A cop and a priest who specializes in exorcisms investigate three soldiers traumatized by the war in Iraq.

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New York. Specializing in the most unsavory cases, Ralph Sarchie investigates a series of crimes that don’t seem to be connected: a man who beats his wife, a mother who tries to kill her son, and a mysterious prowler. At the centre of this macabre case are three soldiers back from Iraq, where they discovered a strange tomb. With the help of Mendonza, a priest who specializes in exorcisms, Sarchie gets lost in the maze of an investigation at the outer limits of reality...

Sinister was apparently a side-trip for Scott Derrickson, who returns to the world of possession he last visited in the forgettable The Exorcism of Emily Rose, armed with the same level of subtlety as the awful The Day the Earth Stood Still. Except for the slick ambiance that uses and abuses convoluted settings and the kind of rain that is home to thrillers, Deliver Us from Evil wallows in the worst clichés and style effects, mobilizing a vast cemetery of banal ideas: the cop who finds his faith again; the formerly depraved priest; the joking side-kick; the hallowed family threatened by evil; and a bunch of second-rate exorcisms. To be avoided with no regrets.