Scott Derrickson has gone as far away from his previous exploits in Exorcism with a gritty cop thriller that turns supernatural. ‘The Exorcist’ meets ‘Se7en’ as Sergeant Sarchie (Eric Bana) learns the difference between the evil that men do and pure evil to paraphrase Father Mendoza (Édgar Ramirez).

 

When a spate of spontaneous child killings and crimes appear across the city, Sarchie and Butler (Joel McHale), they soon unravel that the cause of which is down to the possession of a war veteran from Iraq. Not only obsessed with catching the perpetrator, Sarchie tackles the work life balance with his wife (Olivia Munn) and daughter (Lulu Wilson) when eventually his work comes home with him.

 

Paul Harris Boardman and Derrickson (who both collaborated to ‘...Emily Rose’) pack in a tight script that is both humorous and tense, nothing you shouldn’t expect from the director of ‘Sinister’. Even managing to catch in some of the flaws of that film at time unintentially blurring the lines between what should be funny and what should be a little more scary. The buddy relationship between Bana and McHale carries the film along in it’s opening acts while the chilling events that follow flip the humour into a tense battle of good versus evil, at least for the most part.

 

Laced between disturbing scenes of child attacks and animal slaughter take a different approach, and more horrifying results, than the usual high body count possession and although there is plenty of claret throughout, the film is tense enough to keep you guessing what is around the corner, even if it is a human jack in the box (and yes, it is as jumpy as it sounds). Even the score, by Derrickson favourite Christopher Young, keeps things sinister (no pun intended!) delivering the chilling notes of a piano until its final scare.

 

Despite it’s star lead, the real hero of ‘Deliver Us from Evil’ is the troubled Medoza played brilliantly by Ramirez. Although a devote Catholic, his troublesome past is what comes centre stage when the full exorcism begins and the roles are reversed from the cliched troubled sidekick followed ever since Father Merrion and Father Karras in 1978.

 

It’s just unfortunate that some of the jump scares are thrown in to remind us this is a horror film. The flashes of the demon are unneeded and unrealistic in what is otherwise a surprisingly grounded film. OK, we end in an ever grand finale of exorcism but the adapted approach of being hiding a sophisticated horror behind a well structured cop thriller and manages to be genuinely scary without the need for cliched add-ons.