DELIVER US FROM EVIL (MA) ★ 1/2
General (118 minutes)
The most recognisable thing about horror director Scott Derrickson is his penchant for imitating the classics. His last film Sinister borrowed heavily from The Shining; his new one, Deliver Us From Evil, is just as clearly modelled on The Exorcist.
To be sure, the script by Derrickson and Paul Harris Boardman is officially based on a memoir by Ralph Sarchie (Eric Bana), a New York cop who quit the force to purge demons full-time. But Derrickson's debt to Exorcist director William Friedkin is not just about subject-matter – it's also evident in a style that strives for disorientation.
Working mostly after dark, the strung-out Sarchie experiences unsettling visions and is constantly venturing into shadowy spaces where the jarring use of surround sound suggests a threat could come from any side. Gory images are juxtaposed with symbols of warped innocence: a deserted merry-go-round, a piano that plays “Pop Goes The Weasel” all by itself.
These wellworn devices might have been more effective had Derrickson managed to link them to a compelling central idea. To the degree the film is about anything, it seems to be fear of contamination from abroad: the plot involves an infectious form of demonic possession, brought home from Iraq by a disgraced American soldier (Sean Harris).
Faced with the reality of radical evil, the lapsed Catholic Sarchie returns to the fold, teaming up with a Hispanic priest (Edgar Ramirez) who becomes a closer ally than either his wisecracking partner (Joel McHale) or his neglected wife (Olivia Munn). This Christian bromance gets pretty ridiculous, especially in conjunction with other campy touches – a flashback shot in grainy Super-8 to resemble a parody of Death Wish, or a twist that reveals the diabolical significance of the music of The Doors.
Stuck in bland leading-man mode and overdoing his Bronx accent, Bana fails to win much sympathy for the “tortured” Sarchie, who could also be described as thuggish, emotionally vacant and not very bright. As we discover early on, he's the kind of guy who's capable of accidentally wandering into the lion's den at the zoo; as if to prove this was no fluke, he later sticks his hand between the bars of an asylum cell to show a disturbing message to an inmate (Olivia Horton), who proceeds to fly into hysterics and gnaw at his wrist. With his sixth sense, you'd think he might have seen that coming.
