Sexual abuse by Catholic clergy… there’s no topic more exciting or enjoyable! Gather the family around the tube with a bucket of buttery popcorn, and a box of tissues for tears of laughter and joyful emotion, and pop in Deliver Us From Evil, documentary filmmaker Amy J. Berg’s searing 2006 investigation into the controversy.

Okay, so it’s not a bucketful of laughs, but Deliver Us From Evil is an important work — perhaps the defining cinematic statement on the church’s complicity in the abuse of thousands of minors. Over 100,000 people in the United States alone have claimed that they were at one time abused in the church. It’s a staggering number, almost impossible to believe, but Berg grounds her film by investigating the crimes of a single abuser, Oliver O’Grady, as well as the the cover-up by the church which enabled him to prey upon untold numbers of children.

Berg’s film, nominated for an Oscar and winner of multiple awards, has been unanimously praised by critics for its bravery and unflinching attempt to expose the rot and corruption in a powerful institution. The result is a work more riveting that most thrillers, more terrifying than most horror films, and extremely intelligent. According to Owen Glieberman of Entertainment weekly, “The brilliance of Deliver Us From Evil … is the way that Berg portrays a kind of terrifying psychological chain, linking the abuse, the obscene entitlement experienced by a man like O’Grady, and the squirmy arrogance of the Catholic authorities who, in effect, hid his crimes, giving allowance to child rape because they believed their mission to be above sin.”

Not very many Criticker users have seen this important documentary, which is a shame, but earns it a spot in our list of Neglected Gems. Almost all of the few who have seen it have given Deliver Us From Evil high marks. Check out the trailer, and then make sure to hunt this excellent film down for a full viewing.