Review of Deliver Us from Evil (2014) by Dale G — 20 Aug 2014

Now those of us who are Catholics' like myself know that the Lord's prayer, for which this movie borrows it's title from - does go on a bit. The same can be said for this movie. Much like the prayer it starts off promisingly, gets a bit muddy in the middle and then goes on for an eternity.

The premise is an interesting one. Hard man catholic cop on the trail of a string of bizarre crimes, some of which seem to be linking to his own personal family problems. But of course he refuses to see this and when things get a bit, how shall we say Emily Rose-ish, he heavily rejects the claims that evil spirits are driving the minds of these horrible criminals. How about a born again rugged non stereotyped young Priest being thrown in the works? Hmm.

The theme of God VS Common sense could have been explored a little more though is reduced to a rather bland scene in a bar with the two men. The story kind of jumps from one scenario to another and at times you are left confused to the point of frustration. And not in an Inception kind of way. The Cop's family scenes are also a bit boring and the only purpose the kid seems to serve is to be scared by an owl who makes a ridiculously non scary howling noise that sounds more like a fart.

It's not all bad though. There are some eerie scenes set in a zoo, minimal chemistry between the cop and his sidekick and some of the gore is genuinely upsetting if you're into all that.

The final exorcism though goes into familiar territory. Once you've seen one frozen tongue flick you've seen them all. This is the worse part of the movie as it drags on and most of it is in Latin.

Verdict: Not the worst movie of it's genre, but then again not many of them are good at all. I wouldn't write home about it.