Deliver Us From Evil Film Review: warning, there are spoilers.  

If you are a healthy connoisseur of horror films and looking to a theater nearest you to indulge your love of all things scary this summer, one place you will not find it is in Eric Bana’s new film, Deliver us from Evil. 

More of a comedy than horror, I found myself distracted by the numerous panic ridden facial expressions of Bana, but I digress.  The film is about a faithless cop who encounters demons and possession while investigating a series of seemingly human acts of violence; a man beating his wife, a woman murdering her child, and an enigmatic painter to connect them all.  Sounds exciting, but it is not.   Officer Sarchie (Eric Bana) struggles to understand the folly of the human condition as much as he struggles to understand his new companion the Jesuit priest, father Mendoza (Edgar Ramirez).  An alcohol drinking, chain smoking, and even sexually active father that knows how to rap in Latin, Mendoza does the bare minimum to convince Sarchie of his destiny to exorcise demons. 

Again, sounds exciting, but it is not, and here’s why….

The plot is complicated by unfulfilled and unsatisfactory back stories of both the principal characters and the origin of the possession. The film begins with a group of marines at Iraq in 2010.  Upon discovering a cave with Babylonian runes written on the wall the possession takes hold of one marine, Santino (Sean Harris).  Most of the film then caters to telling rather than showing the audience what happened.  We learn from Father Mendoza that the runes open a door.  To what exactly is made unclear because we never see a doorway being opened nor do we see what could potentially escape if or when it does. The film, however, makes a reference to a door – more specifically, THE doors – the band.  Their song “people are strange” – a potential theme song for the damned, is a motif that I suppose is to lead us to the actual doors of hell, but nope it does not.  But, thanks for letting us know that people are strange.  I couldn’t have possibly figured that on my own.   

The doors aside, the film consists of officer Sarchie searching for the marines with sporadic confrontations with demon possessed “recruits” and a sixth sense his partner calls the radar; another plot device not fully explained.  The radar Sarchie has can confuse an audience.  Is it a psychic ability?  Is he cursed?  Is it a gift?  Is it hereditary?  What is the origin of this radar because it is the most interesting thing about this character; yet not exploring this mysterious radar leaves him dull and aloof. 

If the point of the film was for officer Sarchie to regain his lost faith by taking part of an exorcism it was completely lost within the superfluous dialogue.  In one scene we learn of Sarchie’s harbored resentment and violent outburst against a child molester –the very thing that caused his crisis of faith- yet, while we are expected to feel sympathetic for him because of his man pain, the scene is cold and dry.  The reveal of his past should have been more dramatic.  This is a film about possession, and the best way to connect to an audience in such cases is have the protagonist taunted by the demon itself.  Sure, this film is based on “real” events in a real person’s life, but there is an art to filmmaking.  Straightforward, realistic plot is for indie films not exorcisms.  Further, when the demon does taunt a character the target is not Sarchie, but father Mendoza.  While it was impressively acted by Sean Harris – and I wish he had more dialogue than Sarchie or Mendoza - the taunting scene is confusing and out of place. This is simply because I did not feel a connection to his character.  Like Sarchie’s past, Mendoza reduces his back story to a dialectic car scene, which does not help to digest his man pain to feel any sympathy for him.  Also, is this film about Officer Sarchie coming to terms with his faith or Father Mendoza because for a moment you forget who the main character is. 

I will give credit to certain directorial decisions within the film.  There were a few scenes that were structured well to create a sense of suspense and anticipation.  Drawing out the darkness for longer than expected can cause anxiety and induce a visceral reaction, but these moments were rare.

Overall, this film does very little to excite the devil in me; it was not bone chilling or eerie, and the climax was empty.  Officer Sarchie is a character arc who does not grow or change by the end of the film, and his denouncement of all things evil sounds forced.  If you can see this film on a student discount then go for it, otherwise it is wise to wait for it as a DVD rental.