165) NEW HORROR RELEASES - Nefarious (2023)

"There's a great battle going on whether we realize it or not - a battle between good and evil. And we're all participants willing or not." 

Directors
Chuck Konzelman and Cary Solomon

Cast

Sean Patrick Flanery - Edward Wayne Brady/ Nefariamus
Jordan Belfi - Dr. James Martin
Tom Ohmer - Warden Tom Moss
Daniel Martin Berkey - Fr. Louis
Mark De Alessandro - Dr. Alan Fischer

As I've mentioned before, horror movies about demonic possession often do nothing for me except induce an eye roll. The don't demonstrate much except Hollywood's ignorance of the subject matter. That's primarily due to Hollywood's inability to get anything right about religion in general and Catholicism in particular. They rely on the creepy factor behind demons possessing people who are often young girls.  I get it to a point. It is horror, after all.

Sometimes, there's one film in the subgenre that's done well. "The Exorcism of Emily Rose" is the only one that comes to mind. Even others that I've enjoyed, namely "The Exorcist" and "The Exorcist III," still rely heavily on the grotesque aspects of Catholic exorcism, or rather what Hollywood thinks the grotesque aspects are. They take a lot of creative liberties in depicting the devil and possession. 

Head spinning. Projectile vomit. Strings of obscenities. Levitation. It's all the typical haunted house type of stuff. It can be spooky, but it's all they ever rely on. It's what horror fans expect. 

With many exorcism movies, the devil is in the audience's face while God is hiding somewhere far off. He'll be called upon, but who knows if He'll show up or not. 

The 2023 film "Nefarious" is a story about demonic possession. But this one is completely unique from the rest of them. 

There is no exorcism or shocking gag-inducing horror effects like the movies I've just mentioned.  

In this movie, psychiatrist James Martin (Jordan Belfi) is assigned to take over for the previous psychiatrist who was evaluating notorious serial killer Edward Wayne Brady (Sean Patrick Flanery). He's on death row for murdering 11 people. Brady is scheduled to be executed by electrocution. He requested electrocution over lethal injection. He needs to be medically evaluated to determine whether he's mentally competent to be executed.  

The previous doctor, Alan Fischer, committed suicide by jumping from a building after his interview with Brady. 

Fischer believed Brady to be insane and was going to declare him as such. Prison Warden, Tom Moss (Tom Ohmer) hopes Martin will find him sane so he can be fried. 

He warns Martin that Brady is a highly intelligent master manipulator and can easily get inside his head.

When Martin meets with Brady, he informs the doctor that he's actually a demon named "Nefariamus" who's in possession of Brady's mind and body.

Jordan Belfi and Sean Patrick Flanery in "Nefarious."

Martin is an atheist and doesn't believe in angels and demons. So, he thinks Brady is trying to come across as insane in order to avoid execution. 

As the conversation continues on, Martin falls deeper and deeper into the snares the demon has laid for him. 

He tells the psychiatrist that he wants Brady to be declared sane and fit for execution. Also, he wants Martin to write a Satanic book called "The Dark Gospel" for him.
Soon, Warden Moss shows Martin a scrapbook of Martin's life and a manuscript for "The Dark Gospel."

However, Brady knows details about Martin's personal life that he couldn't possibly know. For instance, he knows Martin euthanized his terminally ill mother in order to inherit her money. 

Later, he claims Martin is taking advantage of his pregnant girlfriend who's undergoing an abortion at the same time as their meeting. It's a detail Brady would otherwise have no way of knowing. 

He also claims that by the end of the day, Martin will commit three murders. 

After an intense dialogue and evaluation, the likes of which Martin has never been through before, he makes his evaluation regarding Brady's mental state. But his troubles don't end there. 

Sean Patrick Flanery's performance is brilliant and amazingly effortless. His character has to alternate between the vengeful, proud and ungodly demon, Nefariamus, and the exhausted and terrified Brady. The amount of effort Flanery must have put into his performance is nothing short of pure talent. It truly deserves recognition.

While the film is categorized as a horror flick based on the supernatural aspect of the story, the fear factor isn't found with typical possession tropes common in other demonic possession movies. There are no eye-popping scares. It's found in the psychology of the demonic entity doing the possessing.

This depicts the demonic mindset towards humanity and God's creation, and the war Hell has waged against all of it since the Devil was expelled from Heaven. 

When Martin asks the demon if Hell is a place or a state of being, the demon answers and continues on about Hell's ultimate hatred towards God. He tells Martin, "He made you in his image; we remade you in ours."

When Martin presses him on Hell's ultimate end of destroying nature, the demon says, "Our plan is to hurt Him. To punish Him. And we do that by destroying what He loves, which is you. You're nothing but a means to an end."

As seen in the scriptures, the devil doesn't pronounce the name of God nor His only son, Jesus Christ. He refers to God as "the enemy" and to Jesus as "the carpenter." 

When things go his way, Flannery depicts the demon as proud and speaking like one in control. When he's not in control, he grows frantic and yells, spouting demands and threats. 

The movie also does something demonic possession movies seldom, if ever, depict - the way a demon gains possession of a soul. 

Jordan Belfi and Tom Ohmer

When Martin first sits down to talk to Brady, unaware he's talking to a demon, the demon immediately tries to gain influence over him by enticing Martin to continue the dialogue. 

The more Martin talks, the more he becomes entangled in the traps the demon has laid out for him. 

All the while, Martin keeps thinking he has the upper hand simply because he sees himself as the reasonable one. It's a false sense of security which comes from his atheism. He doesn't believe in God, angels or demons, so what does he have to worry about. The devil already has a victory over Martin as he's already convinced the doctor that the devil doesn't exist. 

Before Martin realizes it, the demon already has him with no means of escape. 

The devil will speak truth and even quote scripture to ultimate serve a nefarious means - no pun intended. He'll skew the truth and the word of God ever so slightly in order to deceive and confuse. 

He is, after all, still an angelically intelligent being. 

Before watching this movie, I listened to an interview with exorcist Fr. Carlos Martin on a podcast called "Pints with Aquinas" during which he discusses "Nefarious."

"It brought you into the demonic mind which is much more interesting," he says. "That's the realm that I deal with - that an exorcist deals with. And that, I will tell you, at the end of the day is far more frightening. It's far more! If you saw somebody levitate in front of you, it would probably make the hair on the back of your head stand up. The 18th time, would it do that? The 118th time? At a certain point, you move on," 

"Nefarious" depicts this psychological aspect rather than all the usual tropes and such unlike any movie I have ever seen. The flow and storytelling is highly intriguing and truly effortless. 

It may come across as a bit preachy with all its dialogue and that most of the story is a conversation. However, that certainly doesn't diminish its significance. This is a film that will surely be culturally noteworthy maybe 10 or so years from now. 

"Nefarious" has a goal in mind and accomplishes it smoothly. It doesn't take nor need much to tell such a timely story.

I surely hope this movie continues warranting attention and consideration for the time period in which it was made.