nefarious movie reviews rotten tomatoes

'Nefarious' uses horror to tell a faith-based story. But Glenn Beck's cameo is really scary

“Nefarious” moves along like a garden-variety possession movie, with a convicted killer hours away from the electric chair trying to convince a court-ordered psychiatrist he is a demon who has taken over the prisoner.

Sean Patrick Flanery has a grand old time playing Edward, who has been convicted of several murders, and Nefarious, the demon who claims to possess him. Dr. James Martin (Jordan Belfi) is the doctor who has to decide if he’s mentally competent enough to be executed.

It’s pretty standard horror fare — Edward knows an alarming amount about James’ life, even though there is no reason he should. A light bulb mysteriously explodes. “Probably just a coincidence,” Edward says, shrugging.

Flanery really sells the possession aspect, portraying the demon half of the character as super-intelligent and manipulative. But is he faking it?

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Is 'Nefarious' a Christian movie?

Without revealing too much, he then rants about abortion being murder, which is all well and good from the demon's perspective, but not from the filmmakers'. And they're not subtle about it.

Up to this point, you wouldn’t have guessed “Nefarious” is a faith-based movie. Although it’s not a surprise, given the other films writers and directors Chuck Konzelman and Cary Solomon have made; their resume includes such films as “God’s Not Dead” and “Unplanned.”

Which is fine, until their message becomes increasingly heavy-handed and the film begins to suffer accordingly, at least in cinematic terms. (How it works on a religious level will be up to you and your faith.)

But including Glenn Beck in your movie? That’s neither well nor good.

Glenn Beck doesn't belong in any movie

Beck is a loudmouth conspiracy theorist who wore out his welcome at Fox News, kinda sorta said he was sorry when he opposed Donald Trump in 2016, and then changed his tune again.

He showed up on Tucker Carlson , for whom he might be considered a role model in the misinformation game, the night Trump was indicted, predicting that within two years the U.S. would be at war (with whom varied), that the dollar would collapse and that we’ll be living in a “virtual police state.”

This is not someone you want in your movie, no matter what you believe.

Beck shows up at the end, playing himself, in an epilogue. He oozes sincerity and compassion.

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There's nothing subtle about 'Nefarious'

Before that, the film is mostly a set piece staged between Edward and James. James is an atheist — oops — who doesn’t believe in demons or possession, or in God for that matter. Edward assures him that this will not protect him.

If you’re such a non-believer, Edward taunts, then let me inhabit you. (Note: He’s speaking as Nefarious at this point.) The confident James says sure, why not?

Dude, have you ever seen a horror movie?

A priest shows up to talk to Edward, who, while as Nefarious, screams and says he isn’t welcome — until the priest assures him that the Catholic Church long ago evolved to believe that most of what people think of as possessions are in fact forms of mental illness.

This renders the priest’s faith impotent, of course — it reminded me of the showdown between the priest and Barlow the vampire in “ Salem’s Lot ” — and Edward settles down, knowing he has nothing to fear from him.

It’s a bit much.

Again, subtlety is not the film’s strong point. Neither is casting.

Using horror to tell a faith-based story is interesting, if not successful

Flanery is the most interesting thing in the movie, as Edward/Nefarious torments the doctor. Belfi comes off as more bland, though so would anyone acting opposite Flanery.

Using the horror genre to tell a faith-based story is an interesting idea, even if it doesn’t really work in the end. And then Beck shows up, and that’s the scariest thing of all.

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'Nefarious' 2 stars

Great ★★★★★ Good ★★★★

Fair ★★★ Bad ★★ Bomb ★

Directors: Chuck Konzelman, Cary Solomon.

Cast: Sean Patrick Flanery, Jordan Belfi, James Healy Jr.

Rating: R for some disturbing violent content.

How to watch: In theaters April 14.

Reach Goodykoontz at  [email protected] . Facebook:  facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm . Twitter:  @goodyk . Subscribe to  the weekly movies newsletter .

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Nefarious (2023)

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April 13, 2023

Movies , Movies for the Rest of Us

Review: Nefarious — Movies for the Rest of Us with Bill Newcott

The premise of this psychological thriller holds all kinds of promise for a nifty nail-biter.

Bill Newcott

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Run Time: 1 hour 38 minutes

Stars: Sean Patrick Flanery, Jordan Belfi

Writers/Directors: Chuck Konzelman, Cary Solomon

As a psychological/supernatural thriller, Nefarious may not be great filmmaking, but it is confident filmmaking, and sometimes that can get you exactly where you want to go.

The movie’s premise holds all kinds of promise for a nifty nail-biter: Dr. James Martin (Jordan Belfi), a young, smug psychiatrist, is buzzed into the Oklahoma State Penitentiary to interview Edward (Sean Patrick Flanery), a mass murderer scheduled for execution that very night. James’s task is seemingly straightforward: To determine if Edward is sane enough to be fried in the electric chair.

The warden warns the shrink that Edward is a master manipulator: “He’ll have your head so twisted around you’ll think you’re the killer.”

