First Clip For Deliver Us From Evil Includes A Nefarious Jack-In-The-Box

Though the lack of serious competition makes it sound like less of an achievement than it usually would, Deliver Us From Evil is shaping up to be the scariest movie of the summer. Directed by Scott Derrickson, who previously scared us witless with Sinister and The Exorcism Of Emily Rose, it focuses on a New York cop named Ralph Sarchie (Eric Bana) who becomes the target of a demonic entity after investigating a bizarre series of crimes.

In the first clip from the chiller, the evil that Sarchie combats at work appears to have followed him home. When his young daughter plays with a jack-in-box, all kinds of terror ensues. Luckily, his wife (Olivia Munn) is around to intervene, though even her presence may not be enough to keep the demonic force at bay.

If you can’t tell, I’m very excited to see Deliver Us From Evil. Bana, Munn and co-stars Edgar Ramirez and Joel McHale are all highly talented actors, and Derrickson has a very strong track record in horror. By the look of the trailers, audiences are in for one spine-tingling ride.

Intriguingly, Deliver Us From Evil is based on a true story. Sarchie was a real cop, convinced that he stumbled across a case of demonic possession, and some of the scares in Derrickson’s movie are apparently grounded in reality. Of course, that’s not to say that Bana’s Sarchie will get the same happy ending that the actual NYPD sergeant did (that’s not much of a spoiler, given that he wrote the book that the movie is based on). After all, Derrickson has shown in the past that he’s not averse to killing off main characters.

Deliver Us From Evil opens July 2nd. Check out the first clip below and let us know what you think.

In DELIVER US FROM EVIL, New York police officer Ralph Sarchie (Eric Bana), struggling with his own personal issues, begins investigating a series of disturbing and inexplicable crimes. He joins forces with an unconventional priest (Edgar Ramirez), schooled in the rituals of exorcism, to combat the frightening and demonic possessions that are terrorizing their city. Based upon the book, which details Sarchie’s bone-chilling real-life cases.