NEFARIOUS - Mark Reviews Movies

Nefarious, Soli Deo Gloria Releasing

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Review by Mark Dujsik | April 13, 2023

Chuck Konzelman and Cary Solomon, the co-writers and co-directors of Nefarious, try to be pretty sneaky with this movie, and the approach might have worked, too. The problem is that the filmmakers have overt religious and political messages they want to communicate, and as with all acts of proselytizing and propaganda, there comes a point at which any kind of subtlety must be tossed to the side. It's a shame, too, because the duo tell a fairly convincing tale up until the point when the storytelling needs to be sacrificed at the altar of messaging.

This story is framed as a pretty straightforward horror tale, revolving around the impending execution of a convicted serial killer at a state penitentiary in Oklahoma. Our protagonist is Dr. James Martin (Jordan Belfi), a psychiatrist who is called in at the last minute to evaluate the condemned prisoner's mental capacity to face execution. The doctor has had to replace a colleague, who dies by apparent suicide under strange circumstances in the movie's prologue.

The prisoner, by the way, is named Edward (Sean Patrick Flanery). He is a "master manipulator," according to the prison's warden (played by Tom Ohmer), and certain to use those devious skills to convince James that he is clinically insane and, hence, cannot face capital punishment by law.

The premise here is simple and straightforward, and Konzelman and Solomon make the smart decision to let their story and filmmaking follow suit. Until the writer/directors have to reconfigure the story and force the situation to accommodate the message, most of this movie is set in a single room—a large, spacious, and grim space, where a table and a couple of chair sit on the other side of a barred jail door. The focus is entirely on James, trying to do his job and stay professional as a vicious criminal pushes his buttons, and Edward, the convicted serial killer whose only apparent goal is to convince this doctor to put a stop to his forthcoming death.

The characters talk. They talk about their motives and their purpose in having this conversation, and soon enough, Edward throws what would seem to be his big gambit at convincing the doctor. He's not Edward.

He's actually a demon, who has possessed the body of an innocent man and coerced that body to commit multiple murders. In English, the closet to the demon's true name would be "Nefarious." James, a man of science who doesn't believe in such supernatural stuff, is unmoved by the story—except, perhaps, as evidence that Edward could be suffering from a dissociative disorder and, therefore, would not be mentally fit to be executed.

This meeting of the minds is engaging, and even if we think we're ahead of the filmmakers as to the truth of the case of Edward/Nefarious (That prologue reveals too much for there to be any real mystery), they put forth some intriguing setups—such as the prisoner's insistence that James will commit three murders before the day ends—and some theological debates about a variety of topics. Eventually, the debating stops and the preaching begins.

It's an unfortunate mess of the usual fire-and-brimstone sermonizing, mixed with a slew of in-the-now right-wing talking points and a bit of hypocrisy. The subjects include abortion, euthanasia, and, for some unknowable reason, anti-racism—all of which, Edward/Nefarious insists, are tools of a demonic master meant to damn all of humanity (With that confounding third point, is the movie trying to suggest that racism is part of some divine order, or did the filmmakers simply want to make a throwaway insult without considering the implications?).

As for the most obvious topic at hand, Konzelman and Solomon, who harp on with "pro-life" sentiments by way of the semi-irony of a demon making the counterpoint, evade the questions of capital punishment for reasons that probably only partially have to do with its necessity to the plot. By the end, the intriguing story is but a shadow, with the movie's spotlight on its condemning messaging, its ridiculous contrivances, and an on-the-nose appearance from a right-wing media personality, who gets to awkwardly help a character hammer home the movie's point—in case anyone somehow might have gotten through the bulk of the story without getting the memo.

Nefarious becomes blatant propaganda, and that's exactly what the filmmakers want it to be. If they had attempted to be sneaky about their intentions throughout, the duo might have accidentally made a fairly decent movie on its own terms.

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