And here I thought I had until October to have to sit through another horror movie. Oh well, let’s do this.
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“Deliver Us From Evil” is the latest in the recent “true story” horror trend, following a cop in New York City who finds himself in an investigation where he ends up battling his own demons as well as the true life demons of the people he’s chasing. It’s brought to us by director Scott Derrickson, who also directed the often underrated “Exorcism of Emily Rose”. A movie that showed that you can scares while at the same time treating the darker side of the spiritual realm with a respect to those who believe in that reality, choosing to focus on the story as much as the gory. Which is why it’s so surprising that this movie falls short on both those accounts.
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I mean there’s a semblance of a good movie here. The acting is better than most horror flicks, with Eric Bana and Olivia Munn doing good work as the cop and his wife. Plus I really loved Joel McHale, who despite the effort it’s going to take to break out of the snarky leading man role he seems type cast for, does some very fun work here as Bana’s partner. And I really loved the themes of forgiveness, humility, and redemption that pervade the story. But the best thing about it might just be final exorcism, which is as intense and well laid out as I’ve seen in a movie. It’s a self contained set piece that really feels well thought out and communicated so the audience always knows what’s going on. If only that same care had been taken with the rest of the movie.
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Unfortunately the lead up to that final scene falls into all the old horror movie tropes, slow pacing punctuated by useless jump scares, over the top gore, and some demonic histrionics that are so over the top they border on silly rather than scary. Plus the entire movie is so dark. Not just tonally, I mean literally. Every scene seems to be at night and is shot so we can barely even make out what is going on. It makes for a very confusing viewing experience and a reminder why you shouldn’t prioritize creepy over clarity. But the worst thing has to be the liberty they take in calling this a true story. Now, we all know that Hollywood does this, and I usually don’t mind that much. With movies like the aforementioned Emily Rose or The Conjuring you get a sense that at least there are a few true story points that provide a map. But if I’m reading the Ralph Sarchie interviews right, he’s the cop the story was based on by the way, basically the only similarity between this and his life is that he was a cop and has occasionally been involved in spiritual warfare on the side, and he never even mixed the two! I mean I’m a movie reviewer and have occasionally played basketball, but I don’t see anyone filming my “true story” as a hard nosed critic who goes into reffing games to pay the bills, but then becomes a breakout star when he starts making calls as if he were reviewing movies. Actually, I kind of like that. We could call it, “Play Under Review” the Aaron Dicer story. The point is to say this movie is based on a true story is like saying french fries are a vegetable, you aren’t fooling anyone.
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Overall, “Deliver Us From Evil” is a well acted horror flick with some great themes and an incredible final scene. But a confusing and dark start combined with the misleading story arc are enough for me to bring it down to a C+.
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