No Spoilers

I’m having some excellent luck finding new and interesting horror stories and movies lately. Deus Irae stands out to me for the full bevy of practical effects levied throughout the production. It’s actually a breath of fresh air to see these though obviously practical, but lovingly crafted abominations augmenting the horrors going on on-screen to take what would otherwise be a another scary story to that other level.

The nod to original The Thing is obvious when it plays out but that’s just the entree to the upcoming main courses.

Deus Irae is an Argentinian production. I watched it in Spanish with American subtitles and this is one of the few times where the translators were not lazy as the translations were spot on to what an American would understand. Many times phrases in foreign languages can be “lost in translation” or otherwise be unintelligible but that’s not the case with Deus Irae. Though I do not speak Spanish fluently I know enough to appreciate the care taken with the English translations.

Deus Irae is a fantastical production based on the eternal struggle of good and evil and in this case framed not only by Catholic idealisms, but also of Lovecraftian entities. When the name Azathoth was first brought up I thought I might have been confusing the name with something biblical, but as Deus Irae plays out, what we have here is the melding of Catholicism and Lovecraftian lore.

Now if you’ve read any of the horror articles I’ve put out in the past you’ll know I’m a sucker for horror which incorporates the Bible or ideals of Catholicism. Deus Irae puts a nice and refreshing twist on things with the Lovecraft inspired beasts. But calling them beasts is a misnomer. They were in fact the Gods of old. Could it be there are factions of Gods about the cosmos reeking random horror on sentient beings? Good Gods like, well God, who’s really a genocidal sycophant if the Bible is read correctly or do beings such as Venus and Cupid exist to spread their bounty upon men and women of all likes, whether they be on Earth or elsewhere? These are surely questions best left to the “experts” in these fields but I do appreciate the history and lore which bring us an indefatigable list of entertainment to help us through our own times, be they dark or otherwise.

One of the things I caught right away with Deus Irae was that it was produced in 2017. But it seems it didn’t get proper acknowledgement from the world at large till 2024, where it was nominated for some independent film award, as it rightly should have. I don’t think Argentina is a third world country but it’s surely not too far away from that history. Deus Irae alone has piqued my interest enough with this sole movie production that I will now go out and read some information about Argentina to push back some more walls of ignorance and use the internet for the thing it does best, making us all a little more “worldly”.

Father Javier belongs to a trio of excommunicated priests who hunt the possessed down to exorcise them under their own terms. But when the only way to crush Evil is by becoming something even worse, not even God is on our side. -IMDb Synopsis

Deus Irae was directed and written by Pedro Cristiani. Featuring Pablo Ragoni, Gaston Ricaud, and Sabrina Machhi. There’s some conflicting information I’ve gathered on the release date. I believe I’m correct when I mentioned above the movie was made in 2017 but IMDb and other sources put it’s release date as 2023 or 2024. I’m going to guess the later dates are when it was discovered and appreciated for the production it is but I may come back in a comment if I can nail down an actual release date. Running time is 1 hour and 25 minutes. IMDb gives it a rating of 5.5 out of 10. I give it a solid 7.5.