When a horror movie opens with “Inspired by the actual accounts of an NYPD sergeant”, It definitely makes you curious. I was too. So I jumped onto the opportunity to catch the screening of Deliver Us From Evil on a really short notice. When I reach the theatre and engage in a conversation with fellow critics about my expectations of said movie, I realised that I was part of a smaller sect that thought the movie wouldn't be a run-of-the-mill horror movie. Turns out, lowering my expectations worked pretty well for me
Deliver Us From Evil is the story of NYPD police officer Ralph “Heavy Hand” Sarchie and the series of supernatural events that turn his life upside down. Sarchie, played by Eric Bana (I thought this guy disappeared and then I remembered Lone Survivor and Star Trek), is a typical horror movie protagonist with a wife (Olivia Munn), and a daughter. He is a skeptic and spends most of his time on duty with his partner Butler, making his personal life a somewhat complicated issue. But then you ask “what makes this movie different?”. For me the highlights of the movie are: characters and direction. When I say characters I mean specifically Edgar Ramirez (Zero Dark Thirty) playing the unconventional alcoholic priest, Mendoza. It is the play between the believer and the skeptic, which is very temporal as opposed to extreme depiction of contrasting beliefs between the two (usually where the believer is foolishly hell bent on turning the skeptic and the skeptic is equally resilient). When it comes to execution of the story, which by itself is really straightforward, the movie is an attempt to blend elements of a thriller into a horror story. I was initially unaware that this movie was directed by Scott Derrickson, who has movies like Sinister and The Exorcism of Emily Rose to his credit. I guess it was more of an attempt to do something new with the genre, and I can say it wasn't all in vain.
So this movie isn't horror in its purest form. I would rather describe it as an amalgam of horror/thriller/drama. The horror element is not maintained completely consistently throughout the story and usually subtle if you disregard a few old school sudden in-your-face apparitions. In fact, with a run time of two hours the movie actually starts to slack at a few points. To an extent it can be blamed on the bits of the personal life of Sarchie. As much as I would love to see Olivia Munn on the screen, her role is hardly critical to the story, bringing shades of not so meaningful dramatics. The aspect of the movie that keeps it interesting though is to see the treatment of these supernatural cases from the perspective of a police officer, giving it a very cop-thriller feel. The movie revolves around Sarchie trying to find the common link between his recent cases and bring an end to the chaos caused by the supernatural events, thus maintaining a backdrop of horror but the treatment of a thriller. And to add to that, we have Ramirez play a “specialist” (somewhat John Constantine like) and Joel McHale (from Community) add a dash of humour as the “Red-Sox fan” parter of Sarchie.
Overall it is an interesting attempt and offers different experience if not a unique one. I would like to say that this isnt a bad movie and might be worth your time if you have lots to spare or if you are looking to spend the holiday weekend seeking some scares. If not, I’d suggest you wait for the DVD release.
Grade: B
So this movie isn't horror in its purest form. I would rather describe it as an amalgam of horror/thriller/drama. The horror element is not maintained completely consistently throughout the story and usually subtle if you disregard a few old school sudden in-your-face apparitions. In fact, with a run time of two hours the movie actually starts to slack at a few points. To an extent it can be blamed on the bits of the personal life of Sarchie. As much as I would love to see Olivia Munn on the screen, her role is hardly critical to the story, bringing shades of not so meaningful dramatics. The aspect of the movie that keeps it interesting though is to see the treatment of these supernatural cases from the perspective of a police officer, giving it a very cop-thriller feel. The movie revolves around Sarchie trying to find the common link between his recent cases and bring an end to the chaos caused by the supernatural events, thus maintaining a backdrop of horror but the treatment of a thriller. And to add to that, we have Ramirez play a “specialist” (somewhat John Constantine like) and Joel McHale (from Community) add a dash of humour as the “Red-Sox fan” parter of Sarchie.
Overall it is an interesting attempt and offers different experience if not a unique one. I would like to say that this isnt a bad movie and might be worth your time if you have lots to spare or if you are looking to spend the holiday weekend seeking some scares. If not, I’d suggest you wait for the DVD release.
Grade: B
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