And as if to prove the warden right, the moment James sits down across from Edward at a metal jailhouse table, Edward issues an ominous warning: “Before you leave here tonight, you will have killed three people.”

Oh, and by the way, Edward adds, he’s not really Edward. He’s a demon named Nefarious. Edward is just the current meat bag in which he resides.

And so, for most of the next hour, we find ourselves flies on the wall as the initially self-satisfied atheist doctor sees his certitude steadily chipped away by this supposed entity who instinctively knows his every weakness; every dark secret.

Is Edward an incredibly intuitive nutcase? Or is he actually possessed? We’ve been to enough movies to know the answer to that question, but writers/directors Cary Solomon and Chuck Konzelman still manage to play a mean game of peek-a-boo in what amounts to a two-character drama.

As longtime creators of faith-based films, most notably the God’s Not Dead series, Solomon and Konzelman don’t try to conceal the moral issues that have defined their careers. The characters’ arguments touch on hot-button matters like abortion and perceived cultural immorality, and the God-versus-Satan battle lines are boldly drawn. But intriguingly, aside from an ineffectual prison chaplain, not one character in the film identifies as Christian, or as having any faith at all.

In fact, just about the only guy here who seems to actually believe in God is the villain of the piece. As a result, Nefarious gets most of the film’s interesting moments, his lawyerly rhetoric echoing the calculating logic of C.S. Lewis’s bureaucratic demon in The Screwtape Letters.

Repeatedly — and somewhat convincingly — Nefarious makes the case that humankind, despite its best intentions, will always drift over to the dark side.

“Hate speech wasn’t even our idea,” he laughs. “You came up with that one yourselves!”

The heavy lifting here is accomplished by Flanery as Edward/Nefarious, deftly shifting personalities and imbuing each entity with appropriate doses of menace and helplessness, occasionally making the transition on a dime. When he’s Nefarious, Flanery spits out his lines with alarming, disorienting speed; as Edward he cringes and sobs, cowers and screams. It could easily all be too much, but instinctively, it seems, Flanery knows just when to throttle back.

As the mystified shrink, Belfi offers a steady, slow burn, his character realizing, perhaps too late, that he has wildly underestimated his subject’s true nature.

Nefarious zips through most of its brisk 1 hour 38 minutes, its efficient runtime rendered even more lively by snappy editing from Brian Jeremiah Smith ( Get Out ). But after racing toward the slam-bang climax of a convulsive death house scene, the proceedings come to a grinding halt thanks to an extended, ill-advised epilogue featuring, of all people, former Fox News host Glenn Beck.

That’s a near-fatal narrative error — redeemed, ironically, by one last devil in the details.

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It seems true enough that the film targets three moral issues that plague the world of today: euthanasia, abortion and capital punishment. Introducing demons into the film in a way that moves a person with Dissociative Identity disorder to show an unearthly struggle with conscience moves morality to another level. The film masterfully proves a point that conscience is not just the choice to give in to one’s fears, or to submit oneself to preferred life styles or guide one’s morality according to one’s future plans. Rather the movie seems to leave us with a choice: accept conscience as the inner depth of the soul where one is alone with a wise and merciful God; or allow the conscience to becomes the devil’s playground. God deserves the former option. (I lecture in psychology and theology in a university of Tanzania, East Africa. You may publish my email if you wish.)

I thought Nefarious was Faustian and left us with questions. Clinically he would pass the bar of insanity based on multiple personalities and not feeling pain when he deliberately broke his own finger. He said ‘”it actually felt good.” Relieved his stress. That is a benchmark of multiple personality disorder. But was he therefore eligible for a stay of execution in the mind of the audience? Is Faust redeemable in this movie? Catholics don’t support abortion or the death penalty, and the audience has to follow the grisly details of electric chair death. Disturbing. It’s a Faustian play with a final point: you can’t kill evil. But you can shine a light on it.

I am surprised you gave it three stars. Most of the reviews I have heard give it a solid 5, but you do you. I also heard through the grapevine an application to the Academy is on the way for Sean Patrick Flanery to be considered for a 2024 Oscar. I can’t make it to the theater myself to see it, but you can bet when it comes out on digital release, I will be the first in line. I hope it makes a bundle!!!

WOW!!!!!! O…M….G .. GO SEE THIS!! Sean Patrick Flanery SLAYED this role. Epic. Phenomenal performance. I was blown away. A must see psychological thriller. O…M…G… Raw and brilliant

Hi Brian — No, not a shot at Glenn at all. He’s a pioneering broadcaster. I just found it unexpected that he’d pop up in a movie like this.

Devra, thanks for your kind words! I know, there are a lot of movies out there, aren’t there??

i so enjoy your reviews and your help navigating today’s movie scene. thanks for consistently guiding me to movies that i can relate to and enjoy.

Is that a shot at Glenn Beck?

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Nefarious Movie Ending Explained: What's the True Meaning of the Film?

The ending of Nefarious , a new horror movie released in 2023, leaves fans wondering what the true meaning of the film truly was.

The film centers on a psychiatrist assigned to analyze a convicted death row inmate believed to be faking demonic possession to avoid his sentence, all taking place in prison.

