Thursday 1 January 2015

"Deliver us from Evil" - UK disc review

If you’re looking for something dark to chase away the last remnants of festive cheer now that Xmas is over and done with, then “Deliver us from Evil”, which comes to UK disc Jan 5th from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is just the ticket.
 
The film stars Eric Bana (Star Trek, Hannah) as New York detective Ralph Sarchie, who finds that a recent string of cases he’s been involved in are inextricably linked. The connection being that the perpetrators, or their spouses, all served together in the military.
 
Uncertain of what would cause these previously decorated soldiers, or their partners, to suddenly commit acts of wanton violence or murder, he is then approached by a priest, father Mendoza (Edgar Ramirez) who tries to convince him that demonic forces are at work.
 
Initially, Sgt Sarchie is unconvinced that these recent crimes have been the work of the devil. But as he starts to dig a little deeper, he finds that the former servicemen may have indeed uncovered something sinister when they were fighting in the desert and now they have to find the last remaining members of their unit before they can kill anyone else…
 
Supposedly based on a true story (it isn’t), the film was directed by Scott Derickson, who also gave us “Sinister” and “Exorcsim of Emily Rose” and comes across as an effective mash up of “The Exorcist” with those “Law and Order” or CSI cop shows. So it comes as no surprise to learn that the film was produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, who’s the man behind a number of those programs and actually has the feel of one of his cop shows.
 
Usually I’m not much of a fan of ‘Supernatural’ type thrillers, basically because as a life-long atheist I struggle to take them seriously. However, as this particular film got going I found myself being strangely intrigued and actually really enjoyed it. Eric Bana is aptly cast as the tortured cop who isn’t ready to believe that there’s “real” evil in the world and actually proves to be an effective dark and brooding thriller.
 
Extras on the disc include a directors commentary track, a making of feature and a stack of trailers for other Sony Home Pictures films.
 
The film is out on UK DVD and BD from Jan 5th.
 
Buy the UK DVD from Amazon.co.uk
 
Buy the UK BD from Amazon.co.uk
 
 
 

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