Dark secrets from a desert tomb

THERE'S not much room for restraint when it comes to scaring an audience out of its wits, yet the most terrifying scenes are typically those that leave plenty to the imagination. After all, if you've seen one film where windows shatter inexplicably, lights flicker eerily and doors are slammed shut by unseen hands, you've seen them all.

Deliver Us From Evil, a film about demonic possession, paranormal phenomena and things that go bump in the night, uses every trick in the book in an effort to send chills up our spines, but even a half-decent narrative fails to bring it beyond standard fright fest fare. The film, directed by Scott Derrickson and written together with Paul Harris Boardman, is based on Beware the Night, a book chronicling creepy real-life cases in the line of duty by New York cop-turned-demonologist Ralph Sarchie.

As a result, the film resembles a police procedural combined with an episode of Tales From the Crypt, where hardened police officer Sarchie (Eric Bana, sporting designer stubble and a shaky Brooklyn accent) and his cynical partner Butler (Joel McHale), investigate a spate of odd, unexplained or just plain sinister happenings in their precinct.