Movie Review Deliver Us From Evil (2014)

Some old and new tricks, grab your Crucifix!

Inspired by the actual accounts of ….other movies in this genre.

 

I like what they did with the title.

I shy away from reviewing horror movies, because, well, I don’t like them. While almost every movie genre has suffered the inevitable slide toward the most common denominator and whatever base interest puts butts in seats, horror seems to have taken the most serious hit. Even if something clever comes down the pipe, it is immediately followed by a million clones and bad, bad sequels. I saw Insidious I and II and thought it was pretty clever to create two movies that intertwine to tell one complete story. I thought the first was novel and the new Friday the 13th reboot was interesting.

 

Demonic possessions, exorcisms and anything spiritual in nature tend to sit with me longer since it plays to or better yet, prays to our primitive and instinctual fear of the supernatural. The Exorcist and Rosemary’s Baby gave my nightmares and it’s no accident those are classics. But now we live in an age where cell phones and social media are the new tools of the devil. We live in an era where the cat jumping out of the cupboard is the point. You wait for something shocking to happen and no longer feel dread. You don’t fear the situation, you wait for the next loud sound or surprise pop up.

 

Scott Derrickson directs and helps write a story based on the accounts of NYPD Sergeant Ralph Sarchie- played by Eric Bana. That adds to the level of credibility and should help immerse us in the world of…I don’t know…devil stuff happens. You almost can’t make a movie of this sort that doesn’t include all of the cliché aspects of exorcisms. The holy water weapon, the weird scrawling, the crucifix, the voice, the…okay you get it. So the movie needs to be well made with attention to detail and atmosphere or include interesting characters that we respond to. Unfortunately, Deliver Us From Evil isn’t big on any of that. Bana does a fine job playing the ‘non-believing, falling out of faith, God has failed me’ protagonist. We have the sinner-as-a-saint in Édgar Ramírez who plays the helpful priest Mendoza. A nod to Joel McHale for his fine turn as the wisecracking partner specialissssst Butler.

 

This movie lives for the jump scares which were quite effective and well placed and yes, they even were able to slide in two cats in the cupboard. Sadly, The ball was dropped in a few places. The trailer leads us to believe the daughter is the person in peril and that wasn’t so creepy-supposed to be creepy owl child’s toy was going to signify evil. Not really much going on there. What we have is a story with familiar characters, doing familiar things in a story that unfolds in…the expected way. Not bad by any means, but also nothing you haven’t scene before. If you can’t get enough of this stuff, then Deliver Us From Evil is a worthy flick. I’m not a movie critic, I’m just critiquing a movie.

 

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