Go to the theater any given Thursday and check out what's on the marquee. It'll display two or three new features, the big blockbusters with staying power, and maybe an indie film or two. However, an overtly Christian film is almost always buried in the list. Those Christian films seem to be getting a little less overt these days. Look at Nefarious, a surprisingly Christian conservative feature.
Christian folks looking for a little bit of messiah at the multiplex are spoiled for choice at the moment. Stop on by for His Only Son to see a modestly budgeted, but incredibly well-received adaptation of the tale of Abraham and Isaac. Those looking for something a bit lighter could check out Jesus Revolution, which tells the true story of a pastor's discovery of a new movement within the faith. Or, if they want something spooky, they should check out Nefarious, a demon possession film that's scared to admit that it's Christian.
What is Nefarious About?
Based on the 2016 novel by noted conservative talk show host Steve Deace, Nefarious stars Sean Patrick Flanery of Boondock Saints fame as a serial killer on death row. On the day of his execution, Edward Wayne Brady starts claiming to be possessed, leading the jailers to call in a psychiatric evaluation. Enter Jordan Belfi as Dr. James Martin, a psychiatrist who is tasked with testing the serial killer's sincerity and proving to the state that he should suffer the ultimate penalty. Once James makes it into the interview room, the film settles in for 90 minutes of in-depth debate between a demon and an atheist.
The demon, who goes by Nefarious because his name is apparently too difficult for any English-speaking human to grapple with phonetically, happens to have a lot of strong political opinions. He touches on metaphysical issues occasionally, but he talks a lot about abortion, the death penalty, and consensual euthanasia laws. Nefarious informs James, a liberal atheist, that the psychiatrist will kill three people before their meeting is over. It swiftly becomes clear that those murders won't be the traditional sort. Nefarious is mad about athletes making money, he hates diversity, and he thinks the concept of "hate speech" is ridiculous. It seems weird to put one's political views in the mouth of a literal demon, at least until one realizes that the film has pitted a liberal against a being of pure evil with the clear implication that that smug lefty is still on the wrong side of every issue. Who would frame their political views as objective truths, even when delivered through a spawn of Satan?
Who Directed Nefarious?
Surprise, it's the writer/director/producer duo of Cary Solomon and Chuck Konzelman. Solomon and Konzelman have collaborated on over 15 feature films. Their work includes the entire God's Not Dead cinematic universe, Do You Believe? and the stomach-turning anti-abortion propaganda film Unplanned. They have worked on some secular projects, including the adorably misguided 2001 TV movie Earth vs. the Spider which briefly features Pedro Pascal as a goth guy. Their work across the 2010s has been almost entirely in the realm of Christian cinema. Their films frequently make a substantial profit over their tiny budgets, often the beneficiaries of church groups boarding buses to see each film. Critics and non-believers tend to be less kind to their films, especially regarding their extremely unsubtle message mongering. Nefarious offers no shelter from that heavy-handed ideological influence, but it does cloak it a little better to the untrained eye.
Is Nefarious a Religious Horror Film?
It should be fairly obvious at this point, but yes. Nefarious is an explicitly Christian horror film with a deep far-right ideology that it can't wait to scream into its audience's face for its entire runtime. In the modern era, the religious horror subgenre means something very different most of the time. Saint Maud, for example, finds the horror in faith. Nefarious is a religious horror film in the sense that it's a long insufferable sermon in the shoddy guise of a generic horror film. The mission of the project isn't to frighten or compel an audience, it's to change hearts and minds. Anyone who doesn't firmly believe in the filmmakers' worldview will have a very bad time with Nefarious, and that's exactly why they hid that element of the film.
Nefarious sells itself as a supernatural thriller. The comments underneath the trailer compare the premise to something like the 1998 film Fallen or M. Night Shyamalan's Split. Some who saw the trailer expressed excitement to see a stripped-down demonic possession film. However, anyone who walked in blind would have difficulty sitting through Nefarious. Surely a direct marketing campaign aimed toward the political demographic who'd likely support the film is a smarter investment. However, Nefarious doesn't want to preach to the choir, it wants to trick uninformed observers into the theater so that it can lecture them. Anyone with any interest in Nefarious should know what they're getting into. Give the title some credit, hiding a pile of political propaganda behind a run-of-the-mill horror film is pretty Nefarious.