Movie Discussion: Nefarious (2023)

Vanity ^ | 9/5/2026 | rlmorel

[rlmorel]

Official Summary: On the day of his scheduled execution, a convicted serial killer gets a psychiatric evaluation during which he claims he is a demon, and further claims that before their time is over, the psychiatrist will commit three murders of his own.

This movie came out in 2023, and I had never heard of it. Here is what the jacket looks like:

This sure looks like the kind of movie I barely even pause for, the kind I scroll right past.

That is because normally, I am not interested in "Horror" movies, which this movie was classified officially as. As a kid, I kind of enjoyed horror movies, but as I got older, I came to accept that in real life, there was more real-life horror present than any kind of movie could ever present to me.

Why would I need to accentuate evil in this world by watching a movie?

I heard about this movie from an American Thinker article: So Much Evil! Still Don’t Believe in the Devil? Evil is out there. But so are the signs of good by Alicia Colon.

The American Thinker article linked to above is about what so many of us see as evil uncovering its face in the Lindsay Clancy trial in a most public way. We saw it recently in women in Massachusetts with their joyful celebration of Maura Healy authorizing abortion up to birth, and I know for a fact I was far from the only person who viewed that discordant display of misplaced joy with both revulsion, horror, and shame.

And then this. These pink-shirted females expressing support for this woman who placed these three children face down on the floor, and strangled them one-by-one with exercise bands:

This evil crime, and those who wish to find a way to excuse it, is a modern expression of evil that is a harbinger of a deeper corruptness and evil in our society, no-our world, that is a poison on our soul.

It is in this context that I read that American Thinker article above, and was prompted by this excerpt below to watch this movie:

"...A few years ago, I watched a fascinating film called, “Nefarious,” that clearly explained what is happening in the world today.

There is a battle between good and evil being waged and the evidence of that is clearly seen in the daily news reports. Pick up a New York newspaper and you will read reports of innocent people being pushed in front of subway trains or stabbed for absolutely no reason. The cover of yesterday’s New York Post is about a woman shot dead by the NYPD after she stabbed two strangers in Times Square, killing one.

The film Nefarious is basically about a demon explaining how the Devil works on seducing humans into evil by bribing them with whatever we desire. He also explains that demons hate humans because God loves us. and what his plan is for the human race.

It is a powerful film and I highly recommend it..."

I am on a journey to Christ, and this excerpt above from Alicia Colon's article insinuated itself into all the threads that are being woven in my mind, specifically with respect to the concepts of Good and Evil.

I am a Conservative. I don't need to drink any Kool-Aid on it. I started out in my young life with conservative principles ingrained in me. We can all agree that conservatives in this country (and elsewhere) are subjected to lifelong propaganda and indoctrination from Teachers, Media, and Government that conservatives are wrong about everything. Over my life, I have come to view this as a blessing in disguise.

I say that, because this unending, nonstop stream of propaganda and criticism by the Left has forced me to examine, reexamine, and examine again my premises and beliefs. Like many of you, I have not been able to rest on my laurels and relax.

I have been forced to engage in introspection on an ongoing basis for decades. And today, I am able to view that as a wonderful thing. Leftists have no such "blessing in disguise". It is a wonderful freedom for the intellectually lazy and emotionally incontinent (as it turns out many of them are) They have no such burden of introspection, asking themselves "Could I be wrong about all this?"

As such (as a Conservative) I have come to the conclusion that the subject of Evil (which is the subject of this film "Nefarious") is what is called a "cleavage point". That is, the point you could put a chisel on, tap it with a hammer, and things will split evenly into two pieces. In this case, putting the chisel to "Evil" and striking it with a mallet splits humans into two types:

1. Leftists: Those who believe Evil does not exist, but is only a manifestation of the faults present in our gradually developed human societies, which are imperfect and must be perfected.

   
   They believe we are all manifestly good under the skin. These same people believe that if you fix our human societies, and remove the imperfections such as racism, sexism, bigotry, poverty, and so on, that the good that is inherent in every single person will overcome any evil that might develop.

   
   They believe that if they can alter society to remove bad things by trying to shape and mold human behavior...to engineer it, that they can produce a Utopia of peace, equality, prosperity, and happiness.

2. Conservatives: Those who believe Evil not only exists, but is inherent in Man, including each and every one of us, and must be monitored, guarded, and protected against.