The independent scare-fest failed to impress critics, averaging a 33% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes . But although it only grossed $5.4 million at the global box office (per Box Office Mojo ), it earned an Audience Score of 96% from Rotten Tomatoes.

What Happened at the End of Nefarious?

The crux of Nefarious ' plot sees Sean Patrick Flannery's Edward Wayne Brady, who says he is possessed by a demon named Nefarious, tell Jordan Belfi's Dr. James Martin that he will kill three people before he leaves the state penitentiary in which he is imprisoned.

Those murders include Dr. Martin's mother (whom he previously took off life support), the unborn child that his girlfriend would abort at the clinic during Martin and Brady's visit, and then Brady himself when his sentence was carried out.

Brady also writes a manuscript under Nefarious' influence called The Dark Gospel , a Satanic piece of of work that reads as a diary tracking Martin's entire life.

Although Martin first declares Brady sane, Brady assaults James and almost kills him, allowing the state to carry out Brady's death sentence for the six murders of which he was convicted. Nefarious gives Martin one more chance to join him before the execution, but he then moves into Martin and almost makes the doctor kill himself before the gun he uses fails to fire.

Martin refuses to believe the gun mishap was an act of God, publishing Nefarious' book after rewriting it to warn people about the evil out in the world.

But after going on a talk show to promote the book a year later, Martin comes face-to-face with Nefarious after the demon possesses another person's body, telling him that the war between good and evil will never end.

What is the True Meaning of Nefarious' Ending?

Throughout the entire movie, Nefarious (through Brady) is seen ranting and yelling about topics many see as anti-conservative, including the idea of abortion and other serious concepts from Christian ideology.

For instance, when Martin prays to God as Nefarious tries to make him commit suicide, viewers have argued about the way the film may have presented that kind of religious belief as an overwhelming positive in the context of religion.

The talk show appearance from Martin seems to further push that way of thinking, as he infers more religious and conservative views are inherently good and the other side (shown by Nefarious) is bad.

The simplest way of looking at this is that the filmmakers looked to set clear qualifications and reasoning behind what is truly good and evil, using the lens of religion and theology as a guide.

While religion and horror movies are certainly no strangers to being used together, this film takes a much more theological approach to that concept rather than simply pitting demons against a God-like entity.

Many walked away feeling influenced by the idea that manifestations of evil are spread all across society, ones which can influence people to do evil things.

While everyone has their own set of beliefs (be them moral, religious, theological, or something else), Nefarious dove hard into the filmmakers' theories behind good and evil, putting them in the public eye as viewers analyzed the outcome.

Nefarious is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video .

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Nefarious Review: A Nasty Little Film, Just As Intended

Nefarious reminded me of From Dusk Till Dawn . Not because there are vampires, George Clooney or Salma Hayek, but because for a significant chunk of the film the viewer is wondering “where’s the horror I was promised?” But it’s there, waiting just around the bend, trust me: just like in From Dusk Till Dawn , you can sense there’s something coming, and then it’s there, not letting up until the end. That chunk at the start of the film is indeed significant: we get to know the characters, we develop some understanding for them and their world, and – just like them – we get the impression we’re going to see the end of the night with no bloodshed. Well, hmm, keep watching.

Darren (Buck Braithwaite), Lou (Nadia Lamin), Jo (Abbey Gillett) and Mas (Omari Lake-Pottinger) come to the joint realization they have had enough of just scraping by when an impossible debt is called in. One of them has heard there is loot to be found in her boss’s house, so they make plans to break in when the man of the house is out… and I’m not going to tell you the rest.

Richard Rowntree, as director and producer of Nefarious , has pulled off a brutal little success: the intention was to create a blood-and-guts film for horror aficionados from the good old home-invasion-gone-wrong scenario; with an extra layer of rich eating the poor, a la Society …. And he did it. Unlike Society , this is no body-horror comedy, though, but a nasty little thriller; with surprises, tension, torture, terrific practical effects, and even police interview clips. Somehow those surprises are shocking and extreme without being ludicrous; granted, it’s not a strictly believable story, but the viewer is drawn into events so well that it’s easy to accept what we see on the screen.

This isn’t because of the acting (the cast is well-chosen, but not brilliant), but the writing. Matthew Davies and Richard Rowntree have put together a very engaging script; one that I feel would have flourished with a stronger cast and bigger budget. The script has so much going on (in terms of both nuances and action) that it’s only afterward that you realize how little time has passed: it’s well under the ninety-minute mark. Actually, the cast who stood out were the two residents of the home being broken into: Marcus (Toby Wynn-Davies) the businessman and Clive (Gregory A Smith), his brother with (unspecified) learning disabilities. Not only were those parts played with care, but they also showed the strength of the writing, with the aspects to both men’s characters being revealed naturally as the film progresses.

On a related note, I was very wary of a character with learning disabilities playing a major part: they can suffer equally from bullying and stereotypes in thrillers of varying kinds. But Clive had some character; his condition wasn’t just a plot device. And when it did become a plot device, it was a well-thought-out and logical one. There was very little that was condescending or simplistic about the writing of Clive’s character.

