Directors of NEFARIOUS Call Christians to Stand for Truth
By Movieguide® Staff
Directors Chuck Konzelman and Cary Solomon, best known for faith-based films such as GOD’S NOT DEAD and WHAT IF?, recently took on a new genre; supernatural thriller.
While Konzelman and Soloman switched up the genre for their latest release, NEFARIOUS, the directing duo said that it is no less full of truth and a biblical worldview than their past projects.
The movie is adapted from the book by Steve Deace of the same name.
“The fruit of our tree should let everyone know that we would not betray them,” Solomon said.
“We didn’t abandon our beliefs,” Konzelman added. “Ironically, we made the movie that Christians have been asking us for for the last 10 years. “Especially from younger believers, they’re like, please make the movie that I can take my friends to, where they’ll go to the movie, it doesn’t look like or sound like they’re being preached to, but after we watch the movie together, we can start a conversation.”
A portion of Movieguide®’s review reads:
NEFARIOUS is a supernatural thriller. A skeptical psychiatrist, Dr. James Martin, takes the place of another psychiatrist who committed suicide. Dr. Martin has to interview a condemned serial killer to see if he’s sane enough to be executed. The prisoner tells the psychiatrist that he’s a demon called Lord Nefarious. Martin asks Nefarious to prove that he’s a demon, but he gets more than he expected by making such a foolish demand.
NEFARIOUS is an intense, spooky thriller with a few good twists, dramatic dialogue, excellent performances, and riveting direction. It has a strong Christian worldview that dramatically depicts the battle between God and Satan’s world of demonic evil. God is clearly more powerful, however. For example, in one scene a character appeals to God and God performs a miracle. However, NEFARIOUS has a very strong execution scene that warrants extreme caution. The movie also has three relatively light obscenities and some scary conversations with a man who claims to be a demon. Eventually, the demon’s plans in NEFARIOUS are thwarted, but in an unexpected way that involves an Act of God.
Konzelman and Soloman said that while NEFARIOUS gives a realistic picture of what demonic possession could look like, the movie does not celebrate satanism or the demonic.
“The film [has no] demonics, no satanic, we don’t go there. We wouldn’t betray you. Look at the fruit of our tree,” they said. “What we tell [audiences] is, this is CS Lewis’s Screwtape Letters meets SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. We’re not going to betray the audience. We’re not gonna betray the faithful believer.”
“People are seeing worse on Disney cartoons, And we got an R rating because everybody freaks out in the Christian market,” they added. “That R rating was political… They [Hollywood] know Christians, unfortunately, will not go to R movies. So they gave us that R because they don’t want Christians to see it. That’s exactly what the devil has done. We’ve been in a battle with the devil the whole way.”
Solomon added that he hopes NEFARIOUS will act as a sort of wake-up call to Christians to start speaking into otherwise uncomfortable topics with the truth of God’s word.
“I think the Christians have got to realize, we can’t hide, we can’t stay in the Christian ghetto,” he said. “We have to be in the world. We have to be training against this, we need to be fighting this.”
“If we don’t do anything, the devil will run up the score and he will find us sooner or later,” he continued. This is a clarion call. This is the horn. I mean, however you want to describe it, like the horn of Gondor when Gandalf is at the gate, and the Witch King is there. Christians need to come flying to the rescue here. Otherwise, we lose the battle and the world.”
