ERIC BANA IN DELIVER US FROM EVIL

2014 rating: **

Things that go bump in the night… And bark, roar, hoot, hiss… And they're all humans, pretty much…

DELIVER US FROM EVIL has a lot in common with THE EXORCIST including the discovery of a malevolent spirit in Iraq. A possessed chick foaming at the mouth back in America. A chain-smoking priest conversing with an investigating cop. And a human neck with bendable capabilities…

But we’ll leave all other EXORCIST similarities behind in this so-called true story of New York Detective Sarchie, played by Eric Bana, and a young priest teaming up against... very bad things.

On God’s side is Edgar Ramirez as Father Mendoza, looking a cross between Javier Bardem and Val Kilmer playing Jim Morrison… Speaking of whom, the possessed are hardcore Doors fans. One lady, literally tossing her child to zoo lions, can’t get Break On Through out of her head. And a reluctantly gifted Officer Sarchie not only hears other Doors tracks when no one else does, but hallucinates violent images. These sudden flashes provide cheap thrill jolts for anyone expecting a bonafide horror flick.

RIDERS sounds great in this

For the most part, DELIVER is a standard cop thriller including a tattooed villain, edgy street lingo, urban slums, cryptic clues and a sarcastic partner who throws in a few one-liners to alleviate tension...

Alas, Fans of Joel McHale will be disappointed – he’s been funnier and doesn’t have very much input. Most of the dialogue occurs between the doubtful cop and the young priest. Although important to the story and characters, their scenes go on way too long. And after a lot of snooping around, we eventually take part in a full blown exorcism witin a police interrogation room. Not only does the possessed quote a spoken-word Morrison poem (“Is everybody in? The ceremony’s about to begin”), but there’s an overload of last minute pandemonium: as if, for the past two hours, we’d been watching a boxer and his trainer preparing for an inevitable thunderous smackdown. Too bad there wasn't any good exhibition bouts along the way. Ultimately, this particular EVIL fails to deliver the bads.