Diabolic, 2026.
Directed by Daniel J. Phillips.
Starring Elizabeth Cullen, John Kim, Mia Challis, Terence Crawford, Luca Sardelis, Genevieve Mooy, Robin Goldsworthy, Seraphine Harley.
SYNOPSIS:
A woman’s hope for a miracle cure turns into a nightmare when she confronts the vengeful spirit of a cursed witch, determined to claim her as a vessel for her evil power.
In Diabolic, Elise (Elizabeth Cullen) is a young woman who is suffering from strange blackouts and is displaying weird behaviour ten years after being part of a bizarre baptism ritual as part of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), an extreme offshoot of the Mormon church. Now out of the church, her therapist recommends that she return to the scene of the baptism and receive alternative therapy from a mother and son who are former members of the church. Elise agrees and goes along with her boyfriend Adam (John Kim) and best friend Gwen (Mia Challis) for support, but in doing so Elise resurrects more than just painful memories.
On the face of it, Diabolic is another one of those supernatural religious horror movies, with a touch of folk thrown in, that tries to redo The Exorcist and makes a lot of noises by having quiet scenes shattered by pop-up ghosts with glowing eyes, and that is pretty much what you get. However, there is a little more going on than your average CGI-enhanced possession horror movie as the filmmakers have clearly done their homework with regards to the religious aspect.
Yes, the ‘Baptism of the Dead’ ritual that we see Elise going through in the opening scene is a real thing – or real as in members of the church actually practice it; can’t say for sure whether the results are – and the movie does explain what it is for and how it is supposed to ‘work’. But what does it mean within the confines of the movie? Well, we have a creepy religious sect that not a lot is known about, we have a young woman with issues – both with her mind and with physical intimacy, which does come into play in a very obvious way – and we have a ritual that is supposed to grant salvation to the dead, only it goes wrong and therefore we have to have a vengeful spirit, and in Diabolic that spirit is Larue (Seraphine Harley), a former member of the church who was also a witch and has been cursed for… well, reasons.
Diabolic scores highly in its ambitions to link its fictional demons to the real life church, and when the movie hits its stride the horror content is very well executed. Okay, we’ve seen the demon-hiding-in-the-background thing done to death but here the lighting, setting and general atmosphere make it work where you have to go back and double check, just to make sure. The sense of dread that director Daniel J. Phillips manages to create once all of the major players are at the central location is almost palpable, and although there are CGI effects it doesn’t look cheap or rushed.
But Diabolic falls down in the scenes between the horror content. The characters – if you can call them that – are so paper-thin you can tell exactly what their arc is as soon as they engage with anyone else – troubled woman with sexual hang ups out in the wilderness with her boyfriend and best friend? No prizes for guessing how that is going to play out. Elise is as bland a leading character as you could get, and the decision-making going on within the script from her is so contrived it is laughable, and things don’t get any better with the supporting characters, with Mia Challis offering up the only performance that could be described as decent. Also paper-thin is the mythology and backstory around Larue, so much so that she isn’t really much of a threat when she does appear, with the filmmakers doing their best visually to make her scary, but without any substance behind her she really is just a random ghost doing random ghost things rather than being presented as a genuine villain with a clearly defined endgame.
It is a shame as there is a lot going on within Diabolic that, if developed differently, could result in a religious horror that is more than just a spooky idea and cheap jump scares, and to be fair the jump scares are done quite well. However, when the pace lapses back from the intense horror into the unexciting ‘character’ moments the lame script and generic plot conveniences are all too obvious, making it a frustrating watch given the premise. Worth a rental for something a little different in terms of its ideas and the gorier set pieces, but despite the ingredients being present the finished product feels remarkably undercooked.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Chris Ward
