Movie review 'Deliver Us From Evil': The film has shocking moments but little to back them up
If the film were left as a thriller, it would’ve worked so much better
Director: Scott Derrickson
Cast: Eric Bana, Édgar Ramírez, Olivia Munn, Sean Harris and Joel McHale
Rating: One and a half
‘Deliver Us From Evil’ opens with a battlefield in Iraq circa 2010, sparing not a minute to inform you that the violence is only indicative of the things to come. That said, once the film returns to the present, it only gets grimmer and darker. Literally. Before we go ahead, I have to voice my grouse over just how predictably the horror genre has been using darkness to depict, well, darkness. So much so that even places that one would expect to be well-lit, like a busy street in the afternoon or an office at peak hours, are rendered many shades darker, often pointlessly.
The story somehow manages to tie the Iraq war scene with the goings-on in Ralph Sarchie’s (Bana) life. Sarchie is a cop in New York, accustomed to some of the most brutal and bizarre crimes, therefore hardened by the cruelty and evil that humans can descend into. That he is inherently adept in unearthing and cracking some of the oddest acts of gruesome, inexplicable violence makes him quite the wizard of NY’s gore. Even that doesn’t prepare him for a series of strange instances — including a whacko woman in a zoo — that he and his work partner Butler (McHale) encounter. Upon further investigation, Sarchie realises after much coaxing that a priest Father Mendoza (Ramirez) he meets, who is treating that whacko zoo woman, would make for the ideal ally in first linking and then solving these strange happenings. Father Mendoza tries to make Sarchie see that these seemingly unrelated episodes are all linked in a paranormal world that shakes the cop’s own belief system and compels him to get to the root of his own faith before he can get the answers to the gore that seems to be spiralling out of control.
If the film were left as a thriller, it would’ve worked so much better. Bana plays a role that falls somewhere between his Avner Kaufman of Munich and Bruce Banner of Hulk. His efforts as a conflicted cop faced with one of the biggest mysteries he’s encountered is convincing to say the least. Olivia Munn (Sloan Sabbith of The Newsroom for those familiar with the TV show) as Jen Sarchie, Ralph’s wife is not half as entertaining or effective as herself in the television series.
Considering Jerry Bruckheimer has invested in this film, I was expecting another blockbuster-ish waste of money of tepid talent. Sadly it is the talent that is wasted in a film that has shocking moments but little to back them up once they’ve passed.