Deliver Us from Evil (2014)

Inspired by the actual accounts of a NYPD sergeant. Deliver us from Evil follows Sgt. Ralph Sarchie, played by Eric Bana. Sarchie is a actual person, as is his family in the film. Sarchie has a ability to tell when a something is about to turn bad, a talent that he claims to have in real life as well. His partner played by Joel McHale is a thrill seeker, and loves what he calls his partners "radar." They are on patrol when said radar goes off, and end up en route to a domestic disturbance. The husband seems off however, and it starts a trend in the movie. The next call they receive that night is about a women who tossed her child into the lions den at the zoo. When they find her she is clawing at the ground and incoherent. They get another call and the pattern continues. This movie is about trying to figure out what is going on with these people, and how it is all connected.

Eric Bana is established, chances are you know who he is and something he has been in. He does well in this role, and played it with some good emotion. His wife is played by Olivia Munn who you are also more then likely familiar with. She didn't seem to do much with the role however. Her emotions ranged from not caring, to slightly bothered. It felt like a misstep for her, and scenes with her felt lacking. Joel McHale was the surprising stand out for me. I can not remember his characters name, as I just referred to him as "Winger" for the duration of the film. If you are a fan of the show Community, you will enjoy Joel here. He has a similar style of humor, and plays his role as a more violent and aggressive Jeff Winger. He constantly made me laugh, and I can't think of a single time I did not enjoy having him on screen. My wife did have issues with some of his choices however. His desire to go into a knife fight instead of drawing his gun did seem odd for a cop, but it fit with the character he was portraying. This is a guy wearing a Red Sox hat while patrolling New York's crappiest neighborhoods after all. Edgar Ramirez played father Mendoza, a priest who smokes and drinks. He did well with the role, and was one of the more memorable characters we were given.

One thing that works so well for this movie, was the sound of it. The theater I was at had great surround sound, and at times I found myself checking my shoulders to see if the noise was truly coming from the movie. I could hear flies buzzing around me, hear the sounds of static and children's voices raising up along me. It brought me into the movie, and created a lot of the tension I felt while watching it.

The movie is a demon film, and as such there is a exorcism. The exorcism was actually the main reason I wanted to see this. Earlier this month the Pope decided to start practicing Exorcisms again within the Catholic faith. If that doesn't get you excited, we are vastly different types of people. So going into this film, based off of a Catholic who has taken part in exorcisms, I was really hoping they would nail that scene. Given the R rating, they could have done quite a bit more with it. However the exorcism was decently handled, and it seemed like a fresh take on it. They try to inject some comedy into it, which thankfully didn't detract as it was used very sparingly. It came across as a more exciting then horrifying scene though, which might have been the biggest fault of the movie.

The horror in this film is pretty non existent. It does have a few jump scares, but that is all it offers. It sets a very good tone, and has a creepy feeling to it. However it never crosses over from that into actual horror. It seems complacent in simply being tense, and resorting to jump scares as opposed to creating actual ones. I don't think that really works against it, as it tells a good story and does well with what it offers. So what if the movie didn't keep me up when I got home, it still entertained me. It did feel like it was building up to a big scene however. Something that would truly terrify, or at least unsettle the viewer. Instead we get a tamed exorcism as mentioned above.

Deliver Us from Evil is a movie that tries to show a more exaggerated side of a true events. I just wish they would have taken it a step further. Used the R rating to its full advantage, and made something that would actually frighten me. I scare easy, I hate horror because of it. A jump every now and then is not horror, it is simply lack luster. If you go into the movie expecting it to fit into the Horror Genre, you may be disappointed. I still enjoyed the film, but it was lacking in some areas.

As a side note, if you don't handle violence towards children well you may want to skip this movie. You do see a dead baby, and it is reference multiple times in the film. There is also a scene where a mother tries to kill her child who I would put around 6 or 7 years old.

Whats that, a half star? Yes I decided to finally add them. I noticed a few movies were receiving the same amount of stars, when one was vastly superior to the other. Trying to fit everything int a 3 star category didn't seem fair to some.



I have found one of those owl toys, for $400 sadly. Guess I will not be picking one up. Missed opportunity for marketing there.

Inspired by the actual accounts of a NYPD sergeant. That was the line they put on all the posters, and the line the film opened with. It sets a tone for us going into it, this movie is about real people who had to deal with real evil in their lives. However inspired by and based off of true events are different. After researching Sgt Ralph Sarchie I was a little let down. The idea for this movie comes from many cases he worked in his career. The main story for this movie is about a group of soldiers, and that case was not a real one. Sarchie did believe he could sense evil though, and did work on exorcisms. But most of the movie is indeed false. The only real high point to that knowledge, is the Marvin scene was not real.