   
   We as Conservatives believe that Evil is inherent in human nature. It can't be "engineered out. And even good people, given the right circumstances, can do Evil things. We accept that any one of us could be those Nazi Concentration Camp Guards, if all tumblers lined up.
   It is why we revere what the Founders of this nation accomplished when they created and implemented the US Constitution. That document, all by itself, shows that the Founders were profoundly Conservative by nearly any metric. It shows that they innately and intuitively understood that power, any power, even in the hands of people viewed as manifestly "Good" who may have only the best of intentions, can become corrupted and misused power, and they endeavored to engineer the Constitution to remove as much of the risk that Lord Acton later recognized so clearly with his famous observation nearly 100 years after we ratified our Constitution that "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

That is why this movie caught my eye and compelled me to watch it that very night. We see very real Evil in this world. And it is being openly foisted on us by parts of our government (as was done by Governor Maura Healy in Massachusetts) even as other parts of our governments are battling it. And this movie is all about evil.

In the movie, a very real flesh-and-blood man sentenced to death, openly states he is a demon, engaging in demonic possession. Evil in our world, right in front of us. The Psychiatrist, obviously does not believe him because he is, himself, an atheist. No such things as "Demons" in his world.

Kind of like ours, right now.

90% of this movie takes place in one room, an interview room in the prison as the murderer (Edward Wayne Brady) on Death Row awaiting execution that evening is being interviewed by a psychiatrist (Dr. James Martin) on a last minute legal maneuver to have him evaluated to see if he is sane enough to be executed. As it says in the official summary for the movie, the prisoner wants to be executed. He doesn't want to be found insane. He has a purpose for wishing to be executed.

Nearly the whole movie is dialog. The two of them sitting across a metal table from each other. It isn't for everyone. We are too used to fast paced movies, with green screen CGI going on, car chases and such. But it isn't. And I was expecting it to be just that, but it isn't. Just discourse on the nature of God and this world he created.

I thought the movie was absolutely brilliant. Just brilliant. And because it meshed so closely with the specific nature of these theological paths I am going down (as well as what we see in the news today) I was entranced by this discourse between a man claiming to be a demon, and the Psychiatrist who was ostensibly sent there to evaluate him, but as we find out, there was more to it than that.

The actor playing the murderer was fantastic. The closest comparison I can make is to the "Joker" character played by Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight Batman movie. The movie was panned by critics (for reasons that should be wholly obvious to anyone who is a conservative) but I believe if the core material was not something that would be rejected by the Left and their community root and branch, this man would have won an Oscar.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

I just like to play with my local AI platform. I had it refine the original summary and it was a lot better, but I deleted it already.

[NorthMountain]

I’m not going to watch the movie ... I don’t need that kind of imagery in my mind.

But that conversation is precisely spot-on correct. 110%.

[rlmorel]

I agree that is a fascinating exercise with AI! I was intrigued by it.

[rlmorel]

What is that saying...that Satan's most valuable tool is fostering the belief that he does not exist?

I think that is true.

If you don't believe Evil exists in this world, and you believe the reason it is so screwed up in many ways is because humans shirk from taking on the role of God and fixing the problems that stem from Evil, then you have no reason to fear Evil, because it then becomes just another engineering issue to be solved, like building a pipeline or spanning a body of water with a bridge.

And Evil will be just fine with lurking under the dark water, looking at the kicking legs of the human swimmers above who don't believe there is anything in those black depths that will eat them whole.

Because humans who don't believe there is a threat are far, Far, FAR more vulnerable to being eaten than those humans who believe Evil, hungry sea creatures lurk below, and taking precautions not to be bitten in half are not a fruitless or wasted effort.

Like I said before-perhaps I didn't find the movie frightening or even scary because I know that if I accept Christ as my Lord and Savior, that even I am bitten in half by this evil, I won't spend time in Hell.

That was one of the most sad and pitiful scenes that I described above at post #35 where Nefarious discusses the mechanics of execution by electrocution, and the poor, pathetic, lost human whom he possesses can only have that imagery flood into his mind.

Then, when Nefarious withdraws and allows the human being to show his feelings, his poor terrified blubbering was heartrending to me.

If he were able at that point to somehow beg Christ to accept him, that he believed in Christ as his savior, and he repented his sin, he could have escaped the Hell that he was destined for.

But he couldn't.

You can visualize the Demon inside him, standing just off to the side, telling the poor pitiful human how he will cause unimaginable pain and terror if he does such a thing, that the human, as weak as he is on his own, and as weak as ALL of us are on our own in the hands of that Evil, that all his human side knows is that he is trapped in the jaws of the evil beast who wholly owns him, and he sees no way out.

