Review of Deliver Us from Evil (2014) by Johnny T — 24 Oct 2014

It's a dark and grimy film, and while I think it's juggling a whole lot of cliches, there is something genuinely admirable about the way it tells this story and the way it handles the supernatural onscreen. It's a genre rollercoaster ride - templated, repetitive and unoriginal, full of ups and downs but nonetheless effective at the one job it's trying to do - make you jump and squeal. Writer-director Scott Derrickson knows his way around a fright flick; he's also behind the superior "Sinister" and "The Exorcism of Emily Rose." Although everything here works for the most part, there is also a definite lack of oomph as the movie pushes toward the inevitable climax. Though Derrickson offers some new twists on old tricks, and evokes a mood of menace with rainy streets, gloomy interiors, and the transformation of comforting everyday objects into something horrible, the story soon devolves into variations of many movies we have seen before. Derrickson does nothing interesting or new, but he does put all the pieces together in a workable fashion. The movie is never boring. The atmosphere is decidedly unsettling and a viewer will jump a few times. Even the acting is fairly solid. It might not be the scariest movie of the year but, thanks to a compelling look at evil in our world, Deliver Us From Evil is still very frightening. Still, the overall effect is sort of blah. You won't hate yourself for seeing it, but you won't remember it in a week, either.

VERDICT: "In The Zone" - [Mixed Reaction] These kinds of movies are usually movies that had some good things, but some bad things kept it from being amazing. This rating says buy an ex-rental or a cheap price of the DVD to own. If you consider cinema, ask for people's opinion on the film. (Films that are rated 2.5 or 3 stars).