"Deliver Us From Evil" (The Guardian 22/08/14)

Deliver Us From Evil **
Dir: Scott Derrickson. With: Eric Bana, Edgar Ramirez, Olivia Munn. 118 mins. Cert: 15

Scott Derrickson folded demonic possession into courtroom drama with 2005’s The Exorcism of Emily Rose; here he attempts the same with the police procedural, and winds up battling two clichés for every one. Derrickson approaches his task seriously – countless rain-snuffed lightbulbs enable the gloomiest horror since Seven – and casts smartly: ever-dependable Eric Bana is the Bronx cop tailing Scariest Living Actor Sean Harris. Yet the material soon betrays its thinness: Edgar Ramirez’s priest preaches High Exposition, while Bana’s family await third-act imperilment. My faith, tested by use of The Doors as a Satanic conduit, vanished forever the instant a possessed piano bashed out “Pop Goes the Weasel”. 

Deliver Us from Evil opens in cinemas nationwide today.