Director Scott Derrickson can deliver a thriller, he’s proven that with films such as The Exorcism of Emily Rose and Sinister. I still think he’s waiting to put together something that truly works from start to finish such as how Sinister loses steam in its third act and Emily Rose has its down moments, but nevertheless, he knows how to keep an audience’s attention. With his new film, Deliver Us from Evil, he continues to show promise, though this may be his most bloated thriller yet as the film runs nearly two hours and the only purpose throughout seems to be to get to the film’s climax, which is undoubtedly excellent, but the rest could have been trimmed by almost 20-30 minutes, or at least more time could have been given for the film’s two leads to chew the scenery together.
Outside of the wonderful third act, one of the highlights here is Eric Bana as troubled New York police officer Ralph Sarchie who has something of a knack for sniffing out the bad guy, it’s something his partner (Joel McHale in an incredibly annoying performance) calls his “radar”. Ralph’s radar eventually finds the two detectives on a case involving a woman that tossed her young child into a ravine at the zoo and another where a man voluntarily drank paint thinner and killed himself.
On the other side of this coin is Edgar Ramirez as Mendoza, a priest with unusual proclivities as he has no problem sucking down cigarettes and putting back a double shot of whiskey and then some. One of the aforementioned cases Sarchie finds himself involved in aligns him with Mendoza as the crimes being investigated have more of a spiritual element than any police officer would ever suspect. Bloody visions, self mutilation, suicide and things that go bump in the night make up the bulk of this picture as Mendoza and Ralph attempt to find the demon tormenting the streets of New York and send him back to Hell.
While I’m no fan of Derrickson’s continued use of jump scares, as I always think that’s a rather cheap way of giving the audience a jolt rather than building legitimate fear, I almost welcomed such moments here. So much of the mid-section of this picture is centered on chatty moments between Ralph and Mendoza, Ralph and his partner or Ralph and his wife (Olivia Munn), and most of what is being said is rather redundant or dull, and don’t get me started on the supposed comic relief McHale is supposedly providing. Quite simply, McHale is annoying and unfunny outside of one — “He’s a bad influence” — line to the point I began praying for his immediate death.
However, whenever Bana and Ramirez are on screen, the movie is able to keep your attention and when they come together in the film’s third act it really begins to move. I also have to give proper credit to Sean Harris (Prometheus) who plays the film’s chief antagonist and is every bit as important to the film’s climactic scene as Bana and Ramirez. In this case, Harris is the equivalent of Jennifer Carpenter in Emily Rose, though he doesn’t get nearly as … bendy?
Technically, the film uses what is becoming a common staple in horror films as of late, which is selective lighting via flashlight as so much can be hidden from the audience and the herky-jerky movement of the light can reveal things in a flash. Derrickson also lathers on the film’s score, a bit too much for my taste, as sequences where he forgoes using Christopher Young‘s largely electronic score are far creepier.
Overall, Deliver Us from Evil is a film genre fans will find comfort in watching and a third act that delivers, but there are moments of tedium throughout. I really wish McHale’s character had been offed in the early going and the stuff dealing with Ralph’s family life could have been snipped by 50%. That being said, I can’t be too hard on this movie as I liked a lot of what it delivered, if only it had delivered it in a smaller dose.
