Eric Bana plays Sgt. Ralph Sarchie, a South Bronx cop on the strangest case of his career, one that will change the cynical, lapsed Catholic forever. Several incidents of a bizarre nature (one being a dangerous situation involving a crazy woman, a baby, and the local zoo) seem somehow linked to returned Iraq war soldiers. Eventually Sarchie (who has almost kind of a sixth sense/clairvoyant ability that helps his police work) and his partner Bulter (Joel McHale) are approached by an unorthodox Catholic priest (Edgar Ramirez) who believes that demonic possession is at the heart of all these strange goings on. Olivia Munn plays Sarchie’s wife, whilst Sean Harris plays one of the disturbed war veterans.
Oppressive and damn good-looking, but otherwise unmemorable 2014 Scott Derrickson (“Hellraiser: Inferno”- one of the worst horror sequels in cinematic history, and the quite solid “Sinister”) mixture of “End of Days” and exorcism flick, this one’s just not as good as you want it to be. Easily the rainiest movie in years, Derrickson and DOP Scott Kevan manage to make what is a pretty open world seem oppressively claustrophobic. It’s almost like the weather is keeping the evil within the city walls. Watching the film unaware of its makers, I felt that clearly a real visual stylist and ace cinematographer were at work here (Though I’ve previously been very critical of Kevan’s work). The film has particularly effective low-level lighting, I must say, where everything is black, except what you need to see.
It’s just a shame the mix of genres is almost as lumpy as Derrickson’s earlier “Exorcism of Emily Rose”, and although Derrickson and co-writer Paul Harris Boardman manage to take the demonic possession film in some kinda different areas, it’s still not free of cliché or familiarity. It is, however, a little bit scarier than “Emily Rose”, because the genres at play here do work a bit better than in the earlier film. But with TV host Joel McHale having ‘Kevin Pollak in “End of Days” ’ written all over him and my overall jaded attitude to this genre by now, it’s not a memorable experience.
The film has a pretty effectively tense opener, mainly because it’s set in a zoo at night, with scary wild animals roaming around. It’s the only scary thing in the entire film, though, mostly because it’s the one scene that feels original. I also liked the work of Eric Bana in the lead, he’s easy to like here and quite believable under some pretty barmy circumstances. Edgar Ramirez probably steals the show as a rather unorthodox priest who tries to get cynical Bana to believe. Truth be told, the film probably would’ve been more interesting if it were about him instead. I especially admired Ramirez for not going into histrionics at any point, unusual for such a role. Having said that, one of the issues I have with the film is that its low-key nature and restraint, whilst appreciated in some ways, robs the talented and creepy Sean Harris of the opportunity to go batcrap crazy until the film’s finale. As the chief menace, Harris doesn’t get all that much to work with, really. The climax goes against the nature of the rest of the film (and is arguably the most clichéd part of a very clichéd film), but it’s probably the most enjoyable part because Sean Harris is just so freaking weird and scary, even when slightly impeded by unnecessary makeup.
OVERALL SUMMARY
Although not a bad film, it doesn’t entirely succeed in bringing new life to the genre. It’s not particularly scary, and ultimately it’s predictable and not as fresh as it thinks. You ultimately know the trajectory it’s following and where it will end up. I’m also just plain sick of the genre, to be honest. Good-looking film, though, with New York shot like the end of the world is on the horizon.
