20160220: Horror Review--The Diabolical

Name: The Diabolical (2015)
IMDb: link to The Diabolical page

Genres: Horror   Country of origin: USA.

Cast: Ali Larter as Madison, Merrin Dungey as Mrs. Wallace, Patrick Fischler as Austin, Arjun Gupta as Nikolai, Joe Egender as Carl, Max Rose as Jacob, Chloe Perrin as Haley, Wilmer Calderon as Miguel, Trey Holland as Nestor.

Directed by: Alistair Legrand.  Written by: Luke Harvis,  Alistair Legrand.

Madison and Jacob

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
Madison reads an article on the Internet about whether or not to file for bankruptcy.  She's interrupted by an apparition.  She calls in paranormal investigators who do find something.  However, they immediately run away and recommend that she leaves as well, without further explanation.

The father Mark passed away in the somewhat recent past. Young son Jacob is under investigation for violent behaviour.  Both kids go to camp during the day.  A large company wants to buy out Madison's mortgage.

Delineation of conflicts:
Madison needs money.  Jacob needs calm and stability.  Science teacher Nikolai wants to help Jacob learn physics, but also get inside Madison's pants.  Madison and the children want the poltergeist or ghost phenomena to stop.  Whatever is behind the phenomena wants something, but what?

Resolution: What resolution?

One line summary: Bad film on all fronts.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 3/10 The main photography was OK, but the SFX were just terrible.

Sound: 5/10 Nothing special.

Acting: 3/10 Ali Larter was reasonably good part of the time, but the other actors, not so much.

Screenplay: 0/10 Dull, beginning to end.

The dialog was often awkward.  The real bogeyman turned out to be more than a bit cliche.  The story does not seem to be able to decide what it is trying to be.  Paranormal scares?  Slasher film?  Science gone bad? Police procedural?  Time passage fouled up?

Those were problematic enough, but it was also difficult to figure where reality touches on the film.  The cops and paramedics show up after two deaths.  Do they have any effect inside the house? Is anyone held accountable? Apparently not.

How did it do in creating horror, or tension, or engagement, or even scares?  Not well at all.  The word 'Diabolical' in the title would suggest devil or demon, but there were none as far as I could see.  Perhaps the worst for me was that the film just ends without any particular resolution.

Final rating: 1/10