That is sad and actually scary to me to imagine that now, where I am. Whereas before, I might have dismissed it as simply a scary movie scene, and one that wasn't so scary because, after all, "I don't believe in Satan, Demons, or Evil".

Or, as Dr. Martin put it: "...Oh, I don’t believe in angels or demons, heaven or hell. So you can’t hurt me...."

People in this world who have that attitude never hear the demonic reply: "...Hell is full of pathetic trash who thought exactly like you do. Boldly proclaiming their ideas on how they feel the universe operates. Never once contemplating the possibility that they could be wrong. And you should see them now, James..."

Those people in our world who have proclaimed Man as God, with all the powers to manipulate and fix this world, never once contemplate, in their ignorant arrogance, that they could be wrong.

Now THAT is frightening.

[rlmorel]

Understood.

[rlmorel]

A remarkable movie, indeed.

[Danie_2023]

“”If he were able at that point to somehow beg Christ to accept him, that he believed in Christ as his savior, and he repented his sin, he could have escaped the Hell that he was destined for.

But he couldn’t.””

***

And that is the part that I believe is fiction. I think or believe that God/Jesus can indeed see into the hearts and minds of humans, even those that are possessed, and if they truly wanted salvation, they would be saved. Satan or demons could not prevent that from happening.

[Danie_2023]

“”Those people in our world who have proclaimed Man as God, with all the powers to manipulate and fix this world, never once contemplate, in their ignorant arrogance, that they could be wrong.

Now THAT is frightening.””

***

The false prophets of the NAR (Word of Faith liars) are teaching that every Christian has the power and the authority to do things like Jesus did (heal the sick, control the weather, etc.). Liars like Kenneth and Gloria Copeland actually preach that you can control the weather if you have “enough faith”. It’s making people think that they are ‘little gods’ in that respect. It’s all bunk, of course and they will pay dearly for leading so many astray.

I happen to have someone in my family that has been “brainwashed” by these liars in God’s name. I have tried to reason with her to no avail. I fear she is doomed, especially when the anti-christ comes along. All it will take is for the NAR liars to embrace the AC and she will, as well. No discernment AT ALL from these types, sadly.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

I bought one of these in February for $1200 and added 32GB more RAM for $150. It got me in the ballgame.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F4ZW2WBB

[Buffalo Bob]

Nefarious is one of THE best movies made.

I rarely recommend anything, but give yourself a treat and watch it.

[daniel1212]

Thanks, will take a look

[rlmorel]

I just purchased the DVD. Worth owning.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

I fine-tuned the prompt to get this better summary:

Overview

The transcript chronicles the final hours of condemned inmate Edward Wayne Brady in Oklahoma, where last-minute psychiatrist Dr. James Martin is brought in to evaluate his mental competency before execution. As Martin conducts sessions, he encounters a manipulative entity claiming to possess Brady, which systematically dismantles Martin’s atheism through psychological warfare, supernatural claims, and real-world manipulation. The narrative follows Martin’s struggle to maintain clinical objectivity while being coerced into certifying Brady’s sanity, culminating in a graphic electrocution and an ambiguous aftermath that blurs the line between mental illness and demonic influence.

Character Dynamics & Psychological Warfare

• Dr. James Martin arrives as a highly credentialed, pragmatic atheist tasked with determining if Brady is legally insane or fit for execution. Despite his professional training, he is methodically destabilized through direct psychological probing and accurate predictions about his private life.
• Edward Wayne Brady acts as the host vessel, oscillating between terrified submission and resigned defiance. He consistently denies responsibility for his convicted murders, insisting the possessing entity controlled his actions.
• Warden Tom Moss applies overt pressure on Martin, warning that clearing Brady of insanity would result in prolonged psychological or physical retaliation from the inmate, effectively coercing a sanity certification to guarantee execution.
• The entity demonstrates surveillance and influence beyond the prison by manipulating events in Martin’s life, including the termination of his girlfriend’s pregnancy, to enforce compliance through acute stress and dread.

