Nefarious: A Gripping Psychological Thriller

This movie scores high in my book on worldview, entertainment value, acting, writing, and dialogue. Find out how I can recommend an R-rated movie so whole-heartedly.

I never thought I’d publicly recommend an R-rated movie, much less a psychological thriller, but here we are. There’s legitimate debate about whether Nefarious deserves its R rating, but I’ll get to that. Before taking some of my family to see it recently, the last time I saw an R-rated movie in the theaters was when I snuck in to see Alien with a friend in high school (oops, did I say that out loud?).

Nefarious is based on a novel by Christian author and podcaster Steve Deace called A Nefarious Plot. I enjoy Steve’s podcast and stream it occasionally. But while I enjoy his political commentary, I appreciate him more now as a fellow believer, writer, and culture warrior. He’s taking the battle to the enemy in the belly of the Hollywood beast and deserves major respect for that.

Nefarious can be thought of as a cross between Silence of the Lambs and C.S. Lewis’s Screwtape Letters. The Screwtape Letters are 31 supposed letters written by a devil named Screwtape to his young nephew Wormwoo…