Deliver Us From Evil

Performance Evil-uation

Deliver Us From Evil
2014 USA
Directed by Scott Derrickson
UK Cinema release print.

I’m not quite sure what to make of Scott Derrickson as a director. On the one hand he directed Sinister (reviewed here), which is not a film I had a great deal of good things to say about, although I did try and defend certain aspects of it as well as I could, considering some of the negative points I mentioned in that review. However, you’ve also got to remember that this is the same director who gave us, The Exorcism Of Emily Rose, one of the better of the “exorcism” films made in recent years. A very well made piece of horror/courtroom cinema, if you ever get the chance to take a look at it.

I had no preconceptions about Deliver Us From Evil going in. I can’t remember if I’d seen a trailer for it or not, it could be any of a number of horror movie trailers doing the rounds in the last couple of months, but I figured I would go and take a look at it because it didn’t look like it was a remake of anything and so it scored points with me straight away on that count.

The film is based on the true life account of a cop, Ralph Sarchie, who is played by Eric Bana in the movie and it details his encounters with supernatural forces dealing with demonic possession. He is at the start of the movie, of course, cynical of such things himself but when the things he sees and encounters as a cop on the beat become less and less explainable, he “teams up”, so to speak, with a priest, Mendoza, played by Édgar Ramírez, who is able to guide him and help him in a series of connected cases which involve demonic possession and which ultimately lead straight back to Sarchie and his family. Sarchie’s “radar” at finding troubling incidents on the beat is revealed as a possible “gift” of the supernatural... but it also acts like a magnet to demonic entities who are attracted to this talent.

The film starts off pretty strong, with an opening sequence which takes place in Iraq and which is relevant to pretty much all the events that happen later in the movie. I’m happy to say it keeps up the pacing and is an interesting movie throughout. Now how successful it is depends on your definition of what you look for in a good movie as opposed to a good horror movie. Let me explain that a little...

You’ve got two very strong male leads, A list stars, with Eric Bana and Édgar Ramírez and they’re not really actors you would associate with the horror genre. They both do an excellent job in this, as do all the supporting cast and, although there’s a hell of a lot of hand held shaky camera throughout the film, it actually in some ways feels like a 1970s movie and, frankly, that’s a strength. Yes, I know it’s actually set in 2013 but what I mean to say is the acting style and delivery of the lines feels like something made in Hollywood back when great American movies were being made and this is a pretty good compliment to pay to any movie in my book.

However... the flip side of that is that, although the film does maintain a certain amount of tension and suspense throughout the picture, I wouldn’t actually call this a scary movie... so in regards to certain ingredients of this kind of entertainment I would say it downplays one of the elements somewhat. But this is not a bad thing either.... some of the classic horror films of all time, such as Bride Of Frankenstein or Creature From The Black Lagoon are not , in actual fact, scary and so this shouldn’t necessarily be the barometer by which you judge this movie, in all honesty. Part of that, I think, is to do with the way the camera cuts to different points of view in various sequences... the ones which are trying to be scary... when it maybe needed to stick to something resembling point of view in those moments.

However, although it may not be a scary film it is, certainly, a pretty great one and I, like all people, truly appreciate a well made movie. I think this movie is one of the ones I would like to nominate as one of my “comfort horror movies”... that is to say, horror films you can relax with and have on when you want to do some thinking with a little bit of distraction coming from the screen. It is something I would like to watch again on a number of occasions and I’ll certainly be grabbing the blu ray of it when it comes down in the sales.

Of course, I may be a bit harsh in regards to the amount of scares and sustainable tension packed within the film... which felt a little more like a police procedural movie at times (and there’s nothing wrong with that). Different things scare different people and you really can’t go that wrong when you’ve got one of the great modern composers, Christopher Young, turning in one of his trademark horror scores. So the best, sure fire way to find out if this is your kind of horror movie is, of course, to go see it for yourself. I’ve certainly got no doubts about recommending it to anyone because it’s a well made, entertaining piece of cinema which should hold your interest throughout. Whether you happen to find it scary or not is just an extra cherry on an already tasty cake. Miss this one at your peril.

Priest

A Movable Priest

Priest 3D US 2011

Directed by Scott Charles Stewart

Playing at cinemas now.

Warning: There are a few spoilers here.

