“Nefarious” presents itself as a straightforward thinking horror film in its trailer. However, when you finally sit down to watch “Nefarious”, you’ll realize that at its core, it’s one of the most addictive legal dramas with horror elements since “The Exorcism of Emily Rose”. The film also works like a play, with a tremendous two-man show between the never-better Sean Patrick Flanery (The Boondock Saints, Powder) and Jordan Belfi (HBO’s Entourage), who gives his career-best performance. “Nefarious” will go down as one of the year’s best films.
While I was watching the movie at first, I was a little disappointed that it wasn’t a real horror movie. After a while, I found the acting to be some of the best of this year, especially how fast and furious Sean Patrick Flanery had his monologues memorized, The one that stood out, especially when he was telling Jordan Belfi’s character that Edward is just a vessel given to him by his master, the way the camera locks on Sean makes you anxious and won’t let you look away from his monologue as well as his eyes blinking sporadically makes it seem plausible that he is possessed .When Sean delivers those lines you’ll get goosebumps. Another great sequence between the two is when Nefarious[Sean Patrick Flanery] tells Jordan’s character that by the end of the day, he would have killed three people. When the second person is revealed, Jordan’s facial reaction hits home hard. When he rushes frantically to the phone to call his significant other, the music intensifies and puts you in his mind.
The trailer for “Nefarious” was also underwhelming to me when it played in front of a movie my dad and I saw in theaters recently, but I am glad I decided to review it for the site. It’s one of the year’s best films and will pair nicely with the Denzel Washington and John Goodman movie “Fallen” if you want to do a double billing when you go see it in theaters or if you wait to rent it at home. It’s an addictive film, and you may want to watch it twice in that rental window.
Overall Grade: 4/5 stars
Nefarious hits theaters nationwide on Friday April 14th
Here’s my interview with Sean Patrick Flanery for “Nefarious”
