The Diabolical

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'm sorry but this film wears a hat way too big for it, and clearly oxygen didn't get to its brain anymore.

If you decide to watch this, you should be prepared to get quite annoyed by the plot, like it really is too much for such a little movie and and keeps getting worse and worse by each frame. It was rather difficult to watch it entirely and I fear you will be experiencing the same thing too. One pill hard to swallow!

Positive aspects? Not that many. Acting was decent, actors were OK, movie itself tho, gets a 4 from me. It was one bad movie, and I tend to be quite tolerant to the horror genre.

Cheers!

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.

If the movie didn't work out as it was expected to, it's only because it has nothing to do with the amount of """scary""" movies we're watching for years. But when it comes to this movie, it's a total different thing.

At first, it starts like a more intelligent horror movie because the characters show smartness, are interesting and even if you feel like you can predict what's happening next, it won't change the fact that there is a feeling that it ain't any ordinary horror film.

Then, searching for explanations, we finally manage to make our own idea of what's going on and it might be on of the most interesting strength here : it's open to suggestion.

Whether you might not like the movie because it's too different in some way and not surprising enough during most of the film, i felt like i was thrilled to watch a movie way more original and creative than most of those i watch.

If you haven't watch it yet, start it with the idea that it won't be casual horror. And then you might enjoy the surprise the movie is.