Diabolic
It has been a decade since Elise Dekker escaped the remote settlement of the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints in rural Utah, an offshoot of the Mormons who sought to control her life, homophobic practitioners of polygamy, child marriage and rituals performed in absentia, baptisms of those alread dead to bring them into the church without consultation or consent.
Her own baptism a thinly veiled punishment for her own perceived transgressions, the trauma of her childhood has left gaps in Elise’s memory and other problems, particularly in her relationship with long-term boyfriend Adam, which therapy has not been able to address, the decision made to return to the remains of the commune, her new-age crystal guru friend Gwen joining them for emotional support as she confronts her cloudy past.
A religious horror of the overreach of power and the resulting trauma tied with the sins of the past and demonic possession directed by Daniel J Phillips from a script co-written with Ticia Madsen and Mike Harding, the result is Diabolic, starring Elizabeth Cullen, John Kim and Mia Challis as Elise, Adam and Gwen with Robin Goldsworthy as Elder Hyram Jessup, presented as “a healer of the natural order.”
Shot entirely in Australia, convincingly doubling for the dry canyons and misty forests of the central United States and claiming to be inspired by true events, more likely in reference to the levels of control cults exert over their followers, indoctrinated as children, and the sense of loss and helplessness experienced by those who are excommunicated, Diabolic is a frustrating film, opening powerfully in 2015 then jumping forward to the domestic discord which informs too much of its run time.
Hyrum attempting to help Elise with candlelit rituals involving ingesting datura, a hallucinogenic psychoactive root, it was his his sour and judgemental mother Alma (Genevieve Mooy) who was responsible for the original error in judgement which caused Elise to be bound to the spirit of the witch Larue (Seraphine Harley), the horrors of the possession and the subsequent exorcism standing out in a film which is otherwise mediocre, never adequately addressing the normalised generational abuse which is central to the premise.
One a breathless baptism marred by arrogance and cruelty, the other a nightmare of tricophagia and things which crawl in the dark, they demonstrate what the film might have achieved but are only moments in a script which leaves the excellent cast floundering in squabbles punctuated by jump scares as Elise is compelled to dig into the earth, reliving suppressed memories and reviving demons, the only other notable horror the hideous tradwife clothing of the commune.
Diabolic will be available on Blu-ray, DVD and digital download from Monday 25th May
