brilliant actors, brilliant editing

Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

The Diabolical is a horror movie about a mother, protecting her family against manifestations in her house. But those manifestations turn out to be something else than ghosts, when she accepts help from a friend who approaches this from a scientifical view.The only redeeming factor is that the movie somehow succeeds in trying something brand new, instead of your regular ghost story, or family secret. Unfortunately, even for this genre, the acting is so horribly bad, that it becomes painful to watch. The story and editing are messy, so at some point, you may loose the feeling of coherence.Too bad, because an interesting premise gets dragged down for the wrong reasons. Bad acting is partially accepted as a part of the genre, but even here there should be limits. Diabolical crosses those.

If a horror movie goes on for 30 minutes and nearly causes a split vein out of anger owing to its utter lack of talent and vision, it can't be very good, at least not for someone who actually loves the idea of a scary ghost movie and has seen a few that qualify. This "effort" was almost unbelievably bad, displaying pretty much every single mistake a horror movie should never contain. Anyway, that's just my opinion. Main flaws: there was nothing scary; the special effects were miserable; and there seemed to be no heart involved in any aspect of this film, except when filming the various attractive physical forms of Ali Larter, which seemed to be the director's main focus of attention.

Decided to watch a random film tonight just to pass the time, and I can seriously think of so many better things or films I could have watched, wooow that was terrible. From the beginning the film has a week opening and an extremely convoluted, messy, and incoherent plot that actually makes no sense. The performances, dialogue and character interactions are awkward, I actually tried to just turn my brain off and enjoy this as a fun and cheesy thrill ride, and I felt that way at first...then the story began to unfold...OOOOH BOY!! I'm just going to have fun and dissect this movie now.. So entities show up and cause things to float around like ghosts or poltergeists, their are what 3 of them but turns out they are prisoner/test subjects from the future. Where do they get their "ghost powers" from? and why does the final villain during the climax not use this ever again, it feels as though that aspect was used to fool the audience into believing this was going to be a paranormal film, but then it is never justified or explained. The entire last act just made no sense, the premise was clever and had potential but it fell apart way too quickly and irreversibly, the editing was also messy, the transitions between scenes felt pointless at times, as if to simply set up for the next creepy moment of some loud sound or jump scare that never delivered.. and I mean never, not once did I even flinch or twitch. The characters do the most laughable things in this movie it had me scratching my head, for example the mother played by Ali larter rescues her kids in one scene from the villain, brings them in another room, then leaves them there to go somewhere...just somewhere. That scene alone was ridiculous because her actions were just to have the kids become vulnerable in the most unjustified, nonsensical way, and scenes like this one are littered throughout the movie its seriously unbelievable.Characters separate for no reason, the other monsters don't really serve a purpose, and the other supporting actors other than the boyfriend really don't need to be there.The movie was just a lousy effort, I give them respect for using practical effects at times, but then that is overshadowed with terrible CGI and the monsters that are created with practical effects again are under utilised and don't serve a purpose. The premise was interesting at best but even so, many other films have taken similar ideas with mixing horror and time travel and have done it much better. Even on a night where I just wanted to kick back and just have something to watch just to pass the night, I still cannot recommend this movie, it had a cool cover art...umm yea that's about it. Don't bother with this movie.

First of all, there is nothing diabolical about this movie, so I am not sure why this title is chosen to be put as a representation of this movie!It is maybe diabolically empty and meaningless film.If I am not giving one star rating or two is because I think the boy actor is good. The scientist / lover is cute. The woman is interesting. But all this just if viewed for themselves.My main problem is ... the movie starts with this creature coming after the woman and she is repeating: It is not real, it is not real ... and the creature disappears. And if I understood correctly that is what happened some time after the movie really begins. Because why she is running away and does what she does if she knows that is not real?!And plus, if a little girl knows who is the 'diabolic' and later the woman too knows... why she is doing all those meaningless things like fighting the creature, doing tests, calling help and so on ?!Really don't know what to think about all. I believe the story ( which is kinda explained in the last 5 minutes of the film) is interesting but the film itself is poorly done and does not hold your attention. I would not say it is boring, but completely flat and not interesting.3 from me. Though 2 may be more correct.