What if you ran into someone who revealed the exact perversion about you that you harbor at all costs, not to show anyone?
Ireland is the womb of Samhain, the pagan fire festival to usher in the long darkness when the harvest is nigh. Regrettably, most of the Western world has taken yet another sacred and ancient rite and turned it into a misbegotten moneymaking malice that ridicules the sanctity and dark power of what they now call Halloween. However, this does not mean that the old ways are not alive and well, still prevalent and strong here in the old country herself. Therefore, no better way to add to 31 Days of Hell than with a Celtic contribution to supernatural horror with gore effects that would please Leatherface!
Let Us Prey is a 2014 Scottish/ Irish nightmare courtesy of director Brian O’Malley, the same man who brought us the Irish Gothic hair-raiser, The Lodgers (2018) and it shows. He has a keen eye for atmosphere and sharing the cold, rawness of Ireland through his lens in The Lodgers, not only with settings, but with characters. Let Us Prey is a different beast to TheLodgers – and I use the term deliberately.
Rookie police officer Rachel (Pollyanna McIntosh) reports for her first shift at a police station in some insignificant Scottish town, but she has no idea that everyone she is about to meet are there for some Old Testament vengeance and judgement, even if they don’t know it. This is what makes the film intriguing. Writers Fiona Watson and David Cairns do a great job at fusing religious hypocrisy with common crime, giving Let Us Prey a remarkably well balanced delivery of moral ethics versus biblical sin.
The score is pleasantly electronic, plunging the film into a timeless void of Eighties vibes akin to John Carpenter and Wes Craven classics, but what kicks the film into gear is a stunning opening sequence of sinister imagery that showcases director O’Malley’s background in music videos.
Like all trips into utter chaos, Let Us Prey takes its time to unleash the devil (ahem), but boy, does it wreak havoc on the secrets of the rather unwilling participants. Although Miss McIntosh portrays the obligatory strong woman with flair and subtlety, Liam Cunningham (Game of Thrones, Dog Soldiers) steals the show with a Randall Flagg kind of charm that makes your flesh crawl once he gets going.
Once the pandemonium ensues, Let Us Prey openly enjoys its violence, retribution and mayhem with impressive and visceral death scenes and great make-up effects. The film perfectly fuses the supernatural element with gore and action, throwing in small morsels that remind you of anything from Hannibal to Constantine. Although the Christian barbwire Rambo scenes (you’ll see) are a bit over the top, even funny, it is entertaining to a fault and takes the film to an almost preposterous Mickey Knox stage.
True to most Irish horror films, it deals with the Phoenix effect of abuse victims that use the whips of their past suffering as weapons and it makes no apologies. Let Us Prey presents us with the question of where vengeance and justice blur their lines and it is unrepentant in admitting that not all good people choose to look away and forgive. It does not lie to spare your feelings and forces you to admit what you are, no matter how ugly your honesty. Let Us Prey reminds us that our actions result in giving the devil his due…and he is here to collect.
—Tasha Danzig