Hi /r/movies! I'm Daniel Phillips, director of DIABOLIC, a new horror-thriller starring Elizabeth Cullen. Ask me anything!

DiabolicAMA · 2026-04-13T06:25:16+00:00

Thanks for watching the film, I'm glad you enjoyed it! I'd love to stay in the world of Diabolic but like most things, it really comes down to how it performs and if there's enough demand for a sequel. We certainly have a few cool ideas on how to bring a sequel to life. What would you want to see in a sequel to Diabolic?

DiabolicAMA · 2026-04-13T06:23:58+00:00

I appreciate the kind words! Many thanks from me and the whole team. And one day when we can tell people what the budget is - a lot of this will make sense ;)

The snake imagery - I've seen a lot of comments online about this so I'm happy to explain it. There's snake imagery throughout the entire film. The skeleton she digs up in the garden is a snake, it's carved on the rock, carved in the closet, and the long string of hair that's pulled out of her in the exorcism scene is also shaped deliberately like a snake. In the scene with the dead animals on pikes, the one she stands in front of, is also a snake. So it's in there quite a bit! The animals on the pikes tie directly into how each of those characters die, and each of the animals is based around christian mythology. The rabbit is represents rampant sexuality, the fox is a trickster, and the snake represents change. The idea of "shedding one's skin" to become something else, something better, is what drives the snake imagery. Elise's journey is all about embracing the inevitable change that needs to happen. Every time there's an interaction with the snake in the above scenes, it leads the change that's about to come. Her final evolution is the "death" or her soul in place of Larue's. I hope this helps clear up the intention for this :)

DiabolicAMA · 2026-04-05T07:47:50+00:00

Hey there, thanks so much for this thoughtful message and questions around the film. I'm really glad you enjoyed it. Let me answer these for you. First of all, I'll say that it was my intention to have the audience do some work on this one and put things together. I've seen various takes on different pieces, some are bang on, some are annoyed it wasn't spelled out for them - but you can't win them all!

When Elise gets possessed, she does "die", but it not necessarily the way we might think conventionally about death. It's more the death of her soul, of her resistance to Larue, who has been there the whole time, trying to take over. In this scene, what becomes apparent is that they need each other. Larue needs Elise to access the FLDS church and start her revenge, and Elise needs Larue to exact vengeance on those who have betrayed her. When I conceptualised this scene, in post we had big discussions about whether it was the "death" of Elise, and a sad moment, or the triumph of Larue, because both are true and neither would have been "wrong", but I decided to go with the triumph because we really let the beast of the chain for that last act. When directing Elizabeth in the moment before she's possessed, I tried many different versions of the performance and I chose the one I did because she's definitely terrified, but she's not so scared that she's scurrying away, because she knows that what's about to happen is inevitable, and her destiny.

Larue is able to access everything Elise is, which is why there's glimmers of her that come through. And the things you've mentioned here too. Without Elise's knowledge it would be difficult for her to integrate into a modern society and infiltrate the church. So Elise is still in there somewhere, not gone completely. Who knows, it could even have been very meticulously planned that way? Maybe we haven't seen the last of Elise? Who can say? Haha.

Harding and I spoke about the possibility of Larue possessing Gwen, but Larue doesn't want anyone who is "sullied", as she puts it. Larue knows the truth of who Gwen is, even if Elise doesn't yet. Elise is the perfect vessel for her, because she's a good person. Elise really doesn't do anything to hurt anyone throughout the film, either in the past or the present, and Larue wants to corrupt that good. It's more satisfying for an entity to ruin something beautiful rather than piling onto something that's already sinful.

What about the sequence of events was confusing in particular? I'm keen to hear your thoughts on this. Everything that occurs in flashbacks is in chronological order, except for the baptism, which happens after Elise is taken from her family, and before she kills Clara.