The other plus points were the music (both neatly applied score and original songs) and – oh yes – the gore effects. These two pulled Nefarious out from looking or sounding like a “low budget” horror. If the acting and cinematography were just a little sharper, Nefarious could have been much more memorable.

By the way, in the interests of full disclosure, I was a minor backer in the Kickstarter campaign for Nefarious . I had quite forgotten I was due to receive a copy at the end of its festival run when I sought out a review screener; so my reviewing the film has nothing to do with any (negligible) involvement.

Article by Alix Turner

Alix joined Ready Steady Cut back in 2017, bringing their love for horror movies and nasty gory films. Unsurprisingly, they are Rotten Tomatoes Approved, bringing vast experience in film critiquing. You will likely see Alix enjoying a bloody horror movie or attending a genre festival.

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‘Nefarious’ (2023) Review – A Thought-Provoking Supernatural Horror Exercise In Morality

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If you have seen the trailer for Nefarious  it is easy to dismiss this film as just another cookie-cutter horror movie to be released during the spring season. You would be making a serious mistake by thinking that.

Nefarious Film Poster

What if I were to tell you that this is a Christian film within the horror genre? Some of you may react negatively because one of the biggest criticisms about modern Christian films is that the portrayals of real life are so overwhelmingly uplifting that it borders on parody.

It is rare to see a Christian film or even a modern Christian sermon that covers the topic of sin. Whenever anyone shines a light on the evils that consume our world every day, people tend to get uncomfortable in the face of defined definitions of right and wrong.

As a result, most Christian content won’t even highlight society’s issues of immorality because the belief is that it’s much easier to win people over being uplifting rather than being truthful.

Not only does this film stand apart with its strong Christian background, but it also eschews the Blum House style of horror films about a cliché portrayal of demons with mediocre plots highlighted by cheap actors that leads to a solid 90 minutes of jump scares. The genre has become so formulaic that audiences don’t even react to it due to its repetitiveness.

Nefarious  is a film that takes a different path altogether.

Jordan Belfi as Dr. James Martin and Tom Ohmer as Warden Moss in Nefarious (2023)

The premise of the film is about a man, Edward Wayne Brady, sitting on death row awaiting the last moments of his life after committing a series of horrible murders.

However, Brady (Sean Patrick Flanery), claims to be a demon as he speaks with psychiatrist Dr. James Martin (Jordan Belfi), who has been ordered to determine whether Brady is mentally fit to withstand execution. Brady, who refers to himself as Nefarious, tells the doctor that by the end of the day he will be responsible for the death of at least three people.

Sean Patrick Flanery as Nefarious in Nefarious

If I were to tell you that this was a Christian film you would be reluctant to believe it but Nefarious is one of the most creative films about faith and the spiritual war on our souls to come out over the last few decades. Nefarious is a character study on the absence of faith and the destruction of it and how one plays into the hands of another.

Everyone reading this has heard of the term “culture wars” when describing the effects that entertainment has on our society. Nefarious lives by the creed that we are not in a “culture war” but a “spiritual war” for the souls of every human being. Forget everything you know about modern horror films when discussing this movie because the rules of secular Hollywood do not apply here.

Nefarious is a thinking man’s movie that relies on the human fears of mortality while questioning various atheistic and secular views of morality all while wrapped in the question of whether Brady is really the demon he claims to be or the ravings of a mad man.

Sean Patrick Flanery is menacing as the character of Nefarious and he sells the seriousness of the plot by making audiences question whether he’s telling the truth about who he is or if he’s actually mentally unstable.

This menacing nature does not rely on camera tricks and jump scares but rather Flanery’s presence and his ability to channel multiple personas. His performance is so well done it will make believers and non-believers question their own morality in the face of direct confrontation with a being claiming to be a demon.

While Flanery’s portrayal as Brady and Nefarious is top notch, his foil, Jordan Belfi also delivers. Belfi plays a psychiatrist who is the straight man for this supernatural encounter and his character, at least in one aspect, represents the secular world coming to terms with the evil he unwittingly helped create or at least created by his willful ignorance.

Sean Patrick Flanery as Edward Wayne Brady/ Nefarious and Jordan Belfi as Dr. James Martin in Nefarious (2023)

To ramp up the intensity between the two, the majority of the film takes place in a one-room two character bottle that relies on gripping audiences with masterful dialogue and a showcase in character-to-character storytelling.

The only downside here is the last 10 to 15 minutes of run time loses its momentum once the one on one character dynamic has been removed from the equation. This causes the story to drag on creating the cinematic equivalent of a rough landing to an otherwise smooth flight.

Jordan Belfi as Dr. James Martin in Nefarious

The Verdict

There are not going to be very many films released this year that are going to make you think on the level of Nefarious . It is a film that is not only entertaining, but also makes you question what side of the battle between good and evil you are truly on.

‘Nefarious’ is one of the best movies to come out in 2023 and at this point should be considered one of the best movies of the year.

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10 Movies Where The Devil Appears In A Human Disguise

"he’s completely unconscious": the mummy director recalls brendan fraser's dangerous real-life stunt on 1999 action movie, star wars producer gives intriguing new name to jedi origin movie set 25,000 years in the past.

