Hey, everyone. Capone in Chicago here.

Documentaries about Catholic priests molesting children are disturbingly prevalent in our society, much like the incidents themselves. Just two years ago, filmmaker Kirby Dick (This Film Is Not Yet Rated) made the Oscar-nominated Twist of Faith about a grown man who reveals to the world the abuse inflicted upon him and in the process alienates himself from his family, friends, and church-trusting community. But Deliver Us from Evil, from first-time director Amy Berg, attacks an even larger target: the deeply corrupt and deceitful church system of Northern California, which covered up a slew of alleged incidents that was far worse in scope and number of victims than the situation in Boston.

Berg’s centerpiece is a series of compelling and deeply disturbing interviews with the primary perpetrators of hundreds of victims since the 1970s, Father Oliver O’Grady, who was bounced from parish to parish over 30 years by the church in an attempt to keep his indiscretions a secret. Berg appears quite calm, regretful, and utterly charming. He in no ways denies his wrongdoings, especially since he is now living in a remote corner of Ireland in a place where none of the residents know about his past crimes. In what some might deem a lack of judgment (or at least good taste) on Berg’s part some of the interviews with Berg take place in front of playground or very near area where children are clearly in view.

Also interviewed are several of the survivors of O’Grady’s crimes, some of whom endured his foul behavior for more than a decade. The elderly parents of these now grown men and women are also interviewed, and they share their sense of shock and disgust that they let this man in their homes, sometimes sleeping overnight. But Berg’s investigation into these crimes goes deeper than just O’Grady and his supervising bishops. She examines the lengths that the entire Catholic Church has gone to bury this, whether it be with cash settlements or lengthy court battles. Everyone from George W. Bush to the current Pope are called into question as part of the lack of proper response that would include some form of healing. Perhaps most shocking is the revelation that the church considers the molesting of little girls as less or an offense than boys, because molesting boys indicates homosexual leanings.

Despite its clearly emotionally dreadful subject matter, Deliver Us from Evil is also too sterile and dry in its execution. We certainly get a fair share of victim and parent testimonials, but our rage is tempered by Berg leaving some of the nastiest details to our imagination. Not that there are levels to rape or pedophilia, but I was eager to have my blood boil more than it did over the actual crimes. But fear not, there are plenty of moments in this film over which to get angry. There’s an extraordinary amount of deposition footage from O’Grady and his supervisors, which perhaps spell out their guilt more than anything else. The “60 Minutes”-style sweating and nervous ticks are undeniable, even as the say everything in their power to look slightly less evil. When a victims’ right attorney takes two of O’Grady’s victims to the Vatican to deliver a letter asking the Pope to acknowledge and help heal those abused by priest, they are turned away at the gate, but what else would you expect to happen?

Deliver Us from Evil does a great job of getting to the heart of this atrocious matter, but I didn’t get as pulled into the material the way I did with Kirby Dick’s film, or even the way I did with Jesus Camp from earlier this year (which features a different type of child abuse). Perhaps the most frustrating thing this film reveals is that there are still so many apologists out there who are willing to deny or excuse such foul behavior. To the victims, that type of systematic, institutionalized denial of the problem feels like getting raped all over again, and capturing that feeling is what this film does best.

Capone