The Entity’s Theology & Prophecies

• The entity identifies itself as Nefarius, representing a collective of fallen beings ("Legionum") who rebelled against a supreme creator. It frames humanity’s creation as a calculated trap designed to corrupt free will and usurp divine favor.
• Possession is explained as an incremental process requiring gradual moral compromises ("yeses") from childhood, ultimately achieving full subjugation where the host remains conscious but entirely loses autonomy. Nefarius offers Martin a pact: author a "dark gospel" that rejects traditional sin and elevates human self-worship.
• In exchange, Martin would gain immense worldly influence and serve as a prophetic witness to the entity’s master's return.
• The entity predicts exactly three murders will occur before Martin leaves the facility, using each event to validate its supernatural claims and escalate psychological pressure.

Progression Toward Execution

• Martin initially attempts to diagnose Brady with dissociative identity disorder, but the entity aggressively refutes clinical explanations, asserting absolute control over all physical and mental processes.
• The warden presents a binary ultimatum: certify insanity for safety at the cost of potential future retaliation, or certify sanity for guaranteed execution and immediate security. Martin chooses the latter.
• Brady specifically requests death by electric chair rather than lethal injection, describing the method in visceral detail to psychologically torment Martin and emphasize his acceptance of damnation.
• Despite witnessing Brady’s terror and hearing direct pleas for intervention, Martin signs off on the sanity evaluation, prioritizing self-preservation, professional duty, and legal procedure over supernatural doubt.

Aftermath & Ambiguous Resolution

• The execution proceeds exactly as scheduled, with Brady strapped to the chair and electrocuted. Witnesses are released, but the entity briefly manifests through Martin immediately post-execution, claiming psychological victory over his skepticism.
• Following the events, Martin publishes a book detailing the encounter, acknowledging that the entity provided him with an initial manuscript. He publicly maintains uncertainty about his beliefs while privately confronting the possibility of supernatural reality.
• During a promotional interview, Martin reflects that the entity’s final warning regarding collective human complicity in moral decay likely extended beyond himself to all of humanity.
• The narrative concludes with an unsettling auditory phenomenon where the entity repeatedly whispers Martin’s name, suggesting lingering psychological control or actual supernatural influence remains active despite Brady’s death.

[daniel1212]

I read the plot description and do not think I would find it edifying.

[monkeyshine]

Did you see it on one of the streaming services? If so which one?

[rlmorel]

Yes-I saw it on Prime. I also checked it out from library initially-and I just purchased a hardcopy on Blu-Ray.

I think that much of it. Just remarkable.

[rlmorel]

Note that Wikipedia defines it as a “ independent Christian horror-thriller film” which is their way of pigeonholing it.

It is true the producers had to make a choice as to whether it should be a “Christian” film or a “horror-thrllier” film, because to classify it as a “Christian” film is to kill the infant in its cradle, no pun intended. So, they probably made the hard decision to classify it as a “horror-thriller” which undercuts the point of the movie, making it out to be simply another “hacker-slasher” movie, which turns many people (including myself) off completely.

I only watched it because of the way it was recommended to me as a reader of an American Thinker article. Otherwise, I would never in a million years have ever watched it of my own accord.

Besides,the performance by that actor who played the Demon is the best I have seen in years. No joke.

But I assure you, it is not a “horror-thriller” movie. I felt no horror in the movie other than the normal pity or horror I might feel at seeing a fellow human being trapped in the figurative jaws of a real demon, with no chance of escape.

I mentioned earlier that as a self-proclaimed Christian (I was baptized as an infant) who believes in God and believes Christ is my Savior, I felt neither a horror nor a thrill in watching this, as I understand I cannot be taken by a Demon like Nefarious if I believe and repent of my sins in this life.

So, it had the power to neither horrify nor terrify me. But I found it fascinating to hear the dialogue of how Satan (through a Demon like Nefarious) would justify his war, and how he would be led to think he is winning in this modern world of ours.

[rlmorel]

I completely enjoyed “The Most Reluctant Convert: The Untold Story of C.S. Lewis” from 2021.

I became a huge C.S. Lewis fan after I read “The Screwtape Letters” which really connected with me. I had never heard of the movie until a Freeper recommended it to me.

[rlmorel]

Hi Folks,
As another poster mentioned, Nefarious may be watched for free on YouTube at this link:

LINK TO FULL MOVIE ON YOUTUBE: Nefarious

It is well worth the watch. I provided this link in case anyone wants to recommend the movie to others who might not have seen it and don't have Prime Video. This is a free and easy way to see it, and you can copy and paste it to send.

I always appreciate this kind of thing, since if you don't like it, you can just stop, and you haven't lost anything.

[Chickensoup]

I just purchased it via ebay