The peaceful rural setting for this story does not give a clue about how bad things will turn out in the end. Johannes, a successful lawyer that has returned to his origins, is working on his house. He has help from a Bosnian refugee, Alain, a man whose past conceals the tragedy he has lived. Alain has come to Denmark looking for the peace he never got in in native land. Johannes' wife Pernille is seen early in the story trying to teach her two children to be accepting of other people that might not think like them.

Everything changes in the serene landscape as Lars, brother of Johannes, and a long distance truck driver, gets distracted on the road and hits Anna, a woman that is kindness personified. Lars panics after he finds the crushed body and decides to get it out of the road to erase his crime. Getting rid of the evidence is not easy. He decides to keep some of the bloody pamphlets that Anna was carrying when she was struck.

Lars, who is a drunkard, hangs out with guys that, like him, love womanizing and drinking. As Lars comes into town, he spots Alain, whom he despises because he considers an interloper in his country, aggravated by the fact the man is a Muslim. Lars sees in this man a scapegoat to cover up his crime. So, in pretending to be friendly to the immigrant, he plots how to peg the killing of Anna to Alain.

Ingvar, who employs Lars, decides to fire Lars for being late. Lars has planned to come to the town's fair with his buddies and create trouble for Alain. Getting Alain drunk, triggers a series of events in which Ingvar decides to go through the route traveled by the innocent Alain, where he discovers Anna's mangled body. Helped by Lars and his drinking partners, Ingvar decides to go after the Bosnian, who Johannes has taken home. What follows is a riot of monumental proportions because Johannes decides to stand against Ingvar and the rioters. When all is said and done, Johannes wants no more of the life style he wanted because he is disillusioned of the people he thought to be kind and welcoming.

"Deliver Us From Evil" is a sobering account where people's prejudice and xenophobia come into being from such unexpected sources that it is shocking. Director Ole Bornedal examines a quiet community where things are gentle in a tolerating Danish society like the small town in the story. Liquor and drugs are the instruments to kindle a mob when the news of the killing of a beloved lady, the wife of a pillar of that society. The indignity to have a foreigner in their midst that can do such an evil act, sparks the reaction, fueled by losers like Lars, and his idiotic pals.

Jens Anderson is the evil Lars, a man that shows no remorse in hiding a crime and fueling the temper of his gang to create trouble. Lasse Rimmer stands in contrast as Johannes the man that has made something out of himself. Lene Nystrom's Pernille strikes a right note, showing an affinity with the material. Mogens Pedersen and Pernille Vallentin make a valuable contribution. Dan Lautsen's cinematography enhances our enjoyment of the film, as well as the incidental musical score by Stefan Nilsson and Johan Liljedal.

"Deliver Us From Evil" is a Danish film written and directed by Ole Bornedal. The film is set in the Danish countryside, after a young father moves back to his hometown with his family, where circumstances soon follow that force him to defend his family, and the way they live their life as well. On the surface, this is a stylish thriller both beautiful and brutal, with events that bring to mind Sam Peckinpah's 1971 classic "Straw Dogs." However, "Deliver Us From Evil," maintains a certain tone that prevents it from reaching the same emotional and psychological impact of its predecessor.

Lars (Jens Andersen) and Johannes (Lasse Rimmer), are brothers with very little in common. Johannes is a high-powered lawyer with a beautiful wife and two children; Lars is a drunken truck driver who beats his girlfriend. Having returned to his hometown in the country, Johannes hopes for a less hectic, more genuine lifestyle. But trouble is underfoot when Lars runs over a woman with his truck. He sees only one-way out: put the blame on Alain (Bojan Navojec), a Bosnian refugee with impaired mental functions. Led by the dead woman's husband, a retired colonel whose son was killed in the Serbian theater, the town's population of angry drunks and bitter workingmen instantly jump at the chance to crucify the outsider, but Johannes stands in their way, motivated by his sense of amorality. Undeterred, the violent, drunken horde makes their way to Johannes' secluded house, where the family and Alain fear for their lives. The house is converted into a fortress, where the madness and siege begins.

An engaging, yet over determined setup, the movie does little to complicate. What few twists in the story that exist, don't add to much of anything shocking or memorable. Perhaps it's the saturated high contrast of the cinematography, that while absolutely stunning, it gives the film an artificial feel. The cast is of one-dimensional clichéd characters, who all play predictable roles. The strange choice for a narrator whose introduction of the story makes it seem like it's a family comedy, and not a gripping thriller that is about to unfold. The end result is a brutally violent climactic showdown that may be visceral and exciting, but lacks the grit or the emotional involvement that would have made this one a classic in its own right.