Priest is one of those films that I was only half-interested in seeing as the "idea" of the movie appealed to me far more than the actual trailer did. Also, the movie topline’s actor Paul Bettany and I’ve never really been a big fan of his... all that may be about to change however since he seems to be doing more genre movies now and the last film I saw him in was Legion, which I was quite pleased with (see my review here). I’m actually beginning to like him in this kind of quasi-religious, one man (or priest or angel, depending upon which movie you are watching him in) against a legion of ferocious, fearsome "things" because he really seems to take the roles seriously or, at the very least, makes the premise of the movies he’s in look fairly credible.

When I trawled through the internet to find out what Scott Charles Stewart had directed before, I found that his first feature length movie as a director was indeed the movie before this one, which turns out to be the aforementioned Legion. So not only does he like working with Paul Bettany (one must assume) but he also churns out movies which are basically big budget sci-fi genre flicks which do not really, in any way, rise above their B movie influences but which are still quite fun all the same.

And fun is definitely what Priest is all about... don’t go to the cinema to see this and expect to have your brain taxed too hard. In an alternate world history (shown in a beautiful animated form after the opening sequence which deals with the nameless Priest’s personal background) vampires and humans ave been fighting since the dark ages. Man always ultimately loses and the final surviving population are living in a protected city, not dissimilar to the idea of the domes in Logan’s Run, and they are run by the clergy in a conceptually interesting world created on screen which is a bit Blade Runner meets The New Testament. A select team of “gifted” humans have now been trained as kick-ass vampire killers by the church and over the preceeding decade or so, have wiped out all the vampires (or so it is supposed)... and so, in addition to the city dwellers, you have various “settlers” in a direct parody of the Old West dotted around the vast desert that is all that we see of planet Earth in this movie. However, now they’ve outlived their usefulness the vampire hunting priests have been disbanded and left to get jobs for themselves in a city which doesn’t need them... until...

Okay, now before I go any further I have to say that I’ve not read any of the comic books on which Priest is based on... but I have seen a fairly large amount of movies in my wasted lifetime and I can tell you now that Priest is pretty much just a rehash of the great John Ford film The Searchers... except whereas the niece of Ethan Edwards (John Wayne) in that film is taken by indians which leads Edwards to go on a quest to either bring her back or kill her if she’s “gone Indian”, Priest’s “niece” is kidnapped by vampires which kick starts him into turning his back on the church and going on a quest to either find her or... you know... kill her if she’s turned vampire. The only main difference in this movie, apart from the obvious vampire and sci-fi accoutrements, is the fact that the evil half-human/half-vampire Black Hat (played as brilliantly as ever by Karl Urban) is actually using the girl so he can draw Priest from the city (and the other of his kind who he knows will be sent to despatch Priest when he turns his back on the church) and attack the city with a train full of vampires while Priest is distracted... and that there is as much of the plot as I’m going to reveal in this review... if you want to know anymore then watch the darned movie.

This is not the most satisfying film in the world but as action films go it’s quite a respectable one which manages to cross the genres of action flick, sci-fi flick and scare fest with relative ease and all the while not getting too dull by overloading you with too much jumping and shooting on screen. There are also some interesting actors and actresses involved in the project, not least of all Maggie Q and yet another insidious cameo by Brad Dourif... who seems to have made a career out of such minor appearances as the “human who betrays his own kind” character he plays here (don't worry, you'll figure that much out as soon as you see him... otherwise why hire Brad Dourif?).

The 3D in the movie is quite good but, ultimately, it’s really not adding anything to my viewing experience other than slightly achy eyes and the illusion of depth (in a film which really doesn’t need much depth to convey it’s main premise :-) so... honestly? I could have done without the 3D and the added pay-us-an-extra-£1.50-because-it’s-in-3D-even-though-you-already-brought-your-own-glasses-you-gullible-audience-member surcharge on top of the ticket price. 3D is really just a gimmick to get everyone to pay a little bit more for something which could have been a lot more with a little bit less... if you know what I mean?

Either way, there’s no sense in hiding it, Priest is a vampire western with sci-fi/horror trappings... specifically the western I mentioned earlier... so if kick-ass action flicks with quasi-religious pretensions and some quite animalistic incarnations of vampires are your kind of thing, look no further than this movie for a good night out. Personally I preferred Legion to this movie but I’ll certainly be watching this one again when it comes round on DVD so I’m glad I saw it. Perhaps, if it makes its money back, we may get a sequel at some point in the near future?