• Nefarious is a psychological horror film from 2023 directed by Chuck Konzelman & Cary Solomon, based on a novel by Steve Deace.
• Despite poor box office performance, Nefarious is available for streaming and offers a chilling tale on faith and evil.
• Rent or buy Nefarious on platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Google Play, YouTube TV, and Microsoft for $3.99 to $6.99.

Nefarious is a psychological religious horror movie from 2023, and for those wondering where to watch it, there are options to stream, rent, and buy. Based on Steve Deace's 2016 novel A Nefarious Plot , Nefarious comes from director pair Chuck Konzelman and Cary Solomon and is one of the more unseen and underrated psychological horror movies to come out recently . The film stars Jordan Belfi as Dr. James Martin, a psychiatrist who has to decide if a death row inmate Edward Wayne Brady (Sean Patrick Flanery), is faking his alleged demonic possession.

Nefarious released on April 14, 2023, and though it performed poorly in theaters, earning only $5.8 million (via Box Office Mojo ), the movie had a stronger run on streaming (via Yahoo! Finance ). Despite a 33% on Rotten Tomatoes , Nefarious is still a frightening and engrossing tale about faith, evil, and how reality and morality intersect. By the end of Nefarious , the message at the center of the film may feel a bit over-beaten, but it's still one that makes you think. Those looking to revisit Nefarious or watch for the first time should have no problem finding it.

Horror movies bring the worst monsters out to scare viewers, and the scariest might be the devil, especially when he appears as a human.

2023's Nefarious Movie Is Available For Streaming On Amazon Prime Video

There are many price plans & packages on the streaming service.

Nefarious is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video in HD. There are several Amazon Prime Video subscriptions viewers can purchase to watch the film. Prime Video w/ Amazon Prime membership is $14.99/month or $139.00/year, Prime Video alone is $8.99/month, and the ad-free option is an additional $2.99/month.

Most of Nefarious takes place over one night and is primarily focused on the discussion between Edward and James, making the film often feel like a chamber play. Fortunately, Flanery and Belfi have the charisma and talent to make these long, quiet stretches an absorbing watch. The game is given away fairly early in Nefarious , but there are still surprising moments sprinkled throughout that make it worth trying out if subscribed to Amazon Prime Video.

Watch On Amazon Prime Video

Where To Rent Or Buy The Nefarious Movie Online

Several platforms offer the 2023 movie for rental or purchase.

For those who are not subscribed to Amazon Prime Video, there are plenty of options to rent or buy the film . Nefarious can be rented from Amazon Prime Video, Vudu, Apple TV+, Google Play, YouTube TV, and Microsoft, all in HD. Amazon Prime Video and Vudu cost $3.99, making them the cheapest option. Apple TV costs $5.99 and the rest of the platforms cost $6.99 to rent. Nefarious is available to purchase everywhere it's available to rent and every option is $14.99 for the HD version.

• Nefarious (2023)

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Nefarious outperforms., audience loves it critics hate it that tells you enough about society, the demonic is alive and active in our present day, gripping psychological thriller that tells the truth about evil in this world., see this movie - nefarous, finally some truth about the world we are leaving for our children., captivates your attention the entire time, demonic & disturbing, sobering for all.

Opinion: Maybe I’m the ‘Nefarious’ target audience, but I wasn’t moved

• Rachelle Chase is a Des Moines Register columnist.

I stumbled upon the movie "Nefarious" and decided to go see it. It wasn’t the movie itself that intrigued me enough to decide to go see it. It was the marketing of the movie.

“Nefarious” is being marketed as a horror film. Though “Christian” and “faith-based” appeared in reviews, the words were missing from the movie description, posters, and theater advertising.

I was curious: How could you omit those words from all marketing, label “Nefarious” a horror movie, and expect non-religious viewers to pick-up its intended message?

So I watched the film, failed to pick up any belief-changing message, then researched what the producers had expected me to.

I was supposed to see deeper meaning in the trailer

On the day of his scheduled execution, a convicted serial killer gets a psychiatric evaluation during which he claims he is a demon, and further claims that before their time is over, the psychiatrist will commit three murders of his own. Synposis of ”Nefarious” from Rotten Tomatoes

More: 'Nefarious' uses horror to tell a faith-based story. But Glenn Beck's cameo is really scary

"Everything in the trailer is in the movie," said Steve Deace, the Des Moines-based nationally syndicated streaming talk show host who is an executive producer of the film, in an interview with The Family Leader . "It’s just not presented in the trailer the way that it actually is in the movie. So everything is being done here subversively. We are attempting to reach an audience that desperately needs the truth of what we believe before it is too late. And they’re going to get it.”

"Subversive" is a scary word. It brings to (my) mind the '80s, when people accused metal bands of hiding satanic messages in songs that they alleged were revealed when vinyl records were played backward. Unless “the truth” Deace wants to share was hidden in the trailer like that, the trailer I watched didn’t seem subversive.

