Deliver Us from Banal

Director Scott Derrickson  ('The Exorcism of Emily Rose' and 'Sinister') and producer Jerry Bruckheimer attempt to reinvigorate demonic possession movies with the rather tepid and predictable ‘Deliver Us from Evil.’  The film is inspired by, as opposed to ‘based on’ the real life accounts of self-proclaimed NYPD paranormal detective Ralph Sarchie in his 2001 book ‘Beware the Night,’ which usually means in Hollywood-speak that the screenwriters took so much liberties to 'spice up' the story that it probably retained little of its source material. 
 

‘Deliver Us from Evil’ stars Eric Bana as detective sergeant Ralph Sarchie, who’s drawn into the realm of the paranormal when he investigates a series of strange and satanic acts perpetrated by a former Marine named Santino who was possessed by an evil spirit while clearing a cavern in Afghanistan.  A detective with a ‘gaydar’ or sixth sense for the supernatural, he’s joined by a young Spanish priest named Mendoza (Edgar Ramirez) who specializes in such phenomena but indulges in decidedly un-priestly vices such as smoking and drinking, not to mention he confessed to knocking up a woman whom he exorcised previously and hence broke his vows of celibacy.  Although the movie tries to humanize Ralph and Mendoza by giving them inner demons (no pun intended) to wrestle with and portraying them as flawed characters tested by faith, it failed miserably in avoiding the usual tropes we see in such movies.  Moreover, everything in the movie was been-there-done-that predictable, whether it’s the death of Sarchie’s too-hip detective partner Butler (Joel McHale of ‘Community’) because his considerable knife fighting skills is not quite up to snuff against the demonically possessed, the movie’s inevitable happy ending when Sarchie rescues his wife (Olivia Munn) and kid, the pervasive rain and darkness that provided the movie's constant backdrop, or Sarchie’s own ultimate spiritual redemption.  Never mind that the movie’s short on truly scary moments, because the movie offered nothing new in the character or storytelling department either.
 

One memorable scene in the movie did stand out that’s different and provided some suspense and tension: the one where Sarchie finds himself in the lion’s den at the zoo while pursuing Santino.  But other than that there is little to recommend this latest rote exercise in rebooting the exorcist subgenre.
 

 Grade: C