Demonic Possession Is Nine Tenths Of The Law.

I must not possess people, I must not possess people

William Friedkin's 'The Exorcist' famously begins with an eerie scene set in Iraq, where a statue of the demon Pazuzu is uncovered at an archaeological dig. You can imagine that any remake would capitalize on the location and open with a similar sequence set in Iraq during the Gulf Wars. 'Deliver Us From Evil' begins in exactly that fashion as a small squad of American soldiers inadvertently unleash something evil in the warzone. I think I might have just spotted some subtext there.

Back on the streets of Brooklyn, family man cop Ralph Sarchie (Eric Bana) and his partner have a talent for zooming in on the most violent and disturbing cases thanks in part to Sarchie's sixth sense, or "radar" intuition.

After a violent domestic dispute case in which Sarchie is attacked and marked we follow the duo to a call at the local zoo. A lunatic mother has thrown her baby into the lion's dead. I think I might have just spotted some subtext there too.

The following sequence in which the cops try to get a grip on the situation is really well done. The zoo at night puts you in mind of 'Cat People' and is laden with nightmarish, surreal imagery. The power is out, the animals are going crazy and there's a real sense of dread pervading this sequence.

The mother  of the child is taken into custody. Everyone assumes she is a junky. She constantly repeats Jim Morrison lyrics so maybe the squares were right all along - the music of 'The Doors' really is the devil's music. The only person who believes that possession is at the root of this is an unorthodox hispanic priest.

Events lead to the cops trying to track down a trio of dishonourably discharged marines as supernatural events escalate around them and conspire to entrap them.

So far so good, but just as you are thinking how refreshing it is to see a devilish horror film that isn't about an attack on the family unit with a few crowd pleasing boo/jump scares thrown in, it becomes exactly that. The emphasis shifts from the carefully cultivated and interesting police procedural-meets-occult horror vibe that it had going and instead goes for the usual tropes. Here's the sudden appearance of a hooded stranger in the family home, here's the scary looking toy that moves of it's own accord, here's the piano that plays itself. It becomes an 'Insidious' clone instead of a 'Seven' clone. But I guess that's what the punters want these days.

I mean, why would you have this owl toy in your home? Why?

To be fair, by this point I was so involved with the characters that I was happy to ride with it and the film did continue to deliver some good stuff - it's just that I liked the cop partnership banter a whole lot more than the family stuff.

Bana is very good at creating a fully rounded tough guy character and I thought the supporting cast were great too. Joel McHale is excellent as Sarchie's cop partner and I wish there had been more scenes with them together. I liked Edgar Ramirez's priest and Sean Harris delivers another typically intense performance that is great to watch.

I played Ian Curtis once.

There's a good number of scares throughout, a surprising amount of gore and a dark, serious tone to it all, even during the most outlandish parts.  Overall I enjoyed it a lot and I'm not a big fan of exorcism/possession style movies.

If anything lets it down, it is the ending. The final confrontation is fine but there's a real anti-climatic epilogue that serves only to underline the fact that "this is based on a true story" and wrap everything up in an unconvincing moral absolute. Renounce Satan and all your problems will be solved is the message of the film. Very comforting I'm sure but it removes culpability rom the actual horrors we've seen in the film: post-traumatic stress disorders, domestic abuse, infanticide, mental disorders etc. and doesn't convince me that this is all the devil's own work.

Still, I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would and a hell of a lot more than any number of family-moves-into-house-and-weird-stuff- happens movies.

As Jim Morrison once said, "People are afraid of themselves, of their own reality; their feelings most of all"

But then he also said "the blue bus is calling us". So go figure.