PLANO — Cinemark West Plano held a red carpet premiere Tuesday for the film Nefarious, which attempts to bring a message of good and evil through a Christian lens.
The movie pits a death row serial killer, played by Sean Patrick Flanery, against a psychiatrist, played by Jordan Belfi, in a fight that the cast and directors say thematically portrays demons and evil as something inherent in the world.
The website for the movie offers the following description of the plot: “On the day of his scheduled execution, a convicted serial killer tells a psychiatrist that he’s a demon who can possess his body. As the evaluation ends, he also tells the doctor that he will soon commit three murders of his own.”
Cary Solomon and Chuck Konzelman co-directed and co-wrote the screenplay for the film, which involves a demonic possession that is more grounded in reality than what is typically seen in horror films.
“We knew where we were going before we wrote the first word,” Solomon told The Dallas Express. “I think we want to make people aware that there is really good and evil or God and devil. There’s a struggle between light and dark. And if people look into their life carefully, they’ll see it.”
Solomon said some of the topics addressed in the movie included euthanasia and abortion. The film is more ambiguous on the issue of the death penalty, which the serial killer ultimately faces in prison.
The moviemakers attempted to portray exorcisms realistically, even consulting with priests to ensure the accuracy of their depiction.
“Hollywood tends to overblow everything,” Solomon said, who explained that in other movies, they use CGI to portray possessed people walking upside down on walls, but in most instances, the battle between the demon and the exorcist consists largely of talking back and forth. “Not that crazy things like that don’t happen.”
Father Darren Merlino, apart from being the on-set priest, also played a minor role in the film as Officer Grady. He said he has been trained in exorcisms, even though he has never done one.
“The devil is real,” Merlino said to The Dallas Express on the theme of Nefarious. “He hates us. He has a plan against us. And there’s hope for people who might be in that trap.”
Many notable conservatives were at the red carpet event, including Glenn Beck, who told The Dallas Express that he met the author of the original novel and that he considered Nefarious to be a modern-day version of The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, a Christian apologetic novel.
“I think we are living in a time when good is called evil and evil is called good, and there is no explanation,” Beck said, who believes that real demons manifest themselves in modern culture and that the country has gone to hell. “On all sides, we’ve lost our faith in God. We have started to mutilate our own children. I mean, we’re teaching about explicit sex in third grade.”
Beck said Nefarious is perfect for addressing some of these topics.
“I think people will just see the movie and wake up on how clear evil is when you’re looking at it,” he said. “It seems pretty clear when you’re watching the movie, but we’re actually the guy trapped inside that is — I guess– trying to negotiate our way out.”
Steve Deace wrote the original book, which was written in a stream-of-consciousness style, and said the adaptation met his expectations.
“Sean and Jordan are top-notch,” Deace told The Dallas Express. “I’m not worried about blowing it out of proportion or anything because it speaks for itself.”
Deace said he came up with the story in the shower in Washington D.C. and has written a sequel, which creates the possibility of the story being adapted as a franchise if it’s successful.
“Ultimately, the people are going to determine that,” he said.
Most of the cast and crew for the film told The Dallas Express that they believed the film would be entertaining, whether or not the spectators are believers, and some even hesitated to call it a faith-based film.
The movie will have a limited release starting Friday, April 14.
