Is Deliver Us from Evil Scary? The Verdict and the Whole Plot
Yes, 5 out of 10. It's a police case with jump scares, an exorcism and a few scenes involving animals.
🐱THE SCARE SIGNAL
SCARE SCORE
5 /10
🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱
DREAD LEVEL
Medium
Expect one uneasy night, mostly around basements and fresh paint.
DOG
Dog: fine
no dog dies, but a cat and a pet fish do.
Ruling: Watch it with the lights on, because it has real jump scares and a few animal scenes.
Deliver Us from Evil runs one hour and fifty-eight minutes and opens in Iraq before moving to the Bronx. The NYPD sergeant on the case would like a rational explanation, and the Bronx keeps declining to provide one.
The premise, briefly
A Bronx police sergeant investigates a string of bizarre crimes and teams up with a Jesuit priest who thinks the cause is demonic possession.
How much do you want to know?
🐱
The verdict above is spoiler-free. Everything below, including the ending, stays hidden until you pick a depth.
🐱CUT TO THE CHASE
How it ends
Sarchie learns the demon's name, Jungler, during an exorcism, and that frees Santino, who tells them where Sarchie's family is being held. Seven months later Sarchie attends his second child's baptism, and he retires to keep working with Mendoza.
The scene you're dreading
Early on at the Bronx Zoo, a woman has thrown her toddler into the lion enclosure. Sarchie finds her in the lemur pen, then meets a painter inside the lion enclosure, and the lions attack Sarchie.
The dog
No dog dies in Deliver Us from Evil. A cat and a pet fish do die.
It is a police case that turns into an exorcism, with jump scares and a few animal scenes, and knowing where they are makes it easier to sit through.
THE SHORT VERSION IS HIDDEN
How it ends, the scene you're dreading, what happens to the dog, and the bottom line. About twenty seconds to read.
What actually happens
A basement in Iraq with no reception
In 2010 a four-man Marine team crosses open desert toward a firefight in Iraq. After a grenade injures several hostile fighters, they find an underground stairwell. Two of them go down, and PFC J. Tratner switches on a bodycam. At the bottom there is a bad smell and what looks like a room, and then their lights and the camera fail while someone screams. In 2013 in the Bronx, veteran NYPD Special Operations Sergeant Ralph Sarchie and his partner Butler are sent to a domestic disturbance at the home of Jimmy Tratner, a former Marine, whose wife has been badly beaten. The floor is covered in deep scratches. Jimmy runs, Sarchie arrests him, and the two officers decide he is either mentally ill or drunk.
Sarchie and Butler look into Jane Crenna, who has thrown her toddler to the lions at the Bronx Zoo. She is located in the lemur pen, scraping the ground and reciting a song. This is the scene people dread most, and it comes early. Sarchie finds a commercial painter standing inside the lion enclosure, and the lions attack Sarchie. Jane goes to a mental health facility, and a Jesuit priest named Mendoza visits her family, who think something supernatural is going on. Sarchie then visits a house where lights and candles keep failing and finds one of its two basement painters, David Griggs, dead and decomposing. Cards and photographs in Griggs's apartment tie him to Jane, Jimmy and a third Marine, Mick Santino, who turns out to be the painter at the zoo.
Paint over the pictographs
Mendoza believes Jane is possessed and explains that evil made by humans can give demons a way into the world. Sarchie doubts it until strange sights and sounds start following him around. He finds an owl pictograph and a repeating mix of Latin and ancient symbols beneath the paint on the walls at several locations, and the same message turns up in Tratner's military footage, in a cave in Diyala. Mendoza calls it a link between Christian and pagan belief that might let demons in, and says Sarchie's instinct makes him especially vulnerable. Santino and Tratner then attack Sarchie, Butler and Mendoza. Mendoza holds Tratner off with his cross, yet Santino manages to kill Butler.
The stuffed owl is not a toy anymore
Mendoza tells Sarchie to confess, and Sarchie admits he killed a child predator named Marvin and has felt a darkness growing in him ever since. Mendoza absolves him. Later, Sarchie's young daughter watches her stuffed owl move on its own and then sees Santino standing in the hallway of their home. Santino phones Sarchie while he is taking Sarchie's wife and daughter away. Sarchie rushes home with backup, and Santino is arrested. Sarchie and Mendoza then begin an exorcism on Santino.
The ending, explained
During the exorcism Sarchie learns the demon's name is Jungler. Mendoza uses the name to free Santino, who tells them that Sarchie's wife and daughter are being held in a van belonging to the painting company, parked at a storage facility. Seven months afterward, Sarchie stands at the christening of his second child, Daniella Anne, where he proudly renounces Satan. A closing card says he left the police force and kept working with Father Mendoza.
The post-credits ruling
Nobody has confirmed whether there's a scene after the credits.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: no dog dies, but a cat and a pet fish do.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is Deliver Us from Evil scary?
Yes, Deliver Us from Evil is a 5 out of 10. It mixes a police investigation with jump scares, a few animal scenes and an exorcism.
How does Deliver Us from Evil end?
Sarchie and Mendoza learn the demon's name, Jungler, during an exorcism, and that frees Santino, who tells them where Sarchie's family is held. Seven months later Sarchie attends his second child's baptism.
Does the dog die in Deliver Us from Evil?
No dog dies in Deliver Us from Evil. A cat and a pet fish do die, so viewers who avoid animal scenes should skip those.
Is there a post-credits scene in Deliver Us from Evil?
Nobody has confirmed whether Deliver Us from Evil has a scene after the credits.
Who is Jungler in Deliver Us from Evil?
Jungler is the name of the demon Sarchie learns during the exorcism. Mendoza uses the name to free Santino, who then tells them where Sarchie's family is being held.
BLURRED FOR YOUR PROTECTION
The whole plot of Deliver Us from Evil is hidden, ending included. It stays that way until you ask.
Deliver Us from Evil is one hour and fifty-eight minutes of a police case with an exorcism at the end. Install Scaredy Cat and it will blur horror like this before you see it.
