Deliver Us from Evil

Inspired by the memoir of real-life cop-turned-demonologist Ralph Sarchie, this supernatural police procedural stars Eric Bana as the South Bronx detective who teams up with Edgar Ramirez (playing a rebel Jesuit priest who is an expert in exorcism ritual). They're out to halt a series of possessions striking New York City caused by an evil spirit that has returned with three soldiers from Iraq and is forcing them to write sacrificial invocations on walls that spark infanticide. While director Scott Derrickson maintains a sinister tone, the early scenes deliver only standard issue scares, but a more unsettling atmosphere kicks in when the primal force starts terrorising Bana's family. With the The Exorcism of Emily Rose already to his credit, Derrickson knows how to conjure some truly eerie moments in the possession mould and the movie builds to an impressively staged, well-acted prison exorcism for the grippingly intense climax.