Deliver Us From Evil

Director Scott Derrickson seems to be drawn to horror. At least that's the genre that he fits best in. Both Sinister and The Exorcism of Emily Rose are the standout films of his directing career. Deliver Us From Evil is probably not his best foray into the genre so far, but has great performances and a well-executed script that he co-wrote with Paul Harris Boardman.

Eric Bana plays Ralph Sarchie, a tough cop working in New York's south Bronx. He gets pulled into a case which leads him to meet Mendoza (Edgar Ramirez), who believes the case is demonically related. This pushes Sarchie's beliefs to the limit.

This is based on the real life Sarchie's non-fiction book 'Beware the Night'. While I like to believe that what I'm watching can happen in the world in which a movie exists, I find it very hard to believe that these things (demonic possessions and the like) actually occur in real life, but I'm not going to get into that.

The scares in this movie are pretty straightforward. Anyone with common sense would know when they are coming and get ready for them. I will, however, award points to this seeming mash up of cop and possession movies. I do applaud the original approach to the exorcism scene, it takes place in a interrogation room.

Most of the performance are really good. Eric Bana is a really subtle actor and felt believable in this role. I really felt as though the relationship between him and his daughter was genuine. Edgar Ramirez could have easily gone over the top playing a priest who performs exorcisms, but he was quite restrained.

Joel McHale is fantastic but slightly too generic as Sarchie's fast talking partner. Sure he has skills with knife, but when you fall into the same sidekick cliche maybe this isn't the role for you. Olivia Munn just floats around in the background looking good, but not really contributing anything.

Verdict: Cool story and idea, but not much too many good scares. A decent cast does lift it up.