to be a mad scientist.
• The Lady and the Monster (1944): A rich man’s dead brain controls people telepathically because why not.
• Gamera vs Barugon (1966): The flying turtle takes on a big lizard.
• Macabre (1980): A woman who accidentally killed her lover is out of the mental hospital and seems to be having an affair with the lover.
• The Watcher in the Woods (1980): An American family moves into an English manor and the two daughters discover an occult mystery; it stars Bette Davis.
• Caveman (1981): Silly caveman comedy starring Ringo Starr; also starring Dennis Quaidand Shelley Long.
• Delicatessen (1991): A landlord murders people and sells the meat to his tenants; directed by the men who brought you The City of Lost Children.
• Summer Camp Nightmare (1987): Campers revolt and take over the camp but things go wrong.
• Major League: Back to the Minors (1998): A washed up pitcher becomes the manager of a triple-A minor league team.
• Suicide Kings (1998): A group of upper-class young men kidnaps a mob boss to save a kidnapped friend; it stars Christopher Walken.
• Paulie (1998): A parrot searches for its original owner.
• Mind Morgue (2008): A writer struggles with visions from his latest book.
• The Morgue (2008): A small group of people get trapped in a morgue for the night; you’ll never guess the twist — unless you’ve watched more than a dozen horror films.
• Blood River (2009): A newlywed couple’s car breaks down and they walk to a ghost town where they meet a mysterious stranger.
• Unfriended (2015): Online friends are harassed by an account of a dead friend.

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Let Us Prey (2014) poster via Wikipedia under Fair Use.