User Reviews

This film gets a few stars because the acting is okay, and the atmospheric, eerie setup is fine. But the payoff! Oy! It's like a horror writer wrote the first hour, then the studio fired him, then a science fiction writer was brought in to finish the script. And since it appears like the sci-fi writer didn't read the horror writer's notes, the two ends of the movie don't match up.

In the end, the flick is all about the boy, 40 years in the future, coming back to...terrorize his family? Why? What';d they do to him? What did he do to himself? If he was coming back to terrorize his family disguised as a poltergeist, how come they suddenly can;'t leave the house, and if they do, start cracking up like vampires in sunlight?

I have seen some bad movies in the past, but this one takes the cake. Like I said, the movie gets points because the first hour or so was fine even if it was reminiscent of other films like Poltergeist, Dark Skies, etc. The ending, though. What a mess.

A single mother moves into a haunted house only to find there is something else terrorizing her that may not be a ghost.

Reminiscent of the 100 feet (2008), Jessabelle (2014) and The Pact (2012) to name a few and the likes of paradox films Terminator (1984), Predestination (2014) thrown in for good measure, The Diabolical tries it hardest to put a spin on the haunted house genre. Director, writer Alistair Legrand along with writer Luke Harvis give a script that's mostly confined to one location. Harvis and Legrand offer reasonable reasons why the family can't leave the home and they keep everything quite grounded for the genre with the spiritual investigation scenes short and sweet. As with most new model horrors the victims refreshingly tackle the spectre-like assailants head on.

There's great gooey looking practical effects and some modest visual effect setups as the single parent family is frightened. Ian Hultquist delivers a great score, however, the compositions are overused during some of the talking scenes. What's notable about Legrand's offering is that the child actors are very plausible, also Ali Larter as Madison shoulders the film effortlessly with a good performance.

What could have been a mundane, Legrand's camera work with John Frost cinematography and sharp editing from Blair Miller make the sets ups interesting especially when Madison enlists the help of her scientist boyfriend and during a game of Monopoly and they are attacked. There's also sub-plots of a house foreclosure and the future making of a terrible teen which are both handled well.

As it unfolds that the haunting is not her deceased husband, but is due to something scientific involving her son, it shifts echoing a Lost in Space (1998) twist device as Madison in the closing tries to break a potential time loop. With an interesting take on a worn twist, The Diabolical is tied up nicely. It's a film that attempts to avoid old horror tropes but like quicksand the harder it tries the more it falls into the hallmarks.

Overall, it's a solid enough chiller to pass the time with.

I had the misfortune of watching this movie today in Dubai. I went in with no expectations as this film has not been released elsewhere and there are no reviews or ratings on IMDb.

The movie starts off on the wrong foot by introducing a very weak looking paranormal being. Trust me when I say have created better looking creature costumes for Halloween than this film. The plot is a mess and we are left guessing what happened to the distressed family and the connection between the 'entity'.

I had 15 or so people walk out of the theater but I decided to sit through in the hopes for some slight redemption in the last act and boy, do I wish I hadn't. The so called horror and suspense (That doesn't exist in the first place) changes in to a very cheap sci-fi hodge-podge. At one point I was wondering if I was being subjected to a cheap rip-off of The Terminator. I felt very bad for Ali Larter as an actress as she tries her best to act well but also fails thanks to the shameful direction.

I would advise anyone to stay away from this steaming pile of dung.

I love me my ambitious small movies but don't go there if you haven't the brains to pull it off! This one starts off well: a haunted house tale we're dropped into well into the haunting so there's mystery as the audience tries to play catch-up. But despite some decent make-up (harking to the Silent Hill style) and some creepy scenes (creature crawling out of a dryer is a new one for me) the execution is pretty lackluster and dull and interest will be waning by the time they go for their third act SURPRISE that pretty much shoots their own movie solidly in the foot. You can't just throw a time travel scenario, or evil corporate running everything, in if it then throws what little logic your movie had out the window and makes no sense. Suddenly coincidences pile up, plot holes magically appear the size of a bloated Macy's parade blimp, and people shooting far above their intellect always think "ambiguous" is the same as "good". It's not if no matter how you turn it there's no sense to be found. Think first, film second, dudes! For half the film you were a 5 or 6 and then you had to go believing it when your mommy told you how clever you were. Your mommy lied.

