I want to make it clear before I write this that I haven’t seen the new Nefarious movie myself. If it wasn’t for the fact that I have a five-month-old child at home that I have to look after, I’d be making plans to see it right this second. But alas, fatherhood is a full-time job.
That said, I’m chomping at the bit to see it. Every clip I watch tells me that this is one of the movies I’ve been waiting for, but it’s the reaction from mainstream critics that more or less confirms to me that this movie is something special.
For those of you who haven’t heard of this film, the plot is more than a little fascinating.
Sean Patrick Flanery (Boondock Saints) stars as a convicted serial killer on his last day on Earth before he’s executed. Before he’s led off to his death, he’s psychiatrically evaluated by an atheist psychiatrist. The serial killer, simply known as “Nefarious,” reveals that he’s actually possessed by a demon, and what follows is a man attempting to secure his own modernistic worldview and the virtues he thinks come with it while the demon continues to throw reality in his face.
Just from that description, you can already begin to guess why mainstream critics really don’t like this movie. Yet, true to form, the audiences can’t recommend this movie enough. At the time of this writing, Rotten Tomatoes shows the critic score for Nefarious at 33 percent, while the audience score is at a soaring 96 percent.
Okay, so #NefariousMovie is really good and I need to make plans to see it asap. pic.twitter.com/wihQy2J2pv
— Brandon Morse (@TheBrandonMorse) April 25, 2023
The fact is, this is a movie that doses people with a little bit too much reality for the mainstream left’s liking and truly makes people wonder where their morality is. Moreover, these reality bombs are being dropped on them from the perspective of Flanery’s demon character, putting modernity and demons on the same side.
Watch this clip, and you’ll immediately understand why the left doesn’t want you to see this film.
@nefariousposting #christian #nefarious #nefariousmovie @nefariousmovie
The demon here is clearly alluding to various things that our society would rather not think about. Sports stars like LeBron James and Colin Kaepernick receive millions of dollars, while proclaiming they’re victims of a racist society. Corporations like Nike and Apple pretend to be social justice-driven corporations, while they rely on slave labor to pump out their products.
That kind of reality isn’t something convenient for activists, politicians, media figures, and corporations who stand to make a lot of money off of slavery.
The movie really earns the ire of the left when it gets into abortion, however. It doesn’t hold back on its commentary about it, making the therapist brutally aware of just how horrid and murderous it is. The demon even gives the therapist a brief and disturbing history of abortion dating all the way back to ancient times. I won’t post the clip here but suffice it to say, it’s enough to make a person who believes they’re pro-abortion squirm in their seat.
Hilariously, reading the reviews, you will suddenly find a lot of critics complaining about messaging. This wasn’t a problem for them when it comes to movies with leftist messaging. The pro-abortion movie Call Jane is a movie that has so much messaging in it that it’s a wonder it got to a plot at all, yet the critics couldn’t heap enough praise on it.
(READ: ‘Call Jane’: Hollywood’s Post-Roe Attempt to Save Abortion Bombs to the Sounds of Silence)
What’s concerning, at least in my opinion, is that instead of addressing that the film addresses some very real-world issues about our modern culture, many of these critics write it off as Christian dogma. Roger Moore of Movie Nation described the film as a “Christo-fascist manifesto.”
“Pay no attention to the evils behind the curtain. It’s just Christian propaganda.”
That seems to be the approach to this movie from critics. They really don’t want you to see it because it’s too Christian in their mind’s eye. To be sure, it does make Christianity look really good, in the same way C.S. Lewis’s “The Screwtape Letters” did. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn there was some inspiration there.
Overall, mainstream tastemakers’ absolute resistance to Christianity, and anything pro-Christian should really catch your attention. You really start to wonder if this movie is just something that annoys them— because they have it out for the Christian religion—or if there’s a deeper issue.
I’m not accusing these people of being possessed by demons, but the intense resistance to anything that might lead people to Christ, or at least begin asking questions about Him, can’t stop me from thinking there’s resistance here from something other than modern sentiments.
Combined with this conversation Michael Knowles had with Exorcist Rev. Daniel Reehil, the push to minimize this movie feels a little more supernatural than natural.
I plan to see Nefarious as soon as humanly possible, and when I do, I’ll offer a super honest review of it. Perhaps you’ll beat me to the theater. If you do, please offer your own assessment in the comments.
