From the makers of “
Sinister
” and “The Exorcism of Emily Rose” comes another horror about the true story of a
New York
police officer who has to save the city from the malevolent supernatural forces with the help of a priest who is an expert in the various rule of exorcism.
Plot: This movie is based on the book written by police officer Ralph Sarchie. Initially, he was given the details about the time when he had to investigate a series of unusual and deeply upsetting cases, and in the last of these, he comes across a man whom he later recognized as someone with whom he used to serve in Iraq. On the other hand, the investigations of these crimes are taking a toll on the police officer’s personal life ad it starts affecting his wife and daughter. Even though he was a Catholic, who had lost faith, he contacts a priest. In doing so, he comes to know about the fact that the man he had come across before in the case and his family has been possessed, and he would need the priest’s help to save his family and the town from the demonic spirit’s harm.
What this movie heavily lacks in its story-telling is a continuity or a correlation between most of what is happening one after the other. In some scenes, like when after the male lead is attacked by a supernatural being, and he manages to escape, we don’t see any explanation about what exactly happened to that ghost or whether the male lead was injured or not or how he calmly goes back to doing his work as if nothing has happened. These kinds of gaps seem to be leaving a lot to be explained by the movie, but we never get around to that. Moreover, the logic and reasoning that we see in the movie about the things that can drive away evil spirits and demons are so clichéd and predictable that it fails to give rise to any gradual building of suspense in the movie, and even if there is, it always seems to be having an anti-climax.
Apart from some shots that have been used to create a thrill or suspense, the CGI effects of the movie unmake it all as they needed to be a lot better to make people be frightened of the evil spirits. Even though the performance of the actors in the movie were quite good, the characters themselves lacked the kind of depth that is needed for the audience to root for them in a movie like this.
Verdict: To this attempt at making another “true incidents” horror movie that lacked a certain level of logic and explanation, I give this movie 1 out of 5 victories.