Review of Deliver Us from Evil (2014) by Tyler H — 21 Jul 2014

This movie is not original. It is also not really that scary, looking back. It doesn't help either that it delivers perhaps one too many jump-scares. But - and I can't believe I'm saying this - I enjoyed it.

I should start by saying that I've always been rather frightened of exorcisms. This may stem from my religious background and choice of belief in such occurrences. That said, most of the movies that are released today that deal with those types of events rarely ever follow through in horrific fashion.

The occasional exorcism film will come along, once in a good while, and sweep me away with its scariness (see: last year's brilliant "The Conjuring"), but for the most part the genre is a dead one.

Hence my expectations being rather low when walking into "Deliver Us From Evil," and hence my ultimately enjoying a rather mediocre film. The movie suffers quite a bit from 3 major flaws: 1.

The melodrama between Eric Bana and Olivia Munn. You have Eric Bana and Olivia Munn in your movie - don't use them for standard husband/wife mamby-pamby bickering... 2. The 10 or 15 jump-scares, as if director Derrickson is constantly trying to convince us that he's scary, when he doesn't need to.

.. And, 3. The two completely ridiculous hand-to-hand fights that occur in two parts of the film between one cop and one bad guy. When you have a gun, shoot the gun. Don't use a freaking knife. I don't care how bulked up Joel McHale got for the movie.

.. Those three points set aside, this is a solid horror picture. It's got two great charismatic male leads (Eric Bana and Edgar Ramirez) and it uses them to their full potential, even if they both have starred in better movies ("Chopper" and "Carlos," respectively).

Derrickson has always been known to genre-blend with his horror movies. "The Exorcism of Emily Rose" gave us half-courtroom drama, half-horror movie, and now with "Deliver" we get half-police procedural, half-exorcism film.

It's good, with some drawbacks. Would I recommend it? Perhaps I would.