The Delivered

A magnificent tale of a downtrodden wife and mother who is beat down by her bully, self-important husband who regularly beats both her and their little son for no reason other than he hates. He hates her, women, children who love their mother, the world, and himself.

It's terrible. Without spoiling too much the heroes of the film (who were meant to root for) are cultists who bully and end up sexually assaulting someone.

A feminist folk horror someone said.... LOL So feminism comes in the shape of some weird couple showing up and forcing a woman to have sex in front of her husband and son for no apparent reason really!

A labor of love for its writer and director Thomas Clay, who spent the better part of 10 years developing this 1600's set English period folk piece his first film since 2008's Soi Cowboy, Fanny Lye Deliver'd is an almost indescribable melting pot of drama, thriller and religiously tinged horror and while it doesn't all work, this unique piece of independent film-making is still worth your time.Introducing us to a post war era of rural England, where witch hunts, churches and religious zealots run rampant throughout the mud-filled lands of the English countryside, Deliver'd introduces us to odd couple John and Fanny, who alongside their young boy Arthur live out a quiet existence on their farmland (custom built for this film), with their faith dominating their lives, a faith tested by the arrival of Freddie Fox's Thomas and Tanya Reynolds Rebecca, a couple who couldn't be further from the Lye's in nature and desires.

I was ready to turn this movie off. It's a period piece.

I did enjoy it. I loved the atmosphere of the film and interested in the historical aspect of it through my Google search didn't give me much information for now.

In every way this was a hugely surprising and unassuming piece of simplistic cinema with a massive nod to the film noirs of old and Hammer Horror of the past. This is meant with the greatest of respect, as most often simple is best (think KISS) and past ways of cinematography is often over looked as tired and 'old fashioned'.

When the camera needs 30 seconds to pan across a front lawn showing a duck, you know that the film is screwed.

... have a tough time establishing a base to grow as they are mistaken for heretics in 17th century England by Monty Python's Spanish Inquisition disguised as puritanical nutters - undeliver'd!