suite92 The Three Acts: The initial tableaux: Madison reads an article on the Internet about whether or not to file for bankruptcy. She's interrupted by an apparition. She calls in paranormal investigators who do find something. However, they immediately run away and recommend that she leaves as well, without further explanation.The father Mark passed away in the somewhat recent past. Young son Jacob is under investigation for violent behaviour. Both kids go to camp during the day. A large company wants to buy out Madison's mortgage.Delineation of conflicts: Madison needs money. Jacob needs calm and stability. Science teacher Nikolai wants to help Jacob learn physics, but also get inside Madison's pants. Madison and the children want the poltergeist or ghost phenomena to stop. Whatever is behind the phenomena wants something, but what?Resolution: What resolution?

David Arnold This film is exactly like it's title....diabolical. That may be unoriginal but it's a very apt way to start this review.This is another classic example of why you shouldn't take movie trailers at face value because as soon as I saw them I wanted to see this film. It looked like a really decent, creepy film and when I saw such low ratings everywhere I couldn't understand why. After seeing the film, I do now and unfortunately it's just the exact opposite of what the trailers make it out to be.Amazing how the studios can fool you with a 2 minute trailer isn't it? The Diabolical is VERY slow and sometimes I don't mind that in certain movies as long as the story gets your interest and KEEPS your interest. However, this is not only very slow but it is extremely dull to boot mainly because of the boring story. Actually, scrap that. The overall story isn't that boring...it's the execution of it that makes it boring and for a supposed Thriller there's not very much thrills here at all.I also feel that nothing is really explained properly at anytime throughout the film either. It just feels like it's been put together to allow the audience to come up with their own theories on what is happening. That works - sometimes - but definitely not in this case. It just poses too many questions and leaves them unanswered.Suspenseful? Nope. Mind-bending? More like confusing and mind-numbing. Chilling? MAYBE one or two scenes at the very most but nothing more.Honestly, if you're thinking about watching this film, I'd suggest you just give it a miss. You're not missing much if you choose not to see it and it will save you about an hour and twenty minutes of your life.

quincytheodore Diabolical is insanely dull. It portrays so many haunting stereotypes in alarmingly uninteresting ways. The focus on drama is appreciated, although it dawdles needlessly for half the runtime, and even then it falters with lackluster attempt in horror and poor design for the creature. At the end it tries to pull off a nifty twist, but unfortunately audience would already be disenchanted by the clumsy execution.An entity binds a single mother and her two children to a particular house. What follows is average haunting gimmick which other movies have done better. It often stays too long on certain scene or abruptly changes tone with several supporting characters, either ways it doesn't pay off in the slightest.Ali Larter as the mother does a decent job on creating some family drama, however the tired theme of single mother struggling grows old too fast. She faces mortgage issue, visits from social services and even bullied by strange entities. It becomes mundane later on, not to mention the other characters seem like extras without much personality and the things they do sometimes defy logic as they wander aimlessly.All of those flaws can be forgiven, as most horror tend to skimp on narrative, but The Diabolical is simply not frightening. Practical effect is poorly done and the special effect looks awfully fake. The design for creature might be decent for the first or second time it appears, but this is the case of not showing too much can be more effective, which doesn't help much since the movie can't set up any suspense regardless.The effort to create drama is decent, but it soon becomes repetitive and tedious, especially when the movie can't deliver any horror, thrill or even the slightest tension.

Phil Slattery I will side with those reviewers that think this is a good movie. The acting was good as were the special effects and writing. This starts off as a standard haunted house movie, but as the story progresses it becomes obvious that these are not ghosts haunting the house, but something from another time, which is somehow connected to a corporation that is trying to persuade the owner, Madison (Ali Larter), to sell the house to them.The story starts the suspense right from the beginning and keeps it building until the final scenes that explain what is going on. As another reviewer mentioned, this is not a slasher flick and it delves more into character than other sci-fi/thriller/horror films. There is a little blood, but not much. Nonetheless, the action and intensity built throughout the film and the film did a good job of keeping the viewer guessing to the end. I can't think of a way to improve on "The Diabolical" off hand, except to perhaps ramp up the intensity and suspense a little. Unlike other horror movies I have seen recently, this one did keep me awake and intrigued throughout the entire performance. I would say "The Diabolical" is a good film, but not a great film.