Based on a true story, in Diabolic we are shown that sometimes religion can be more dangerous than the devil.
Diabolic
Based loosely on the life experiences of co-writer Ticia Madsen and directed by Daniel J. Phillips, Diabolic follows a young artist, Elise (Elizabeth Cullen), who is dealing with severe blackouts and amnesia about her childhood in a rigid, Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints group. When Elise’s doctor recommends that she revisit her former hometown to help remember the trauma, Elise brings her boyfriend, Adam (John Kim) and her close friend, Gwen (Mia Challis).
At the compound, Elise met up with an old classmate, Hyrum (Robin Goldsworthy) and his stern mother, Alma (Genevieve Mooy). This is where the film goes sideways as Elise and her friends partake of a hallucinogenic drug offered by Alma to help bring back her memory. One of Elise’s memories is of a childhood friend, Clara (Luca Sardelis), who had a romantic relationship with Elise before she was excommunicated and mysteriously vanished.
Conclusion
Diabolic has its scares, which include a vengeful witch and some nasty deaths, but the real horror is in the emotional trauma that religious cults can cause to children with their religious extremism and manipulations. Now, like I said at the beginning of my review, religion can be more dangerous than the devil, and this film hits just the right spots to keep us on the edge of our seats.
Here in the States, we are dealing with a religious entity that is attempting, and succeeding in, dismantling our Constitution, and when you study how their children’s spirits are broken as infants…it becomes horrifying that they are trying to force their practices on the entire United States.
Diabolic is worth watching, not so much for the horror story we expect to see, but for the warning we didn’t expect.