Nefarious, Part 2

A follow-up post from Father Martins:

A Demonic Plot to Subvert the Truth? You tell me.

In my first post yesterday (April 12), I shared how impressed I am with “Nefarious,” calling it the best possession/exorcism movie ever made. In my second post, I shared a video describing diabolic phenomena at the movie’s premiere: the failure of electronic equipment, the flickering of lights, the chanting of a disembodied voice, etc. These only stopped after I used the Church’s ritual to perform an exorcism of place.

The diabolical manifestations led to my having extensive conversations with the film’s crew and executives. I want to share some of their content with you.

I have been an exorcist for the better part of 20 years, and even I was astounded by what I heard. While none of the following occurrences prove the Devil caused them, the sheer number of events makes attributing them to anything else absurd. Here are just a sample.

– During the filming, an eerie windstorm erupted during the scenes that depict “how the Devil operates.” When those scenes were shot, the wind howled so audibly and hard that it caused the studio to shake, making the sound recordings unusable. In the words of Chuck Konzelman, one of the film’s two directors, “We would stop shooting a scene because of the groaning of the building, and as soon as we said, ‘Cut,’ the wind stopped. The moment we began reshooting, it started as fierce as ever.” The Oklahoma Department of Transportation declared the storm the highest velocity of sheer force winds ever recorded.

– Several weeks ago, the film’s executives were in a marketing and promoting campaign in their California office. The wind began blowing so hard that the roof blew off the building.

– The crew—numbering only sixty persons—was involved in eight car wrecks during the film’s production.

– Many of the crew were hit with COVID-19 infections. So what, right? Many the world over got COVID-19. However, the infections among the crew were so bad that production halted for almost four months, nearly bankrupting the project. Private investors willing to inject money into the venture had to be found to save it.

– The Catholic priest who served as consultant for the movie had his residence broken into by some animal while he was out. It destroyed his Nativity scene, knocked a Christmas wreath off the door, and toppled a candle depicting the Blessed Virgin Mary onto the floor. It climbed onto his altar, urinated on the upper right and lower left corners of the corporal (the cloth over which the Eucharist is Consecrated), and defecated on the cross in its center (the center is where the priest places the paten that holds the Sacred Host). Here’s the kicker: the animal touched no food in the house.

– The same priest had his appendix burst during the filming. The surgeon informed him that he would have died if he had waited much longer.

– The malfunction of electronic equipment was constant. Hard drives ceased operating, audio equipment stopped working, and cameras would not record. They also experienced constant email issues: emails sent by the producers and crew would not get to the recipient (I experienced this myself from them multiple times).

– A Newsweek reporter tried to record an interview with Cary and Chuck, and it failed. He tried again on a different occasion with the same result. He then suggested they send him their answers via email. The email would not send, even after repeated hits of the send button. Only after they prayed did it do so.

– Chuck and Cary desired the film’s release date to be in April because of its closeness to Passover and Easter. They settled on the 14th (Friday of Easter Week) because of the few number of movies releasing that weekend. (There are only so many physical theaters in the country, therefore, strategizing when the most theatre space is available often pays dividends). The theatres were excited about an April 14 launch and guaranteed “Nefarious” 1,800 theatres. However, shortly after the date was settled, six other movies announced they were opening on the same day. That increased the total to 18, making this month the most crowded April in movie history.

– Among the movies launching the same day is Russell Crowe’s “The Pope’s Exorcist,” a huge-budget film released by Sony Pictures. Sony had initially planned for an October 13 release but decided to go head-to-head with Nefarious on April 14. Although the movies have dramatically different styles and ends, a second exorcism/possession movie launching the same day had a catastrophic effect on theatre hosting. “Nefarious” went from a guaranteed 1,800 theatres to half of that. According to Cary, “Sony is huge. It can call a Cinema company and demand 3,000 theatres show this movie or ‘You won’t get future hit movies like Spiderman.’ This threat often makes theatre companies cow-tow or risk missing out on a guaranteed blockbuster. The Adversary is attempting to snuff our candle in the first weekend.”

To put this last point in perspective, theatres examine and evaluate a movie’s success on the Monday after the first weekend. They determine whether the film was successful enough to warrant its carrying in the same number of theatres or whether it needs cutting out altogether. In terms of cinema, the opening weekend is the critically important one.

Folks, if you plan to see “Nefarious,” do so THIS weekend. This is the best way to help the movie.

Many people have asked me whether they risk subjecting themselves to demonic attacks if they view the film. “Nefarious” is not a horror movie. It is a theological discourse on good versus evil. You will no more be attacked by watching it than you are for going to church on Sunday or listening to a lecture on holiness.