The Diabolical

Allow me to dissect "The Diabolical". Don't be distracted by the definite article "the" in the title as though the movie is about a diabolical being or entity exclusive to all other diabolicals. You might be disappointed if you don't find THE Diabolical.

The movie is about a single mom and her two kids experiencing some strange poltergeist type phenomena at their home. The boy, Jacob (Max Rose) has the very practical and logical idea of moving (it was quite refreshing to hear someone say, "Let's get the bleep outta here"). When the mom, Madison (Ali Larter), decides that her son may actually be on to something it is too late.

With all haunting movies there is always the "why" that must be unearthed. In the midst of finding out the "why" we are to be treated with some delectable scares and some spooky stuff along the way. "The Diabolical" is not a true poltergeist movie although it flows like one. Delightfully it breaks the mold just a wee bit and gives us something more than just a frolicking angry ghost.

Diabolical is insanely dull. It portrays so many haunting stereotypes in alarmingly uninteresting ways. The focus on drama is appreciated, although it dawdles needlessly for half the runtime, and even then it falters with lackluster attempt in horror and poor design for the creature. At the end it tries to pull off a nifty twist, but unfortunately audience would already be disenchanted by the clumsy execution.

An entity binds a single mother and her two children to a particular house. What follows is average haunting gimmick which other movies have done better. It often stays too long on certain scene or abruptly changes tone with several supporting characters, either ways it doesn't pay off in the slightest.

Ali Larter as the mother does a decent job on creating some family drama, however the tired theme of single mother struggling grows old too fast. She faces mortgage issue, visits from social services and even bullied by strange entities. It becomes mundane later on, not to mention the other characters seem like extras without much personality and the things they do sometimes defy logic as they wander aimlessly.

All of those flaws can be forgiven, as most horror tend to skimp on narrative, but The Diabolical is simply not frightening. Practical effect is poorly done and the special effect looks awfully fake. The design for creature might be decent for the first or second time it appears, but this is the case of not showing too much can be more effective, which doesn't help much since the movie can't set up any suspense regardless.

The effort to create drama is decent, but it soon becomes repetitive and tedious, especially when the movie can't deliver any horror, thrill or even the slightest tension.

My quick rating - 5,3/10. What starts as your typical new house happens to have some unwanted visitor movie transforms by the end into a sci fi mess that the writers could not get out of. Of course the family is haunted at night by a spirit/ghost or whatever and so the single mother (Ali Larter) seeks the help of a friend who happens to be a scientist and quite interested in the supernatural. So far very typical and along with somewhat questionable effects (old school look but effective for some reason) we plodge through some cheap scares nd very subtle clues to what is really going on. I will pretty much just stop there and allow you to figure this is all just mediocre until someone decides to alter this whole idea and insert time travel. That is when the shift changes completely along with a ridiculous tie in to the scientist and a time paradox that would put all to shame. Still shaking my head on how they thought this would work. Check it out and maybe you have a theory since the writers sure didn't. If you aren't a fan of sci fi and just strange tie ins like this, you won't like this at all. I happen to like it for the same reason but this easily can get a 3 star rating from a non-fan, that I can see as well.

I guess I agree with most here (well, except the obvious 10 Star review where their summary is 'NOT THAT BAD, REALLY'... HUH...??!

Anyway, the first thing FWIW that struck me was that the Blu-ray has a REALLY Lame@ss look to it. Man, for a new film it is honestly one of THE most drab and unattractive Blu-rays that I've ever seen.

Next, the film... well... I really can't say it any better or add much more than most others here. Just not very good at all. What's odd though is that you almost really WANT it to work, I don't know, maybe because of the Old-School vibe or something. I WILL say that I friggn' LOVED the old, Art-Deco fan that they showed in the beginning! Awesome! But, that was about it.

Usually in Horror films like this that aren't very good, it's almost invariably ALWAYS the acting that is the culprit. But, at least I have to admit that it wasn't really the acting, per se, that bothered me. NORMALLY it irritates the living $hit outta me, but here that wasn't really what was wrong. I guess it was just the director's approach. It's like things were just too 'Pat' or something. For example, the boy is walking down the stairs at night, and OOH, ahead of him visible only to the audience, the kitchen light flickers... Again, OOH...

So, really not much to recommend here. Like I said, I am actually VERY surprised that for ONCE out of all these really lame modern Horror movies, that it truly was not horrendous and torturous acting that put me off. I actually lasted about 25 minutes (one reviewer above made it to about 30 minutes) There just wasn't enough there that I was remotely interested in.

Others are commenting on some 'Time Traveling' element. With the bland start of this film, I think I actually would have REALLY welcomed some Time Travel, because at least that might have given it some MUCH needed substance or interest for the audience to grab onto.

As it was, not really...

This is the first review I'm writing since EVER because I really have to rectify all these bad ratings and reviews for this movie. First of all, the title is super misleading. This is not a ghost movie. It's more of a mix between horror and science fiction. This movie is nothing like the traditional ghost story, probably why most people are so disappointed.

I've seen people reviewing this movie who turned it off after only half an hour screen time: BIG MISTAKE! The story starts to take shape after 45 minutes and it gets really interesting from there. Small details reveal the plot and even though not all is clear at the end, I understand that some people might not get it at all and just sign it off with a low rating.

I have to admit that the plot feels a bit messy, you get dropped off in the middle of the story with creepy entities appearing and not knowing what has happened to the family beforehand. But give it a chance. You might be surprised. It is obviously not the best movie ever, but I appreciate that the makers tried something different. It's just a shame that the big audience will never like 'different' kind of movies. Many of my favorite movies have bad ratings on IMDb. Honestly, this movie is better than some blockbuster movies who appeared in the cinema. But I guess there is no arguing about matters of taste.

And to people who say that the house is too expensive for a single mom: you probably mean 'too expensive for a unemployed single mom'. Because if not, you're being really sexist.