Instead, the trailer seemed like good marketing, piecing together the action clips to add suspense and tension, despite the fact that seemingly 95% of the “action” in the actual movie is talking.

And, boy, do they talk. Nefarious (Sean Patrick Flanery) is a demon who inhabits the body of Edward, whom he has forced to commit 11 murders. Dr. James Martin (Jordan Belfi) is, according to Deace "a left-wing, atheist psychiatrist, because other than Jordan Peterson, there are no other kinds of those, apparently." The two meet in prison on Edward's execution day for Martin to determine if Edward is mentally competent to be executed, and they talk for about 40-plus minutes straight, though it's mainly Nefarious talking and a doubting Martin asking questions.

After 30 minutes, the “worldview” was supposed to make me question my beliefs

“Make no mistake," Deace said in the same interview, "you will see, particularly when you get about 30 minutes into the film, once we feel like the unbeliever is emotionally connected to the story, we flip the script on them, and the worldview of the movie comes out and it flies its colors boldly the whole rest of the film.”

I didn't feel “emotionally connected.” But Flanery's performance as he switched from demon to tortured Edward kept me watching while Belfi’s “fish-out-of-water” reactions to Nefarious kept me slightly amused.

Then I felt the flip of the switch Deace mentioned when Nefarious stopped preaching in generalities and channeled a conservative religious worldview.

More by Rachelle: LGBTQ Ugandans already suffer imprisonment, torture. Now they could face the death penalty.

First was the scene where Nefarious accuses Martin of murdering his elderly mother through "death with dignity, euthanasia, assisted suicide." Then, a long scene where Nefarious beats Martin down on the issue of abortion, instilling a sense of panic and guilt in Martin for his soon-to-be ex-girlfriend's abortion that I didn’t find believable.

Then, there's this dialogue that gets in a culture war dig. Martin makes an idealistic statement that no one I know would ever make in real life: "We've never been freer," he says. "Literacy is at an all-time high. We're working to eliminate racism, intolerance, gender inequality. People can love who they want, be who they want, do what they want. Diversity is no longer a dream, hate speech is no longer tolerated, and politically, we're reclaiming the moral high ground."

Nefarious' rebuttal is weak, directly addressing only literacy before segueing into a disdainful rant that seeks to communicate the screenwriter's opinion instead of addressing Martin's points: "James, the average high school graduate reads at a sixth-grade level. Your basketball players making 30 million a year decrying racism all while wearing sneakers made from slave labor. Here's something for you. Right now. Your world currently has 40 million slaves, more than the Romans had at the height of their empire. Want to know the best part though? Half of those, half, are sex slaves. As for hate speech, you want to hear some irony? We didn't even come up with that one. You did it all by yourself. Sometimes you amaze even us."

Nothing here, nor in the film, posed a compelling argument that caused me to question anything, other than, on occasion trying to follow Nefarious’ stream-of-consciousness reasoning.  

“The truth” was supposed to rock my world.

Was "Nefarious" subversive while I was watching it? That is, as someone who isn’t immersed in conservative Christianity and who knew little beforehand about the people who produced the film, did their “truth” unconsciously infiltrate my psyche and take over my beliefs?

No. Instead, “the truth” went way over my head.

More by Rachelle: Trailblazers & Trendsetters: Basi Affia launches Iowa's first Black comic book company

In a review on Bounding Into Comics , Jacob Smith writes, “Belfi plays a psychiatrist … and his character, at least in one aspect, represents the secular world coming to terms with the evil he unwittingly helped create or at least created by his willful ignorance.”

Really? I totally missed that Belfi represented all that.

“This movie is a thriller," Deace said, "but it is with the intent of grabbing the culture by the throat and saying to them, you’re about right to the lip, man, the tape line of the mouth of madness. If you take one more step, you’re belly-flopping and not coming back.”

OK. I can’t speak to the film’s effects on everybody, but nothing that played out on the screen convinced me of the error of my beliefs or had me perched on the edge of a precipice.

Conclusion: A great movie for conservative Christians, not for me

I think those with a conservative Christian outlook will relate to the world view references, appreciate the novelty of a demon as the messenger, and see "Nefarious" as a movie of great meaning and depth, one they won't forget.

While the acting kept me watching, by the end, I wondered what was the point of what I'd watched. But after watching some conservative talk shows to better understand the intent of what I was supposed to get and want to discuss, I want to un-see "Nefarious," forget it, and get my money back.

Rachelle Chase is an author and an  opinion columnist , who's also launched a new column, Trailblazers & Trendsetters, at the Des Moines Register. Follow Rachelle at facebook.com/rachelle.chase.author   or email her at [email protected] .

The 13 Worst Horror Movies of All Time, Ranked According to Rotten Tomatoes

Oh, the terror! ...And not in a good way.

Right now, audiences are living in a golden age of horror. "Elevated horror" has been on the rise for nearly a decade, and over the past year or two, it's become apparent that the beloved slasher movie is back with a vengeance. Also, as has always been the case, the reality is there are a ton of terrible horror films out there. Then, now, and forever.

