Part Seven, part The Sixth Sense, and nowhere near as good as either … the film was inspired by true accounts given by an ex-New York cop named Ralph Sarchie, and takes a somewhat promising premise and does its best to make it as formulaic as possible.

Eric Bana takes the lead role in the film, and actually does a respectable job once you get past the initial scene which seemingly only exists to try and show off how long he worked on his New York accent. Helping him throughout the process is Joel McHale, which was nice to see him in something not intentionally hilarious, and Olivia Munn, who is given absolutely nothing to work with aside from the most hackneyed lines regarding “not being let in” to her husband’s life, and “not seeing him because he put work first.” If there are any other lines she has that are of any consequence, I couldn’t remember them, sorry.

The film opens with a scene in Iraq in 2010, and, once we get past the usual “guy screams, camera cuts before we get to see what he’s screaming at” intro, the tone for the film is set by Bana’s character investigating the death of an infant. From there, he meets a woman that tries to kill her toddler, and a wife-beating psycho – all, unfortunately, part of a day’s work. That is, until weird things start popping up which connect the events seemingly supernaturally, and a Jesuit priest, that smokes, drinks, and swears – yet still somehow manages to stay right enough with God to perform exorcisms – comes along to explain everything away. Then, as you might expect, it gets personal.

In many ways, the priest mirrors the role of the film’s director, Scott Derrickson – whose last film Sinister, experienced many similar traits. What could have been a complete disaster ends up being a mildly entertaining experience instead, and the talent of Bana, combined with some seriously impressive atmospheric moments help salvage a rather uninspired Hollywood script. In a way, I suppose you could say HE Delivered IT From Evil.

2.5/5