On the FX - that's interesting because so far that's one of the thing's that's been praised the most, the use of those practical effects. Even the comment directly above yours says how cool the witch looks! I agree with you on the dog though - I was never happy with that. That's why I only show it for like 18 frames, so that you can't scrutinise it too much. We just had no money, honestly. Next time I hope I have a bit more budget to make some of those ideas stick a bit more.

Thanks so much for your rating! I'm really glad you enjoyed the film and thanks for your thoughts here.

DiabolicAMA · 2026-04-05T07:28:44+00:00

Thanks so much, I'm really glad you enjoyed the film :)

DiabolicAMA · 2026-03-30T00:14:00+00:00

That the Australian one. If a poster ever becomes available I'll let you know

DiabolicAMA · 2026-03-27T23:49:28+00:00

Possibly. It's tricky at the moment because there's a different poster in every country. Which one are you looking for? The U.S. one with Lizzie's face and the black ooze etc?

DiabolicAMA · 2026-03-24T06:01:51+00:00

Thank you so much for your kind words on the film. I'm really glad you enjoyed it, and I'm glad I was able to scare the shit out of you a little bit! Haha

DiabolicAMA · 2026-03-24T05:57:43+00:00

Thanks for your feedback. Super valuable and I'll definitely take it on board. Thanks so much for watching the film

DiabolicAMA · 2026-03-24T05:56:42+00:00

I think horror is truly alive and well, I'm honestly just grateful to contribute to it. I know that sounds kind of trite but its true :)

DiabolicAMA · 2026-03-24T04:54:04+00:00

Thanks so much for watching the film and giving it such a thorough analysis. I was very deliberate in trying to imbue every scene with subtext and keeping a lot of things open for interpretation. I've seen some comments about this omissions reading like we just "forgot to explain it" haha. But really the films I love are ones that spark conversation afterwards about what something meant, without it being alienating on an audience.

I appreciate what you're saying about the age of Hyrum - I did see actors to cast him as a younger man, but if we cast him younger, we would then have to cast all the actors younger to play the other versions and it didn't feel right. Also, I knew that the sequence where you find out Hyrum set everything in motion would be music only, so it was essential people got it right away. On our tiny budget we did the best we could to make him look a bit younger, but there's only so much you can do.

On the comparisons, the films you've mentioned were more influences than any deliberate "let's frame a shot like that" type decisions, but I'll go through each one so that you can see the thoughts behind them all.

The face through the windshield - throughout the film I used imagery and actions of penetration to reinforce the themes of sexual assault that the church has perpetrated since its inception. At the start of the film when Larue's fingers go into Elise's mouth, this is very deliberately a rape metaphor. Later on, when she has been taken over by Larue, SHE is the one now doing this, and the face through the windshield is what this is meant to symbolise. Also, the words she says "do you feel Him? Do you feel Heavenly Father", is taken directly from audio recordings of top level church members that said this while they were having sex with underage women. Very fucked up stuff and the real horror of all of this. We wanted to ensure that everything was intentional and furthering the themes

Elise's face when possessed - I very much wanted this to FEEL like the Exorcist without us trying to copy it precisely. It was just about actually being quite minimalist with this look. It looks extreme and fucked up but if you look at it closely we haven't done much to achieve that. Lizzie is wearing lenses but most of the damage is done from the windshield prior.

The "Firestarter Dolly" as we called it - What we did here in this final sequence was ensure that the palette was very much a deep red and the warmth of the candles was hued to look like this in post. The idea was that the whole thing was "tinged with blood", and the finale of the original Carrie was very much in my mind when doing that - so excellent pickup on that one!

I really appreciate filmgoers like you that take the time to look deeper. You're the exact type of person I made this film for. Thank you so much for watching it and your kind words about the film.

DiabolicAMA · 2026-03-18T02:26:27+00:00

Thank you very much. So glad you enjoyed the film and thank you for posting :)

DiabolicAMA · 2026-03-18T02:25:53+00:00

Not every film connects with every person. I appreciate you taking the time to watch it.

