there are moments when deliver us from evil is riveting and tense. those moments come when scott derrickson and paul harris boardman's script is focused, giving eric bana's police officer something solid in terms of a plot to latch onto. unfortunately those periods are undercut by a swaths of directionless wandering. the film, fictionalized from the life of new york cop-turned-demonologist ralph sarchie, spends far too much time wandering through seemingly isolated events until it establishes the narrative tie to them and by that point the movie is almost half-over. it's difficult for the film to catch up and get back on solid ground after that much time and while there are some excellent scenes, it's just not enough to form a cohesive whole. there are positives that keep the film from being a total loss. bana and joel mchale are in fine form as sarchie and his adrenalike junkie partner. bana carries the gravitas well while mchale gets an opportunity to crack wise and show off a few dramatic and even action chops. call me crazy, but he would be great for a blockbuster action comedy or even just a straight action film. edgar ramirez does some solid but unremarkable work as the priest who works with sarchie, while olivia munn has a thankless role as sarchie's wife. as a director, derricksen has shown his talent with horror before and he does so again here. there are some distinctly unsettling scenes and while the score is overwrought, derricksen knows how to build tension. he handles the drama well too, but struggles with merging them effectively here due to the unfocused script. deliver us from evil tries valiantly to be a good horror-drama, but it just doesn't pull it off.