Film Screening 25th September, 2007

Poster for Deliver Us from Evil

Deliver Us from Evil 

8:00 PM, 25th September, 2007

  • MA
  • 103 mins
  • 2006
  • Amy Berg

Father Oliver OGrady, charming and apparently trustworthy, moved from one parish to another in Northern California during the 1970s, quickly and easily winning each congregation's trust and respect, and abusing their children, one nine months old. The church knew of his activities, and covered them up for over thirty years. When he was brought to trial and convicted, the church again intervened on his behalf. O'Grady was released on parole after serving three years, and now lives in Ireland.Amy Berg presents a simple, clear and dispassionate account of O'Grady and his crimes and how the church protected him. The story is told in part by O'Grady's victims, and in part by O'Grady himself, through an interview with the director. This is one of the movie's strengths, and one of the things that inspired Berg to make this movie this way: we usually don't hear the offender's side of the story, and it is revealing.This movie will be difficult. It will be traumatic. It will make you angry. It will not be fun, and there will not be redemption. All that said, it is perhaps one of a very few movies like, say, Hotel Rwanda, that ought to be seen, if only once. I haven't seen it. I may hate seeing it, but see it I will.'

Richard Neville