By Fr Armand de Malleray, FSSP
Blood-dripping walls and young girls talking netherworldly are not your cup of tea? Mine neither. But I was eager to see an atheistic doctor clinically try to persuade a possessed inmate that God and Satan don’t exist. This is why I heartily recommend watching Nefarious, the remarkable film directed by Chuck Konzelman and Cary Solomon in 2023. This is not a horror film but a realistic, supernatural, thriller.
Nefarious includes nothing gory or visually frightening. It depicts serial killer Edward Wayne Brady on death row, claiming that he is possessed by an evil spirit called Nefarious. Brady will be spared if atheist psychologist Dr James Martin declares him insane. Dr Martin calls in Father Louis to see whether the Prison chaplain will uphold the claim of Brady’s possession. The latter recoils in fear when the priest walks in (a man in his late sixties who wears a multicoloured stole above his Roman collar). But when Fr Louis states that he does not believe in devils, the demon speaking through Brady calls him his friend and wants to shake hands.
Christian clerics and theologians all across the spectrum confirmed the accuracy of the depiction of evil in Nefarious. Director Cary Solomon is a convert to Catholicism who takes high risks answering the needs of the times through films such as the acclaimed Unplanned (2019) about abortion. While still in the making, Nefarious encountered a succession of strange hindrances. Solomon recalls that, among various incidents, “There were sounds or voices coming out of the couch; the light in the room was unexplainably flickering on and off; the cameras were digitally corrupted, and the sound machine just died.” A priest was on site all along and once had to perform an exorcism. It thus came as no surprise when, once released, Nefarious met with fierce opposition from secular reviewers, perhaps owing to the statement made by the demon character equating euthanasia and abortion with murder, thus making psychologist Dr James Martin an assassin just as much as the serial killer he is meant to cure. Once during their battle of wits (atheist) Dr Martin objects to possessed Brady: “I didn’t know this was a fight.” To what Nefarious replies: “That’s why you’re losing.” Needless to say, I do not indiscriminately recommend watching such films. Catholics don’t need Hollywood to know that the devil exists and is busy leading souls away from their divine Creator and Redeemer, Jesus the Christ. However, the popularity of the genre demonstrates that, even outside the visible boundaries of the Catholic Church, a wide audience takes seriously the possibility of demonic possession and trusts that Catholic clerics are best trained to set souls free from it. Unhealthy fascination for evil is certainly to be avoided, but some knowledge of its impact on the lives of men, and of the Church’s dedication in fighting it can benefit souls otherwise ignorant of the supernatural battle going on, as St Paul reminds us: “For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and power, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places” (Eph 6:12).
Article first published in Dowry No63, Autumn 2024
Cover Image: Photograph Nefarious film (copyright whoisnefarious.com)