‘Deliver Us From Evil’ An Almost True Story Inspired By Ralph Sarchie

Deliver Us from Evil is a true story film based on Ralph Sarchie, a former New York City cop who fought crime and demons during his time as a crime investigator, according to The Week. Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer Films, Deliver Us from Evil was released on July 2, 2014.

Deliver Us from Evil is directed by Scott Derrickson and written by Derrickson and Paul Harris Boardman. The story is based on his book Beware the Night. The loosely based true story stars Olivia Nunn, Edgar Ramirez, and Eric Bana as Ralph Sarchie.

Advertised as a movie “inspired by the actual accounts of an NYPD sergeant,” the movie follows the story of a detective whose duty it is to solve a rash of true-crime cases that were supernatural in nature. Sergeant Sarchie investigates these demonic cases and attempts to rid the evil spirits with the help of Father Mendozza, a priest and exorcist.

In researching for the Deliver Us from Evil film, Edgar Ramirez, former journalist and Venezuelan native of San Cristóbal, Táchira, read only the script and the book to get a grasp of what the story was about. After getting half way through the book, Edgar Ramirez says that reading the true cases were so frightening that he actually had to put the book down for a while. Real or not, the book was a scary read in his opinion. Ramirez has never been a horror movie viewer due to fear, a fear that goes back to when he watched his first horror movie, The Exorcist, at age 6. Ramirez vowed never watch horror movies again until he was enticed to watch The Exorcism of Emily Rose, another supernatural movie based on fact.

Edgar Ramirez thought long and hard about taking the new role for Deliver Us from Evil but ultimately realized that overcoming his fear is a must. “I realized that I just needed to confront this, and now I’m not afraid of anything,” Ramirez states to an interviewer for HitFix.

The real Ralph Sarchie made headlines when he became known as one of the first and only police investigator turned demonologist. He worked the beat out of the 46th precinct in the Bronx, an area laden with high crime and drugs at the time. The former detective describes himself as a person who can be aggressive and not easy to get along with. But others would describe him as a former no-nonsense street detective who was a very genuine, religious cop that did his job well. The Deliver Us from Evil detective solved all sorts of cases with demonic overtones, including Santeria cases involving West African, Latin, and Caribbean witchcraft and magic. The true events happened between the 1980s and 1990s.

According to movie reviewer Rafer Guzman of Newsday, Deliver Us from Evil has a “surprisingly strong cast and solid direction” that makes the movie tolerable to watch.

Deliver Us from Evil is currently showing in theaters.