Nefarious (2023)

Nefarious is the kind of horror film that doesn’t rely on shadows and jump scares so much as the unnerving feeling that a conversation can become a trap—and that’s what makes it special. Set largely in a prison interview room, it plays like a pressure-cooker duel of words and wills, with Sean Patrick Flanery delivering a fiercely controlled performance that keeps you leaning in even when you want to look away. The movie’s chill comes from its confidence in dialogue and ideas, using theology, guilt, and moral compromise as its weapons while the tension tightens with each calm, poisonous sentence. If you prefer your horror more visceral than talky, it may not be your flavor, but if you like psychological dread with a provocative, debate-like edge, this one gets under your skin and stays there.

Nefarious is clearly aiming for a tense, talky psychological horror chamber piece where a single prison interview becomes a battle for a man’s soul, and it commits hard to that premise. The problem is it often swaps suspense and ambiguity for blunt, sermon-like speeches, so if you’re hoping for a nuanced thriller or a “maybe it’s mental illness, maybe it’s supernatural” slow burn, it can feel more like a message delivery system than a story. A lot of the plot turns are telegraphed, and the characters can come off as pieces on a board serving the argument rather than people you’ll genuinely care about. That said, Sean Patrick Flanery goes for it with a showy, unsettling performance, and if you’re specifically in the mood for overt faith-based spiritual warfare dressed as horror, you may find it gripping enough to ride out the heavy hand.