I want to sue the people behind Nefarious for fraud. This is not because something in the trailer wasn’t in the movie. No, Nefarious is fraudulent because the advertising campaign behind it implies that it is a horror movie, and it is not. At least not in the literal sense. The movie is actually a Christian pro-life diatribe in the guise of a horror movie. Maybe people who fall into that category believe in their hearts and minds that the topics discussed in this movie are horrific. If that’s true, then I guess there will be plenty of opportunities for them to shout “alleluia” and “amen” while they watch this movie. If the intent of the filmmakers behind Nefarious was to convert the unwashed, it fails completely due to the disgusting shots it takes at the other side. I don’t know what appeal this movie would have to those who consider themselves righteous, since it basically preaches to the already enraptured choir. While Nefarious is a well-made movie that features decent acting, competent direction and realistic sets, the argument it makes is pure lunacy, at least in the viewpoint of this lapsed Catholic. As if that weren’t enough, the movie features a shocking cameo at the end of the movie by a fringe media figure that left my jaw agape with utter disbelief. (As much as I want to, I refuse to spoil it. I have movie critic principles to uphold.) Not Recommended. Unless you’re morbidly curious, then have at it. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Analysis

When it comes to writing reviews, I love a good challenge.  Why else would I spend so much energy picking apart Strange World, a movie destined to be seen more as a pinata in the culture wars than an actual entertaining movie?  That said, Nefarious presents a very unique challenge.  I have to meet the movie on its terms, even though the reason I saw it at all was under false pretenses.  There’s nothing in the trailer below or the synopsis of the movie used by two theater chains (also included below) that indicate what the movie is actually about.  When the movie revealed its true nature, I was shocked to say the least.  Not by what it says, but how deceitful it was to get me to pay to watch it in a theater.  Given how dishonestly this movie was promoted, it should have been titled “Reprehensible”.

To be fair, Nefarious is a well-made movie.  The sets were convincing to the point where I believed that the action was taking place at an actual prison.  The electric chair scene is as horrific as one in The Green Mile.  The movie has a decent hook: is the inmate condemned to die clinically insane, or is he really possessed?  The direction is competent, managing to turn what feels like a stage play into a borderline cinematic narrative.  The acting is decent if unspectacular, with Sean Patrick Flanery (as Edward/Nefarious) and Jordan Belfi (as Dr. Martin) working well in a story that is basically a two-hander.  Together, they deliver 95% of the dialog in the movie.  However, Nefarious is first and foremost a showcase for Flanery.

Flanery chews the scenery with conviction throughout the movie.  His performance is suitably unhinged for a person with multiple-personality disorder.  As the eponymous character, Flanery is a DollarTree version of James McAvoy’s character in Split.  Instead of getting to switch between a dozen characters, this movie can only afford two.  As it is, the Nefarious “personality” comes off as Mickey Rourke with a hangover, replete with a scruffy beard and suspiciously mussed hair.  To emphasize his demonic origin, he spits out lines in a gruff voice, blinks furiously, and a tongue that flits out like a lizard.  With all of the fireworks Nefarious gives off, I wondered why Dr. Martin (ha) was so comfortable sitting at the same table as him, with the nearest guard behind a locked gate.  When he switches to Edward, Flanery makes him frightened and tearful, which makes sense because he’s being sent to the electric chair for crimes he didn’t commit.  (The demon made me do it.)

Belfi is fine as Dr. Martin, but he’s a piece of stale white bread compared to Flanery.  Some of that could be due to how the character is written.  Martin is supposed to be a guileless dupe who will be easily outdueled by Nefarious.  A better actor with more gravitas could have lent more nuance to the part, but I doubt any serious actors would have considered the role.

I stated above that Nefarious has a decent premise.  The opening scene certainly grabbed my attention.  An elderly psychiatrist wraps up his day at the office, takes the elevator to the top floor of his office building and promptly jumps off the roof to his death.  What prompted him to do this?  Was he inspired by seeing The Grudge?  (I still feel sorry for poor Bill Pullman.)  Next, Dr. Martin is sent to the prison to interview Edward to determine whether he can be executed.  Even though this is the state of Oklahoma, the movie posits that a psychiatrist can halt an execution that’s scheduled to happen that day if he determines he’s insane after interviewing him for a couple of hours.  I’m no expert in death row procedures, but this doesn’t seem right to me.  Wouldn’t Edward’s lawyers have needed to raise this as a last-ditch effort to save his life well in advance of the execution?  If all an inmate needed to do to escape capital punishment was feign insanity, wouldn’t that effectively put an end to all executions?  This should have been my first clue that the movie wasn’t playing fairly (or logically).

Regardless, when Martin begins to have his tet-a-tet with Edward, I figured the movie was going to be a battle of wits between the psychiatrist and the devious inmate.  Edward says he’s a demon, so Martin asks him to prove it.  A lightbulb suddenly goes out, which Edward says could be a coincidence.  Nefarious is billed as a horror movie, so I figured there would be more moments like this to come.  (How wrong was I.)  When Nefarious says that Martin will end up committing three murders before the end of the day, I was intrigued.  Who would Edward kill inside the prison?  Guards?  Prisoners?  The warden?  Would he be framed for what we would see were accidental deaths, where his proximity to the murders was purely coincidental?  That’s when the movie began to reveal its true intentions.

