Review by Nia Edwards-Behi
Deliver Us From Evil seems like the latest installment in the mainstream, 15-cert haunting/possession trend of horror films. Director Scott Derrickson previously brought us The Exorcism of Emily Rose and Sinister, and just as Emily Rose was as much a courtroom drama as it was a horror film, here Derrickson brings us a horror film wrapped in a cop movie.
Inspired by real-life characters, Deliver Us From Evil follows NYPD officer Ralph Sarchie (Eric Bana) as he investigates some of the city’s most violent crimes. His partner, Butler (Joel McHale) gleefully works with Sarchie, who he thinks has a ‘radar’ for the most interesting cases. When two separate cases seems to be linked, Sarchie meets the Jesuit priest Mendoza (Edgar Ramirez), and discovers that his radar might be more than just a joke his partner makes. While struggling to balance his life between his wife Jen (Olivia Munn) and daughter Christina (Lulu Wilson) and his work, Sarchie finds himself drawn into his most unusual and terrifying case to date.
Although the theatrical marketing of Deliver Us From Evil relied heavily on its ‘inspired by actual events’ strap line, the lightest amount of digging reveals that the film simply takes the character of Sarchie and makes up a new story for him. The priest Mendoza is an amalgamation of two Irish priests, and the apparently specific decision to have him be Hispanic rather than Irish is quite a welcome change. I’m not sure how well-known a figure Sarchie is (I wasn’t familiar with him), but I quite like that the case itself has been created especially for the film. There’s little room for cries of ‘it didn’t happen like that!’, as indeed, it didn’t happen at all.
Overall, I certainly enjoyed this blend of cop drama and possession horror. The film is around 20 minutes too long, though, and I could easily identify which scenes I would have cut: scenes of Sarchie’s family life, his wife and daughter at first feeling somewhat abandoned by the hardworking cop (though there’s a refreshing lack of nagging from Jen Sarchie, as tends to be the norm for depictions of such relationships), to then becoming intrinsically linked to the case keeping Sarchie away from them. Admittedly, maybe we’d care less about Sarchie without his family background, but in a film like this I’m not hugely bothered about in-depth characterisation – we’re on-side with Sarchie enough through his friendship with his partner Butler. In fact, Sarchie’s guilt about neglecting his wife and daughter might even have been better portrayed had we never seen them in the film. His focus is on the job, and it felt like the film needed to keep its focus there too.
The scenes in which some spooky things start happening in Sarchie’s own home, centred on his young daughter, are probably the most predictable of the whole film. I suppose the scares are really mostly generic throughout, but if you’re a sucker like me, they’ll actually work quite well in parts. Strangely, I find myself falling for these sorts of bumps in the night when I watch films like this at home than I do when I watch them in a cinema. However, if you’re more likely to roll your eyes at mainstream jumps and spooks, then you might find yourself rolling your eyes at quite a lot of the film.
The film’s performances are decent, if a little bland, but thankfully there’s quite a strong script to be found here. In particular, the cop banter is quite nicely done, without ever feeling too forced or false. Bana gets to shine through a little during some key scenes, and indeed the quiet, extended scenes of dialogue between him and Ramirez are some of the film’s best. Otherwise the film’s most notable performance probably comes from Sean Harris as Santino, with a suitably horrifying depiction of demonic possession. There are some really nice directorial flourishes from Derrickson, meaning that the film never felt too boring to me, even if I did feel it was somewhat long-winded. A scene in which Sarchie recalls a previous case in which he investigated a child murderer stands out in particular, as does a brief scene in which he listens to a recording of a demonic possession from Mendoza’s past. Alongside these flourishes there are some pleasingly grotesque moments, including a crucified pet and the final, crucial exorcism.
The weakest thing about the whole film, for me, was it’s godawfully generic ‘horror movie’ score, and I say that as someone who quite enjoys the work of Charlie Clouser. However, while a lot about Deliver Us From Evil is quite generic, there’s enough going on in the film that’s interesting enough to make it an enjoyable film nevertheless. It’s an easy and very entertaining watch, and a film I’d happily revisit again.
Deliver Us From Evil is out now on UK DVD and Blu-ray, from Sony.