We don’t know how the world of demons works, but Jane is clearly acting as a messenger, servant, or lower caste demon for Santino, the ringleader. “The Evil Dead” also comes to mind (“Join us!”). Her connection to the soldier Santino, and how there are multiple people being possessed at once, reminds me of “The Exorcist III” (“My name is Legion, for we are many”). Like Regan, she speaks in tongues and various languages. Later in the film, when Sarchie and Father Mendoza visit Jane at an institution, she exhibits by-the-numbers possession behavior. The woman, Jane, is the first obviously possessed character in the film, and one can’t help but draw comparisons to Regan MacNeil from “The Exorcist.” Even the haircut is similar. The film’s protagonist, officer Ralph Sarchie, is called to the Bronx Zoo after a woman throws her toddler into a moat surrounding the lion enclosure. I picture Derrickson as Kylo Ren shouting “More!” on set when adding rain to this movie. Three years later, the viewer is now in the Bronx, where it’s apparently always raining. One of the soldiers, Santino, is fixated on Latin inscriptions on the wall, and the body camera we’re seeing through blacks out. The men stumble upon an underground cavern and smell something foul (my guess is sulfur – typically used in possession films to signal that a demonic presence is near). We see spiders, bats, and a snake (omens?) approaching three soldiers as they march in the dark. Like “The Exorcist,” we open with the desert (specifically Iraq) – a classic place for characters to unearth something that’s not meant to be found. Let’s start with some similarities to other possession films: Very loosely based on a recount of true events, DUFE (Deliver Us From Evil) is gritty cop-detective film meets classic possession horror. Film critic Shawn Edwards described “Deliver Us From Evil” as “The Exorcist Meets Se7en,” which is quite fitting.

Ralph sarchie 2021