Nefarious says he chose Martin to carry out his master plan.  Nefarious has written a book called “The Dark Gospel” that will be a rebuttal to the New Testament.  (The title sounds like something Marilyn Manson would use for his next album.)  Demons have long regretted permitting Christ (or “the carpenter”, as Nefarious refers to him) to die for mankind’s sins, so Nefarious wrote a book that gives people the option to put themselves at the center of the  universe.  I don’t know if Nefarious ever heard of Satanism, but that’s what his book sounded like.

Nefarious proceeds to explain to Martin stuff that anyone who’s familiar with demons and angels would already know.  God cast demons out of the heavens and created humans in his image.  Demons turn humans towards evil as a way to get revenge on God.  In terms of ideology, Nefarious is at the same level as the television show Charmed.  (Nefarious does not have Alyssa Milano, natch.)  Martin is an atheist so he says that none of this matters to him.  Nefarious says that Martin is like all non-believers, who think they are safe because they sit on the sidelines.  Hmm.  Definitely sounds like a threat…but to whom?

After delivering a significant chunk of religious exposition, Nefarious makes his three murders prediction.  Martin doesn’t believe it, until Nefarious brings up how Martin agreed to his mother’s assisted suicide.  When Nefarious tells Edward that his mother’s death was murder, that’s when I realized that this movie wasn’t a horror movie at all.  Nefarious is a pro-life propaganda piece.

Granted, I don’t know the tenets of the pro-life movement that well, but I’m pretty sure but the various Christian faiths are against physician-assisted suicide.  But why would a demon care about that?  According to Nefarious, and by extension this movie, agreeing to a physician-assisted suicide is murder.  That Martin’s mother was terminally ill and suffering is irrelevant.  Murder is murder, according to Nefarious.  Martin is understandably gobsmacked that Edward/Nefarious knew about what happened to his mother.  I was curious as well, until Nefarious made his next claim.

As it just so happens, Martin’s girlfriend is undergoing an elective termination of her pregnancy that same day.  (What an incredible coincidence, I thought.)  Nefarious says that the termination of the fetus is murder and describes the procedure with language intended to shock and horrify.  If Edward weren’t in jail, he would probably be driving one of those trucks with the bloody pictures on either side.  As any pro-lifer would presumably attest, cheap shots are worth it if they “save a life”.  Even though Martin and his girlfriend agreed to the procedure well in advance, Nefarious’ graphic language convinces Martin to call his wife and stop the procedure.  Unfortunately, he’s too late.  Two murders!

Martin has one murder left, and by now you know that the murder will be signing off on the death order.  According to the world-view espoused by Nefarious, assisted suicide, abortion and capital punishment are all murder.  To make sure Martin plays his role as patsy, Nefarious physically attacks Martin by slipping out of his handcuffs.  The scene is well shot and acted, but there is little chance the warden would have let the doctor be in a room with a murder who he has referred to as an evil genius.  Of course, it doesn’t take an evil genius to figure out how to slip out of handcuffs.  The movie needs to show us that Martin is a quivering piece of jell-o when confronted with pure evil, and the scene does its job.  Martin signs Edward’s death warrant out of fear and anger, clearly at odds with what a pre-eminent psychiatrist should do at that moment in time.  The doctor may be a smart man, but Nefarious is, well, you know, nefarious.

Edward is electrocuted, and the procedure is excruciating to watch.  Before this scene happens, the movie has Edward describe what an electrocution does to the victim’s eyes, so I didn’t understand why his head wasn’t covered before the switch was flipped.  Regardless, Nefarious is really not concerned with making a nuanced case against capital punishment.  It’s not concerned with how it fails as a deterrent and is applied unfairly and sometimes fraudulently.  The movie only views capital punishment as a sin that demons convince humans to commit.

After Edward is declared dead, Martin hears a demonic voice in his head.  To my hilarious disappointment, it sounded exactly like a voice modified to protect the identity of a person in a television show.  Martin tries to kill himself with a detective’s gun, but it misfires three times.  Was this an allusion to the Bible story of Peter denying he knew Jesus?  Or was it the power of the Legion of Demons keeping Martin alive so that he could publish their demonic textbook?  I honestly don’t know.  One year later, Martin is talking to Glenn Beck of all people, and I sat stupefied wondering how I found myself watching this despicable and utterly ridiculous movie on date night.

I remember that at one point, Beck used to be a political commentator on CNN.  Since that time, he somehow got too fringe for even Fox news and started his own television network.  I had not heard of Beck for a long time but I remembered hearing that he’d become a born-again Christian.  Perhaps this is how Beck wound up appearing in this movie.  I guess better him than the Pillow Guy.  Beck actually gives a decent performance as himself.  He doesn’t give off any nut job vibes.  I’m sure he believes that demons are real and that they tirelessly work to possess people every minute of every day.  However, people like Beck and the people behind this movie have a long way to go before they can claim to have converted a single unbeliever.

In the end, Martin turns the table on Nefarious.  Instead of publishing The Dark Gospel as is, he rewrites the text so that it serves as a warning of the demonic plan against humankind.  Evidently, making money off of demonic texts is still allowed under Christianity.  I’m at a loss for what purpose Nefarious ultimately serves.  I’m dubious it would ever result in converting a member of the audience, given how ludicrous it is.  If the movie is intended as a pep talk for the faithful, do they really need a movie like this one to keep them focused?

On a practical note, I’m not allowing any Ouija boards into my house.  As The Exorcist, Paranormal Activity and other demonic movies have “proven” they are a hotline to the devil.  Better to be safe than sorry, I always say.  Piss off Nefarious!