There have been times that I've read reviews on here and disagreed with them. I don't know if it's because I have a different taste in movies- or maybe it's because I don't critique every aspect of the film. I don't really like it, but sometimes I have to skim through the spoilers to see if I want to watch the movie and this time, I didn't do that. I WISH I WOULD HAVE! (Don't forget, there's spoilers ahead!) The beginning wasn't bad. I mean, in any movie, things usually begin pretty slow. The family is introduced, blah, blah. But this movie smacks you in the face a few minutes in & I liked that- it's different. Then the family is introduced with all their baggage. Ali Larter plays Madison, the Mom. I like Ali, she's a good actress but matter how good she is, she couldn't make Madison look any less stupid! It's NOT rocket science. If you think your house is haunted, YOU MOVE!! IF, for some reason you can't get out of the house right away, you keep your kids with you at all times! It started to remind me of Lori and Carl on The Walking Dead! Jacob has a bad temper- which we end up seeing more than we even realize. Little Haley is freakin adorable! After a while, the story takes a sharp left turn and never finds its way back onto the road and it ends up being a pretty bumpy ride! The story was a good idea and it could've been really good if it was done the right way. But it wasn't. It left sooooo many unanswered questions! The ending was terrible. Does it mean that she'll be ok?! I'm so confused!! Maybe I just didn't get it, maybe you will. I'm just not sure you want to take that chance though, it's 2 hours of your life that you can't get back!

I am a huge Ali Larter fan, but this movie was not a horror flick-just a horrific horrible flick! No plot development (horror?, sci-fi?, time travel-you name it), no character development, poor and bad cgi, poor script writing, and poor filming/editing and mediocre acting performances. Other than that, it was terrific! Save 90 minutes of your life and avoid this one!

Why, oh why, do so-called "Horror Fans" insist on choking any potential originality out of their favorite genre? Personally, I consider myself a horror fan, but I hesitate to use the term because of what associations people might make about me - namely that I'm a gatekeeping fanboy who is only satisfied when horror films retread established territory from the '70s and '80s. In truth, however, I appreciate films that deal with the macabre. I have a morbid sense of taste, and that's what draws me to stories about mayhem, murder, and monsters. Not an allegiance to a clique which mostly wears its horror fandom on its sleeve like an identity. All that being said, I feel like The Diabolical has been grossly misjudged by the aforementioned so-called "Horror Fans." Actually, that's not surprising, since that's literally what they do; undermining the horror genre is literally the defining characteristic of many "Horror Fans." What director Alistair Legrand has tried to do here is provide a science fiction explanation for what first seems to be a paranormal event. Which is...well...pretty cool! It may not be the first time we've seen this done (Beyond the Black Rainbow comes to mind), but it's certainly less tapped than the standard "Indian-burial-ground," "something-terrible-happened-here," "vengeful-ghosts" explanations present in most haunted house films. It may not always work perfectly (some things are left unresolved), but there are so many good things about this film (the cinematography, the music, the practical effects, good child actors, Ali freaking Larter!), it seems a shame to obsess over its faults. Especially when such an attitude seems to be directly born out of a reluctance to allow new ideas into the genre. Some of the most celebrated scary movies of all time are riddled with flaws (Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Suspiria, The Sixth Sense, Carrie). So why do they get a pass but not this admittedly imperfect attempt to breathe new life into the genre? My guess? Narrow-minded nostalgia.

No ghosts! Time travel! A house too expensive for a single woman! Lots of slo-mo! Vast conspiracies! For a movie that so desperately ants to be "Insidious", this one sure misses the mark. Painful to watch and aggravating to the nth degree, it's a total waste of time from start to finish. I haven't had the unique displeasure of watching such an unpolished turd in many a year. Part slasher, part wannabe ghost story, and oh hell the "twist" is as stupid and insipid as can be. I'm battling her, for you, dear reader, for ten lines spouse so you never ever have to watch this movie. Don't be fooled like I was, stay away from the pretty trailer and Just.Say.No.

Oh, by the way: Home Alone traps! Jesus don't watch this!

Not sure why they decided to pick on Madison's house, but what would've happened if she wasn't dating a science teacher? I also didn't get the end. I was waiting for Jacob to use his anger and kill a dude. Guess it might happen in the next one... Hmmm... Maybe there should be a Diabolical 2.??

THE DIABOLICAL is another cheap and slow-paced haunted house story about a single mother and her kids who find out that their home is haunted. She calls in a team of paranormal investigators in order to take care of things, but things don't go entirely as expected. Sadly, this is a tawdry and tedious production that takes an age to go anywhere, and contains an overwhelming number of cliches which just add up as the running time goes on. Ali Larter, whom you may remember from FINAL DESTINATION, stars.