Movie 106: The Diabolical

Starring: Ali Larter, Max Rose, Chloe Perrin, Wilmer Calderon, Merrin Dungey, Joe Egender, Patrick Fischler.

Director: Alistair Legrand.

Well, Ali Larter.  So...Ali Larter.  Let's do this.

I think this has something to do with ghosts.  Looks fairly generic, but that hasn't disqualified a film from greatness every single time.  We certainly don't seem to be wasting any time: Larter is sitting at her computer in her P.J.s (sleeping, which is the universal movie sign for "money problems"), there's some weird lights flickering, sounds, and Larter says "Not again."  Then a weird looking monster thing shows up.  So, hey, just going for it, Movie.  I respect the hell out of that.  Dangerous, though: what if the rest of your scary stuff isn't able to top that?  You have to be pretty confident to throw a face-peeling monster in the pre-credits sequence.  And no, I'm not talking about Larter.  Kidding.  Larter is very beautiful and...a fair actress.  We can't hold Heroes against everyone involved in that show forever.  We have new actors to hold the shitty revival against now anyway, so maybe we should begin to forgive Ali Larter and, maybe, Adrian Pasdar.  We can let Adrian Pasdar be in horror movies, too, now.

In all seriousness, though, this movie really isn't messing around.  Right after the credits sequence, we see a couple of ghost hunter types exploring the house.  Takes the guy three minutes and he bolts right on out of there.  Again, pretty simple storytelling: even the guy whose job it is to deal with the supernatural cannot deal with whatever is haunting Ali Larter.  The kid has some sort of relationship with the Skin-Peel Beast, which does suggest the dude ain't entirely so bad.

Larter has a genius son(like in Heroes) and he's getting into fights at school and a little precocious Daughter who apparently might be pals with a ghost/demon/face-melty thing.  She might not quite be in monetary problems as I had original surmised...it might be more a psychological issue where she is still reeling from the death of her husband.  The kids clearly aren't dealing well with it, either.  I usually get a little annoyed when a horror flick gets really deep into family problems and the like-it provides something very necessary but often ends up disrupting balance(even here there's a slight threat of it, but it seems to be doing a pretty regimented job of switching between real life and monsters)-but this seems to be handling itself well.  Larter's boyfriend(and the boy's physics tutor) seems like a nice guy, so I would assume the face-melter will eat him at some point.  

Ali Larter just tried to punch a ghost.
That might be my new favorite sentence. 

Interesting turn of events.  I'm actually wondering if it's even a ghost now.  The kids develop some weird illness that causes horrible hives or whatever whenever they leave the house, leading Larter to do some research and find some interesting things out...I'm actually beginning to think their ghost might be some sort of interdimensional anomaly or something.  Which would be pretty rad.  

I haven't said anything about Patrick Fischler yet and that's really outrageous.  

Master of the mocking smile.

He's an extraordinary actor.  He only has a small role-being smarmy, which is what he's best at-but he's kinda rocking it.  He really is only there to offer another negative circumstance for the family to have to weather(which is already stacking up really horribly, between Fischler threatening to foreclose on her house if she doesn't sell, her kids being unable to leave the house without horrible burns appearing, the kid that Larter's Son punched out if threatening to press charges(wasn't sure that was really a thing, but okay), the counselor who is suppose to evaluate the kid is all unsympathetic to their plight, and a horrible face melting thing is wandering the house all willy nilly) but he's doing it well.  I think we all owe Patrick Fischler a thank you.

We seem to be entering Poltergeist territory in some ways: while there are supernatural goings-on, there are also real world problems getting serious, while a fractured family unit attempts to regain cohesion in the face of overwhelming odds.

Oh, snap, Fischler's company has something to do with whatever is happening in the house.  Possibly from the future.  The ultimate reveal is actually pretty cool.  I'm wondering where this will end up.  I won't leave any spoilers, but it's actually kind of interesting.

Final Thoughts: Well, as interesting as the storyline ends up getting by the end, it certainly isn't the greatest progression of scenes I've ever come across.  The movie is kind of an entirely different entity at the end than it is at the beginning, and it's ending is frustratingly vague(even after it over-explains the basic plot twist, which is really weird).  Larter gives a decent performance.  It's definitely a pretty okay little film.

Final Rating: Two and a Half Stars.