“Diabolic” Flips the Standard Possession Formula On its Head
We’ve all seen our fair share of possession movies. Most reach for the perfection of William Friedkin’s 1973 masterpiece The Exorcist and center a helpless girl whose body becomes host to a demonic entity. Family members desperately convince skeptical priests to combat the demon leading to a dangerous ritual that often goes wrong. Members of the clergy are invariably presented as long-suffering heroes and they often reach new levels of spiritual devotion. But Daniel J. Phillips’s Diabolic turns this well-trodden formula on its head with religious figures that may be more sinister than the demon itself.
Diabolic begins with a harrowing baptism in which a young girl named Elise (Elizabeth Cullen) is repeatedly dunked in a rustic pool. A member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints or FLDS, she participates in a ritual blessing designed to secure deceased church members posthumous entry into heaven. But while literally using the young woman’s body as a ritual prop, one of the elders makes a dangerous choice. Invoking the ominous name Larue (Seraphine Harley), they open the door for an inky, black force that manifests inside the baptismal pool. Though we won’t learn the results of this upsetting attack until much later in the film, it only makes sense that the monstrous Larue would claim the body offered to her.
Jumping forward ten years, we learn that Elise has left the FLDS, but still suffers from the trauma of her strictly regimented upbringing. Barely able to remember her childhood, she has periodic blackouts and commits violent acts she cannot remember. With the help of her therapist, Elise contacts a pair of FLDS healers who reluctantly agree to take her case. Hyrum (Robin Goldsworthy) and his stern mother Alma (Genevieve Mooy) are the elders responsible for her botched baptism, but Elise has blocked out the entire ordeal. Along with her partner Adam (John Kim) and best friend Gwen (Mia Challis), Elise returns to the baptismal shack where Hyrum and Alma will administer a powerful hallucinogen in order to unlock these buried memories. While they do manage to provide some immediate release, Alma cannot undo the harm she has caused.
Phillips stops short of outright vilifying the FLDS, presenting this vague supernatural threat as a rogue church member rather than the system itself. That’s not to say that FLDS comes off well. While under the drug’s influence, Elise remembers growing close to a girl named Clara (Luca Asta Sardelis) and the reason she was ousted from her spiritual family. Even Adam is not blameless in what ends up feeling like multifaceted oppression. The traumatized girl gets only a few brief moments of autonomy and is sorely punished for this brief glimpse at freedom.
But this interpretation lies wholly in subtext. Other than one major event, we don’t learn much about Elise’s past. Nor do we spend time exploring Larue’s deadly backstory. Phillips flirts with folk horror and more modern depictions of witchcraft to create a mysterious villain with a bloodthirsty edge, dropping breadcrumbs and trusting us to lead ourselves. While a bit disappointing to be presented with such an exciting villain then learn next to nothing about who she is, we don’t have to know every detail to see that Elise has been sorely misused by everyone in her life. Rather than a standard possession film, Diabolic works better as a feminist parable about an avenging angel determined to take down a malevolent patriarchy. But lurking beneath this empowerment is the heartbreaking story of a frightened young woman who’s been conditioned to view her own body as a vessel created to be possessed.
Jenn Adams is a writer and podcaster from Nashville, TN. Find her on social media @jennferatu.