Deliver Us from Evil

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Brilliant and psychologically transfixing documentary.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Most powerfully, Berg also films a number of O'Grady's victims as they recount their trauma and, in some cases, loss of faith.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Courageous, shattering and exceptional documentary.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Bill White

A heartbreaking look at broken trust.

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

As a study of a predator, "Evil" is fascinating and enraging.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

The outrages of pedophile priests have generated screaming headlines but relatively little understanding of the Catholic culture that permitted and concealed such crimes, which makes this informed documentary by Amy Berg all the more valuable.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

Neither sensationalistic nor sentimental, Ms. Berg’s film is clear-sighted, tough-minded and devastating, a portrait of individual criminality and institutional indifference, a study in the betrayal of trust and the irresponsibility of authority.

Slate Dana Stevens

Not one of your pass-the-popcorn date movies. It's a howl of rage.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Deliver Us From Evil is so horrifying it makes "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" look like a walk in the park.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Stephen Cole

Another angry, searching document about pedophile priests, Deliver Us from Evil makes for unexpectedly gripping drama.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

Deliver Us From Evil has a few things wrong with it, including an egregious musical score, but without resorting to sucker punches, it takes your breath away while making your skin crawl.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

With Deliver Us from Evil, Berg has been uncompromising in the picture she paints. She pulls no punches and makes no apologies.

TV Guide Ken Fox

The most infuriating revelation in Amy Berg's powerful documentary is the lengths to which current Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahoney and other church officials went to protect Father O'Grady and themselves, even though it meant knowingly delivering countless other children into a child molester's hands.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

This superb documentary about the Catholic Church's worst pedophile scandal is in many ways far scarier than any fiction.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Amy Berg's riveting documentary, tracks O'Grady's predatory trail from San Andreas, Calif., to Ireland, where he is now living on a church pension that was apparently meant to buy his silence.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

It isn't often you get to meet the devil in all his glory, but here he is in Deliver Us From Evil, and his name is Father Oliver O'Grady.

The Hollywood Reporter Sheri Linden

With an immediacy and intimacy that news reports can't provide, this deeply affecting documentary explores the pedophile crisis that has shaken the edifice of the Catholic Church.

Variety Robert Koehler

So harsh and damning is the pic toward the current Catholic leadership -- personified by Los Angeles-based Cardinal Roger Mahony, who oversaw O'Grady's stewardship at various central California parishes in the 1970s and '80s, that charges the church operates "like the Mafia" sound spot-on.

Village Voice Ella Taylor

Berg by no means excuses Father O'Grady, but she offers evidence of a devastating childhood that explains his pathology. For the ambitious creeps who allowed him to indulge it, and who still sit in office, there's no excuse.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

When victims and their families talk about having their lives wrecked by a sexually abusive priest in the forceful documentary Deliver Us From Evil, that destruction is as much spiritual as psychological.

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

The spellbinding power of this almost certain Oscar nominee for best documentary comes from its chilling subject matter.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Deliver Us From Evil has its flaws. Certain passages are diffuse, others are argumentative, and there's a discomfiting staginess to the climax... Yet the film's concern for the victims, and their families, is one of its strengths.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Works best when it concentrates on O'Grady and the ever-rippling effect of his transgressions. Viewers may not remember the victims whose stories practically pierce the heart, but they're unlikely to forget O'Grady's deceptively innocent face.