This sounds like a good film. It wasn't a bad movie, but it wasn't the horror masterpiece it was obviously intended to be. In fact, while it's based on a true story, it plays like an ordinary horror film. In it, three marines stumble onto some kind of satanic temple or something like it during the Iraq War, and they become possessed. Then, a string of strange violent crimes takes place in New York City, where a tough yet spiritual and handsome policeman is called to investigate them. It turns out those crimes are connected to each other and to the marines at the beginning of the film. He meets an unconventional but fervent Catholic priest who specializes in demonology and it becomes clear to them that this is not the work of humans, but a demon. The thing is, it takes them so long to figure out what the audience has no trouble learning. There are a number of set pieces which are well staged on their own, but don't hold together very well. A result of this film is that it's way too long for such familiar material. There are no bad performances in this movie and Edgar Ramirez is quite good as the priest who has a past. Scott Derrickson has done this sort of film before, as in "The Exorcism of Emily Rose" and "Sinister." He and cinematographer Scott Kevan can shoot a scene capably. But it never offers anything new or surprising. The inevitable exorcism scene at the end is OK, but it's still nothing that hasn't been done before. As a result, I can only recommend this to die-hard fans of movies about demons and exorcism.
Review of Deliver Us from Evil
Deliver Us from Evil
(I) (2014)
Cross between "The Exorcist" and "Seven" is competent but routine and too long
17 January 2015