After suffering terrifying blackouts, a young woman returns to the religious compound where she was raised. As she unravels the dark secrets of her past, an ancient ritual unleashes the vengeful spirit of a cursed witch.
Diabolic is an Australian-produced supernatural horror directed by Daniel J. Phillips (Awoken), arriving on Blu-ray, DVD, and digital download on May 25th. The film stars Elizabeth Cullen (Evil Dead Wrath), John Kim (The Little Things), Mia Challis (Clickbait), and Terence Crawford (The Babadook).
In 2007, Warren Jeffs, the prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, was convicted following a raid on his compound. Significant evidence of sexual abuse of minors whom he kept as child brides was discovered. But that isn’t what this review is going to be about because this movie, despite using FLDS Mormons as the cornerstone of its plot, has nothing to do with that incident.
Diabolic tells the story of Elise (Elizabeth Cullen), who is a former member of the FLDS Mormons experiencing strange occurrences that her therapist believes are tied to her history with the church. She, her boyfriend, Adam (John Kim), and their mutual friend, Gwen (Mia Challis), set out to return to the commune in hopes of resurfacing repressed memories and, in the process, unleashing a dreadful evil force. The movie takes a lot of liberties, pulling up a fringe belief that early Mormons used psychedelics to induce visions of the divine, and hints at grown men being wed to underage girls, but the main focus is on something FLDS Mormons are far less likely to object to: Their blatant homophobia.
Nothing is significantly different from your standard popcorn fare. There’s a spooky witch, there’s gore, there are classic signs of paranormal activity, but the movie shies away from delving beyond surface-level questionable aspects of the FLDS Mormon sect. You won’t walk away from this movie more informed about the cult than when you sat down, despite the movie’s opening claim that it’s based on true events. They had to fully fabricate a witch to be the herald of their haunting, and I feel like if you’re going to address the FLDS Mormons specifically, that is far from necessary.
The effects are good, but nothing is outside what you would expect from a standard horror movie. It isn’t a bad movie; it just isn’t terribly different from any B-movie you might pick out to watch. Elizabeth Cullen plays her character in a very compelling and—at times—wholly unsettling way. The pacing is good overall, although very slow to start. It just feels more like the FLDS Mormons were chosen as the subject of this movie because their women dress in an old-timey fashion and all the other elements of a horror movie were slapped in to carry the plot.
In short, I was disappointed by it. I went into this movie thinking it would be a hard, critical look at the truly awful things done by the FLDS Church and the prophet they still worship from his prison cell, but it wasn’t that. It was a pretty standard horror movie that uses the FLDS Mormons as a backdrop.
