Diabolic review: Mediocre religious horror misses its mark

Diabolic wants to be an elevated, A24-worthy religious horror but mostly delivers a blood-soaked, underachieving exercise that depends on characters making bluntly poor choices to keep the scares coming. It is the overdue second film from Australian director Daniel J.

Phillips, who previously made the 2009 effort Awoken; where that film leaned on Catholic themes, Diabolic's jumping-off point is the Mormon faith. An opening title card states there are about 10,000 North American members of the Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints, a fringe Mormon offshoot.

Elizabeth Cullen plays Elise, a painter excommunicated a decade earlier who now suffers violent blackouts; her boyfriend Adam (John Kim) and friend Gwen (Mia Challis) accompany her back to the isolated compound where a ceremony involving a powerful hallucinogen unlocks memories, including emerging desire for the bishop’s daughter Clara (Luca Asta Sardelis).

diabolic, religious horror, mormon faith, fundamentalist lds, daniel phillips, elizabeth cullen, john kim, hallucinogen, blackouts, a24