Deliver Us From Evil - Movie Review...plus a MILESTONE!

"Your name, demon...what is your name?"

Let me get this out in the open. The Exorcist is the best demon possession movie that will ever be made. In many respects, it is the best horror movie that will ever be made. Everything else springs from that single perfect film from 1973. That being said...(obvious spoilers follow)

The film opens in Iraq in 2010 as three U.S. Marines uncover an ancient crypt. Of course they investigate and "something" happens, we hear screaming and everything goes dark. Fast forward 4 years later...Eric Bana plays a Brooklyn detective who happens upon a group of weird occurrences that seemingly tie in together the deeper he goes. He has become disillusioned with his line of work, shunning his wife (Olivia Munn) and daughter. An intense sequence at night in the Brooklyn zoo introduces us to our main antagonist, a hooded painter with an evil face.





As Bana continues his investigation, he discovers the painter is opening doorways with walls of ancient text - allowing a demon(s) to intrude upon our world. A priest, Edgar Ramirez, joins Bana and helps him discover the true nature of "the beast" and also helps Bana confront his own relationship with God.



Without giving too much away, they discover a connection between what the Marines found in Iraq and the evil that now spreads through the streets. They capture painter face and the priest must exorcise the demon once and for all.





This was a great horror thriller. I had little to no expectations which always helps, but this matched and exceeded what I hoped it would be. There are some truly scary sequences. Jump scares pop up all over the place and they actually have a point to the story, not just some random object falling over in the background like in so many other films. The makeup FX are mostly all PRACTICAL which was a wonderful thing to see. The wounds, blood and look of everything is REAL...not fake CGI blood splatter thank goodness. There is a nice theme of faith, darkness and redemption with Eric Bana's character right at the center. The acting is good to great on all fronts - hell even Olivia Munn puts on a good serious face throughout...I am also becoming a fan of Edgar Ramirez the more I see of him. It helps that he is so strong next to Bana's central cop. I wish the soundtrack would have been a bit stronger, but it was serviceable for this. Supposedly, this was based on the actual accounts of a former NY city cop...I don't know if I ever want to read that now. Creepy stuff.

I should have known something was up when at the very beginning the individual letters of the title slowly disappear one by one...the last five letters left on screen spell the word "D E V I L" - nice touch.

Oh, and then there's this damn creepy owl head toy that rolls off the shelf by itself. Dammit!



3.5 out of 5 Khans! (Just short of 4 Khans...)

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On a little side note, I realized this morning that my art post from yesterday was my 1000th blog post!!!! That's pretty huge I guess. I'm glad it was a creative post with drawings/sketches. Here's to 1000 more...