Horror movies are cheap to produce and infamously profitable, so they're churned out incessantly. So it makes sense that a relatively high ratio is pure junk. According to critics on Rotten Tomatoes, these are the absolute worst horror movies ever made , ranging from woefully lame and uneventful action horror films such as House of the Dead to lifeless Hollywood J-Horror remake One Missed Call .

13 'Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey' (2023)

Rotten tomatoes score: 3%.

One of the more infamous horror movies and so-bad-it's-good movies of the modern era (though some argue it's just plain bad) Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey is the first in what's sure to be an era of uninspired IP mining. The crudely animated opening (the best part of the movie by a mile) lays the premise: After Christopher Robin abandons his childhood friends (you know, the plus novelties), Eeyore is devoured by the others as they're on the verge of starvation. Henceforth, the

Many will tell you there is no enjoyment to be found here, that Blood and Honey is just irredeemable trash. Not so! So long as you're in the mood for a formulaic, shameless slasher movie that looks like it cost hundreds of dollars to make, it's an artistically bankrupt, ironic good time. A sequel followed one year later to more positive, though overall still negative critical notices.

Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey

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After Christopher Robin abandons them for college, Pooh and Piglet embark on a bloody rampage as they search for a new source of food.

12 'House of the Dead' (2003)

Uwe Boll will make more than one appearance on this list (and possibly many, many "worst" lists). One of his most maligned movies is this early-aughts adaptation of the rail shooter arcade game of the same name, which somehow feels less substantial than its source material. The movie illustrates a fictional island infested by zombies that forces its survivors to fight for a way out. Things go south when a group of college students travel to the mysterious island to attend a rave.

House of the Dead is most infamous for playing video game footage over its (headache-inducing, flatly staged) action sequences , surely one of the most remarkably lazy directing calls on record. It's overall not a good zombie film , and it will surely (at least according to Rotten Tomatoes critics, anyway) go down as one of the worst in the genre.

House of the Dead

11 'the apparition' (2012).

A solid cast including Ashley Greene , Sebastian Stan and Tom Felton have nothing to work with in an ostensibly spooky thriller that's about as non-threatening and meh as its title. Greene and Stan play a couple plagued by a mysterious, parasitic presence in their home. It's an unoriginal, downright derivative premise to begin with, and to make matters worse the ending was fully spoiled in the trailer.

Director Todd Lincoln was at one point reportedly in talks to direct a remake of revered horror tale The Fly . It's not much of a challenge to speculate The Apparition ' s critical pummeling and paltry $6.4 million worldwide box-office gross contributed to that not happening.

The Apparition

10 'feardotcom' (2002).

The uncertainty of the cyber world lends itself to terror (the Unfriended movies and especially Host mined this pretty well), and in 2002 it felt like the perfect time to jump on that. This William Malone movie follows detective Mike Reilly ( Stephen Dorff ) and Department of Health researcher Terry Huston ( Natascha McElhone ) as they team up to uncover the cause behind four inexplicable deaths.

Unfortunately, aside from fleeting moments of stylishness, Feardotcom is ugly, blandly gruesome — and worse, boring. Although the dialogues are relatively bad and the editing is questionable, Malone's film's worst sin is arguably a total waste of brilliant character actors : Stephen Dorff , Natascha McElhone , Udo Kier and The Crying Game 's Stephen Rea all have nothing to do, and appear flat-out lost.

Watch on Tub

9 'Bless the Child' (2000)

Rotten tomatoes score: 4%.

None of this is on Kim Basinger . Just three short years after the icon and oft-brilliant actress won an Academy Award for a resplendent turn in L.A Confidential , Basinger appeared in this hot mess about child abduction, devil worshipers, and terrible special effects. It leans most heavily into the latter.

Bless The Child emerged from a millennium-themed era where movies studios churned out uninspired end-of-the-world stuff constantly. You'll remember Bless the Child about as well as you remember End of Days. Don't remember that one, or at least had to be reminded of it? Exactly. Nothing about Bless the Child stands out, except maybe just how generic it is.

Bless the Child

8 'the haunting of molly hartley' (2008), rotten tomatoes score: 2%.

Featuring stiff acting and, regrettably, a forgettable premise, the supernatural horror film The Haunting of Molly Hartley is about a young woman's family's pact with Satan, romantic rivalries, and actors who definitely aren't teens playing teens who like to party. Despite its critical failure, it was a mild commercial success.

Long before roles in films like Thank You For Your Service , Cyrano , and Swallow garnered the talented actress critical acclaim, Haley Bennett starred in this oh-so-aughts, punishingly lame PG-13 horror flick opposite hunky Chace Crawford , the lone draw at the time whose star was on the rise thanks to Gossip Girl . The Haunting of Molly Hartley looks shot for TV, and it's about as scary as a toothpaste commercial . This is a "horror" movie aimed at tweens.

The Haunting of Molly Hartley

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7 'Alone in the Dark' (2005)

Rotten tomatoes score: 1%.

Starring Christian Slater in the lead role, Alone in the Dark is an action horror sci-fi that follows a paranormal investigator who uncovers a long-lost tribe called the Abskani. After discovering that they worshiped demons and these evil creatures are now attempting to break loose on the face of the earth, Edward must run against time to stop them with the help of archeologist Aline Cedrac ( Tara Reid ).

