Don’t Deliver Us from Evil 1971

Anne de Boissy Jeanne Goupil and Lore Fournier Catherine Wagener are two adolescent girls at a Catholic boarding school, living near each other in the countryside. They are exclusive friends who read poems about the beauty of death and engage in malicious pranks and petty theft, convinced that the church is fatuous and that they are special and untouchable.

During the summer vacation, with Anne’s parents away on a long trip, the two girls spend much of their time together at Anne’s family château. They grow bolder, setting fire to a local farmer’s barn and letting his cows roam free as punishment for Lore’s assault. Anne also targets the mentally handicapped groundskeeper, Émile Gérard Darrieu, to frighten him by killing his caged bird and making him suffer. They steal hosts and vestments from the church and prepare an abandoned chapel for a Black Mass, marrying themselves to Satan and promising more wicked deeds in his name, sealing their bond by mingling their blood.

One night, a motorist runs out of fuel near the château. The girls invite him inside, offer him alcohol, and strip to their underclothes as they begin to entice him. When the man attempts to rape Lore, Anne intervenes and bludgeons him to death, after which the two dispose of the body in the lake. They are later questioned along with others about the missing man, but they refuse to reveal anything.

Back at school, a senior detective arrives to question them further, heightening their fear. Believing the detective suspects their crimes, they hatch a suicide pact, convinced they will descend into Hell and be rewarded by Satan for their service. At a school concert attended by all the parents, every performance earns loud applause, including Anne and Lore who recite a dark poem by Baudelaire. As the audience claps and cheers, the two douse themselves with petrol and set themselves alight.