Deliver Us from Evil (NR, 2006)

DELIVER US FROM EVIL focuses on the sad, infuriating story of Catholic priest Father Oliver O'Grady. During the 1970s and '80s, O'Grady was assigned to a series of Southern California parishes. At each stop, he abused children sexually; each time he was found out, church officials moved him to another town -- in order, the film argues, to protect their own careers from scandal by association. No one took responsibility for O'Grady's repeated, predictable actions, and so he kept going, unchecked, for nearly two decades.

Former CNN reporter and first-time director Amy Berg's film builds slowly toward full revelations, demonstrating the ways that family members and authorities were unable to face what was happening. Deliver Us From Evil uses standard documentary methods -- talking-head interviews, photos provided by interviewees, maps charting O'Grady's movements, and videotaped depositions by church officials -- in order to show the frightening depths of the problem of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. Interviewees -- including abuse survivors and their families, lawyers for the families, a therapist, and a cleric who served with O'Grady -- trace O'Grady's particular case in some detail. Much of this detail comes across indirectly, as the film also includes videotaped depositions by church officials as they try very hard not to answer questions about what they knew and when they knew it. But their fidgeting and refusal to look at the camera only make them look shifty.

By the time O'Grady reveals that he, too, was abused as a child, it's almost impossible to feel sympathy for him. But his ongoing inability to comprehend what he's done or even what happened to him underscores the film's most terrible truth: The cycle of abuse is ongoing.

Studio: Lionsgate
Director: Amy Berg
Cast: Ann Jyono, Oliver O'Grady, Thomas Doyle
Genre: Documentary
Run time: 101 minutes
Theatrical release: October 13, 2006
DVD release: May 8, 2007
MPAA Rating: NR
MPAA explanation: not rated