Uwe Boll's $20 million-budgeted (that seems modest, but the movie looks way cheaper) video-game adaptation is often ranked among the worst films of all time, a standout among the filmmaker's less-than-critically-adored pantheon. Slater and Reid have negative chemistry, and the action scenes are stunningly inept. Alone in the Dark is astonishingly lacking , so it's no wonder why it is often considered one of the worst horror movies of all time.

Alone in the Dark

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6 'Beneath the Darkness' (2011)

Rotten tomatoes score: 0%.

In addition to having about as generic a horror title as one can fathom, the Texas-set Beneath the Darkness stars Dennis Quaid , Tony Oller , and Aimee Teegarden in a derivative teen thriller plot about a murder and a cover-up. Furthermore, probably due to its unengaging premise that leaves out much to be desired, this 2011 flick was also a box office flop, earning a total of $23,998 all over the globe.

Though it aims for a similar tone, Beneath the Darkness is so vanilla and unremarkable it makes I Know What You Did Last Summer look like a masterpiece by comparison. Unfortunately, Martin Guigui 's R-rated debut falls several stories short of expectations and inevitably takes a place on this list.

Beneath the Darkness

5 'homecoming' (2009).

In Homecoming , Mischa Barton steps into the shoes of the stereotypical jealous ex-girlfriend who seeks vengeance after her former bae ( Matt Long ) returns to their hometown with a new girlfriend ( Jessica Stroup ). While poorly received by critics worldwide, though, Homecoming was somewhat of a box office success, grossing $8.5 million against a $1.5 million budget.

There have only been about a billion Fatal Attraction and Misery knockoffs (this is a little bit of both), but arguably none as instantly forgettable as this Morgan J. Freeman (not the Oscar-winning actor) film . Critics dog-piled on Homecoming for wall-to-wall clichés, and a lack of entertainment value. It's rare, though not unheard of, for a movie with subject matter like this to be genuinely good art. To not even be good nonsense is unforgivable.

Buy on Amazon

4 'The Disappointments Room' (2016)

But seriously, who ok'd this title? What's next, a horror movie called The Underwhelming Films Bunker ? Kate Beckinsale is usually brilliant (this movie was released the same year as Love & Friendship , perhaps her best work to date), but she appears to be sleepwalking through this supernatural thriller movie (that is thrill-free) about a Brooklyn couple who discover a weird room in their new country house. And who could blame her?

The Disappointments Room was released in the wake of Relativity folding. Surely much of the talent involved would have rather it never saw the light of day. Director D.J. Caruso has made a crackling horror film in 2007's Disturbia , but The Disappointments Room practically evaporates as you watch it — like its title suggests, audiences really are in for a disappointment .

Watch on Amazon Prime

3 'Cabin Fever' (2016)

Why, oh why is this film? An aggressively unnecessary remake of Eli Roth 's 2002 original (which rests at a far more palatable 62% on the Tomatometer ), Cabin Fever 2.0 simply retells the original story: it centers around a group of five college friends who succumb to an infectious, flesh-eating disease while staying at a remote cabin, only without the weird energy and humor that made the original movie what it was.

Roth surely has his detractors, but the Cabin Fever remake goes a long way in making Roth look good . In addition to not doing anything different from its source material, it is a gross horror movie without personality and a depressing experience; not in the cathartic way audiences sometimes want from a horror movie. It's really just a bummer.

Cabin Fever

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2 'Jaws: The Revenge' (1987)

How low can you go is the name of the game in this abominable third sequel to arguably the best suspense film ever made. The fourth and final film in the Jaws franchise shifted the focus to now-widowed Ellen Brody ( Loirrane Gary ) and her genuine belief that a white shark is seeking revenge on her family, especially when it kills her youngest son and then follows her to the Bahamas.

The Revenge is mostly unwatchably boring and unpleasurable, but there are so-bad-it's-good assets , like the roaring shark (yes, a roaring shark). Michael Caine famously missed an Oscars ceremony where he won for Hannah and Her Sisters to film Jaws: The Revenge. Film critic Roger Ebert famously knocked him for it.

Jaws: The Revenge

1 'one missed call' (2008).

The Ring starring Naomi Watts was a box-office leviathan and the beginning of a J-horror remake influx in Hollywood. The worst of these mostly terrible pale imitators of the solid Ring is this lame thriller about cursed voicemails. Gore Verbinski 's phenomenally successful retelling of Ringu accumulated a handful of mixed-to-negative critical notices (they were mostly positive).

Compared to One Missed Call , which centers around Beth Raymond ( Shannyn Sossamon ) as she witnesses the deaths of two friends who hear horrifying messages through the phone, that film is Psycho , an untouchable peak of the horror genre. According to Rotten Tomatoes (based on 80 reviews), this insult to Takashi Miike's well-received original is the worst horror movie, ever .

Rent on Amazon

NEXT: The Best Horror Movies of All Time, Ranked

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The Mark of Nefarious Reviews

No All Critics reviews for The Mark of Nefarious.