Sean Patrick Flanery is a "revelation" as he portrays a demon called High Prince Nefariamus (or just plain Nefarious to friends).
Despite its flaws, "Nefarious" should be viewed by acting students just for Flanery's master class in how to play both the merciless demon Neffie and his tortured host, Edward Wayne Brady. (Why does this film seem to have it in for the game show host Wayne Brady?) Flanery is delicious as he makes manipulating his doctor from the first moment they meet look deceptively easy. Acting should be fun, and Flanery is obviously having a ball.
On the other hand, Flanery's co-star, Jordan Belfi, as Dr. James A. Martin, is not ready (if he ever will be) to play opposite Flanery on an equal footing. His performance is earnest yet weak in ability and believability, it is empty of the inspiration the actor strives for and needs to achieve. Belfi seems far more ill at ease than his character has to be. It looks like a lack of ease as an actor instead of as the character.
There are also good minor roles. Tom Ohmer crushes his part as Warden Tom Moss, and Cameron Arnett as Trustee Styles nails one memorable scene. The trouble is that neither of them is in a position to carry the whole movie.
Sometimes the verbal sparring between Nefarious and Martin is well written and well delivered, which is good because the drama of this film is dependent on their relationship.
Martin: I wasn't aware that this is a game.
Nefarious: That's why you're losing.
Plot points that will bear fruit later are well-planted early on. The cruelty of Nefarious toward Edward makes it clear just how evil Nefarious is. (Which hurts Edward more, breaking his little finger or cancelling his last meal?)
Many things in this movie do not make sense. (See "Goofs".) Not least among these is that I do not believe that prison guards would stand around and watch while an inmate strangled a civilian. The conceit is that they don't want to move in because they fear that the inmate will kill the civilian. But that fear should be precisely why guards would move in and stop the inmate from killing the civilian.
It is surprising to reflect that none of George Carlin's seven words that cannot be said on the public airways are said in this movie. Flanery manages to convey viciousness and turpitude while using a vocabulary that is bare of obscenities.
Years ago I saw a Christian movie, "Born Again" (1978), in which one male prison inmate slaps another as if they were self-restrained sorority sisters. Nothing that namby-pamby is portrayed in this movie. When violence occurs, it is not sugar-coated.
Ironically for a Christian movie (or because it is a Christian movie), Nefarious' exposition of the origin of angels/demons smacks of gnostic mythology. The angels became self-aware and then aware that they had been created by another Being. (Although, the gnostic myth is that some beings were created who did NOT know that they were created by a greater Being and mistakenly thought themselves to be the God.)
Also, there is a heresy called "Docetism" that holds that Christ did not die on the cross because He left the body of Jesus before he suffered and, therefore, Christ did not really suffer. This is exactly how Nefarious abandons Edward at the latter's death. It seems peculiar--if perversely fitting--to see that heresy parodied in a Christian movie even if it is about a demon.
Despite its flaws, "Nefarious" should be viewed by acting students just for Flanery's master class in how to play both the merciless demon Neffie and his tortured host, Edward Wayne Brady. (Why does this film seem to have it in for the game show host Wayne Brady?) Flanery is delicious as he makes manipulating his doctor from the first moment they meet look deceptively easy. Acting should be fun, and Flanery is obviously having a ball.
On the other hand, Flanery's co-star, Jordan Belfi, as Dr. James A. Martin, is not ready (if he ever will be) to play opposite Flanery on an equal footing. His performance is earnest yet weak in ability and believability, it is empty of the inspiration the actor strives for and needs to achieve. Belfi seems far more ill at ease than his character has to be. It looks like a lack of ease as an actor instead of as the character.
There are also good minor roles. Tom Ohmer crushes his part as Warden Tom Moss, and Cameron Arnett as Trustee Styles nails one memorable scene. The trouble is that neither of them is in a position to carry the whole movie.
Sometimes the verbal sparring between Nefarious and Martin is well written and well delivered, which is good because the drama of this film is dependent on their relationship.
Martin: I wasn't aware that this is a game.
Nefarious: That's why you're losing.
Plot points that will bear fruit later are well-planted early on. The cruelty of Nefarious toward Edward makes it clear just how evil Nefarious is. (Which hurts Edward more, breaking his little finger or cancelling his last meal?)
Many things in this movie do not make sense. (See "Goofs".) Not least among these is that I do not believe that prison guards would stand around and watch while an inmate strangled a civilian. The conceit is that they don't want to move in because they fear that the inmate will kill the civilian. But that fear should be precisely why guards would move in and stop the inmate from killing the civilian.
It is surprising to reflect that none of George Carlin's seven words that cannot be said on the public airways are said in this movie. Flanery manages to convey viciousness and turpitude while using a vocabulary that is bare of obscenities.
Years ago I saw a Christian movie, "Born Again" (1978), in which one male prison inmate slaps another as if they were self-restrained sorority sisters. Nothing that namby-pamby is portrayed in this movie. When violence occurs, it is not sugar-coated.
Ironically for a Christian movie (or because it is a Christian movie), Nefarious' exposition of the origin of angels/demons smacks of gnostic mythology. The angels became self-aware and then aware that they had been created by another Being. (Although, the gnostic myth is that some beings were created who did NOT know that they were created by a greater Being and mistakenly thought themselves to be the God.)
Also, there is a heresy called "Docetism" that holds that Christ did not die on the cross because He left the body of Jesus before he suffered and, therefore, Christ did not really suffer. This is exactly how Nefarious abandons Edward at the latter's death. It seems peculiar--if perversely fitting--to see that heresy parodied in a Christian movie even if it is about a demon.