Deliver Us From Evil English Movie
Making a horror film is tough business. A good horror film is such a rare occurrence that it has joined the ranks of unicorns and flying monkeys as a fable; it's existence is debatable. When you tell people that you saw a good horror movie, they look at you like there were horns sticking out of your forehead, or you have the cerebellum missing from your brain.
Having said that, it's been a good few years for horror films recently. We've had Insidious, the Evil Dead reboot, The Conjuring, The Cabin in The Woods and Sinister, along with a few other indie gems. My pick of the lot, Sinister, was directed by Scott Derrickson, coincidentally the director of Deliver Us From Evil.
What's more disappointing than a disappointing horror movie is a talented director being the person behind that movie. With Sinister, writer-director Derrickson showed signs of a mature storyteller, someone who had the patience to outwait and outsmart the audience. But everything that Sinister was, Deliver Us From Evil isn't: smart, novel, surprising and most of all, scary as hell.
Deliver Us is the "true story" of NYPD Sergeant Ralph Sarchie, an atheist who's beliefs are tested when he comes across multiple cases that are interconnected, the link being supernatural. He then teams up with cool, new-age priest/exorcist Mendoza to battle the demons, all the while trying to solve what the spirits really want.
Derrickson and his co-writer Paul Harris Boardman wrote this film with a backup plan in mind. Even if the horror aspect of it failed, they thought that the police procedural aspect of it would come to the rescue. But spectacularly, the police investigation works even worse for the movie, maybe because of the dreadful and absolutely senseless story. After all, you can't depict a good investigation if the incident being investigated is mind-numbingly boring and doesn't make a lick of sense. Add to that the unnecessary back-stories, ornamental family members and incredibly forced humor, and you already have a disaster.
But what concerns me even more about this movie, apart from the fact that the makers actually believe it is a true story, is that there isn't an ounce of originality to the scary sequences. They make you sag in your seats instead of making you jump out of them. The film resorts to more cheap tricks than your neighborhood Christmas carnival. It hits every single horror movie cliche known to mankind and then some.
So, there's the mandatory loud background music, doors and windows with a life of their own, stuffed toys staring at you with their dead eyes, possessed men and women speaking in Marathi, blood on the walls, twisted bodies, creepy-but-silly makeup, and the exorcism in the climax that you could always rely on to sour even the best of movies. They throw everything at you, from dead bodies and serial killers, to bugs and lions. Frankly, Life of Pi was more frightening (in a good way).
Deliver Us also boasts of one of the weakest cast performances in a horror film in recent times. Eric Bana, as Ralph, looks strained beyond his capabilities. He is unsure about the level of intensity to bring to different scenes. Edgar Ramirez is disastrous as Father Mendoza. Olivia Munn is present just for the sex appeal. Ghosts look and act like typical ghosts.
Deliver Us lacks the scares of Sinister, The Conjuring and Insidious. It lacks the self-awareness and tongue-in-cheek attitude of Evil Dead and The Cabin in the Woods. And it severely lacks the brilliant filmmaking of Eraserhead, my favorite horror film of all time. It would be a greater evil for you to watch Deliver Us From Evil when instead, you could be enjoying any of these other great films.