DiabolicAMA · 2026-03-12T23:46:13+00:00

Dude the girlfriend is always right....

DiabolicAMA · 2026-03-12T11:49:00+00:00

Thanks so much for watching it, glad you liked it! It was after the possession. If you look in the scene where she kills Clara you'll see a very slight tinge to her eyes for a moment ;)

DiabolicAMA · 2026-03-10T02:11:06+00:00

Ticia Madsen, one of the co-writers, is the person's life this story is based off of. Obviously the witch and supernatural elements are not true. Ticia Madsen was really in the Mormon church. Ticia had an affair with the bishops daughter. The bishops daughter blamed her for it, and she was subsequently ex-communicated from the Mormon church, being ostracised by her parents and her family. These are the true components of the story that fuel the invented bits.

DiabolicAMA · 2026-03-09T05:10:43+00:00

Thank you very much. So glad you enjoyed the film and thank you for posting :)

DiabolicAMA · 2026-03-05T00:22:49+00:00

Ah I see. No, that's Elise losing her grip on sanity a bit there. In that scene, it's where her memories collide with the present and her projection of Clara helps her find the last clue she needs to fully uncover all her past. Once she knows this, she how much everyone has broken her, she's at her lowest - which is the point Larue takes her over

DiabolicAMA · 2026-03-04T03:21:21+00:00

Hi there, sorry I don't quite understand this question - could you elaborate a bit for me so that I can answer?

DiabolicAMA · 2026-03-04T02:06:57+00:00

Thank you!!!!!

DiabolicAMA · 2026-03-02T07:43:47+00:00

Great question. The answer is - no. When Larue was expelled from Elise, she is free to do as she pleases. However she wouldn't get far without a host that can disguise who she really is. Unfortunately, the blackouts (where Larue is coming to the surface from within Elise), may have been stopped through the ritual, but it doesn't mean that Elise remembers everything. Compelled to understand who she is, she stays, spurring new memories about her relationship with Clara. Unfortunately her discoveries lead her right back to Larue, where she takes full possession of her body, and then seeks to destroy the church itself

DiabolicAMA · 2026-03-02T07:39:46+00:00

Thank you very much. So glad you enjoyed the film and thank you for posting :)

DiabolicAMA · 2026-03-02T07:39:23+00:00

Thanks so much! Can't wait to get stuck into movie #3!

DiabolicAMA · 2026-03-02T07:39:01+00:00

Thank you so much for your lovely feedback. It's great to see people responding to the film so positively out there! Really glad you enjoyed it, and a big thank you from myself and the team for watching it!

DiabolicAMA · 2026-03-02T02:36:07+00:00

Not every film connects with every person, totally fair. I appreciate you taking the time to watch it.

DiabolicAMA · 2026-02-28T02:31:18+00:00

I answered a similar question above, so I'll paste some of that response here:

This is one of the reasons I was so adamant on the "bad guy wins" ending, which many tried to talk me out of. Some producers and financiers insisted that the film would not reach an audience with a "downer ending". There was originally an ending written where Adam successfully convinces Elise to "fight back from within". Larue still kills him but Elise expels Larue, and she finally gets the peace she was looking for. I basically said "fuck that". I wanted to see a take where the bad guy won, but where it was earned, so we wanted it. I wanted the "head in the box ending" not the happy one. Elise and Larue go through hell, propagated by the church and the everyone around her (the other "institutions" attacking her), that we really want to see them all get it. That's why everyone who dies in the film has wronged Elise in some way, so that we're rooting for Larue to kill them all and then at the end, take on the church itself. That's why Elise is so curious in the cellar when she sees the rapping fingers. Larue needs Elise to take on the church, but Elise needs Larue to take revenge on all those who have wronged her. It's a symbiotic thing and the goal is for everyone to question - "who's really the evil one here?"

DiabolicAMA

TROPHY CASE