Movie Review: Deliver Us From Evil

My penchant for wanting to see horror movies gets tested time and again.  You’d think at some point here I would learn my lesson, but lucky for you, alas no, and I went to see this latest scary movie.  For some reason, I often feel like scary movies should come out when it’s cold out.  Like summer horror movies seem odd, unless they’re set in a summer setting.  Regardless, Eric Bana is easy on the eyes and that alone makes this movie passable.

There really isn’t much new to this story.  Though the story claims to be based on true events, little of it seems startling.  In essence, it almost flies in the face of the concept that reality is more frightening than fiction, because I’ve been more frightened by fiction (and my sister’s pants) than reality, sometimes.  This movie doesn’t even compel me to research how much of the story was Hollywood-ised vs. the original.  I do want to say that if any of those things were real, even one, then I sympathise and apologise to Sgt. Sarchie for any defamation of character or integrity.

Have you seen the Exorcist?  Okay, then you know what you’re getting into.  If you want to be surprised, then stop reading.  Basically, this movie is about a disbeliever (Bana), who starts experiencing crazy, unexplainable things and is brought back into the fold of Catholicism once he realises that only the power of Christ compels you.

What makes this movie so overdone is that there is nothing new to it.  The scares are just that, and I did cover my eyes every once in a while, but at the end of the movie, I didn’t feel scared and it didn’t stick with me.  The story actually unfolds in an interesting way, but the ending is so anticlimactic, sort of, that it makes the build-up seems like a waste.  I understand that endings are hard and based on true events, perhaps they didn’t want to make something out of thin air, but I felt like there were so many more questions besides what happened to the main police officer, especially when there were so many other loose ends.  This movie could have been better, more closed, but it wasn’t and that’s why I can’t actually recommend it.  With no other horror movies out, this might be your only option.  For $7 at AMC, it wasn’t a complete waste.