Diabolic Out Now | Exclusive Interview With Daniel J. Phillips
- Adam Williams
- 1 day ago
- 6 min read
The Australian-produced supernatural horror is now available on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital here in the UK & Ireland. The film was written by Mike Harding, Ticia Madsen and Daniel J. Phillips, who also directed the film. Elizabeth Cullen (Evil Dead Wrath), John Kim (The Little Things), Mia Challis (Clickbait) and Terence Crawford (The Babadook) star.
The film follows the story of a young woman whos hope for a miracle cure turns into a nightmare when she confronts the vengeful spirit of a cursed witch.
God Forgives... Evil Doesn't
After suffering terrifying blackouts, a young woman returns to the religious compound where she was raised. As she unravels the dark secrets of her past, an ancient ritual unleashes the vengeful spirit of a cursed witch.
I was lucky enough to catch up with the film's director and co-writer himself Daniel J. Phillips to discuss his latest horror.
What first inspired you to create Diabolic, and how did the idea initially take shape?
Daniel J. Phillips: It started with a feeling more than an idea. I had this image of a witch, and a tone, and a world that felt psychologically oppressive, but I didn't yet have a way into the story emotionally. I knew I wanted to explore religious extremism and the damage it does to people, particularly women, but I hadn't found the specific entry point yet.
When I met Mike Harding and Ticia Madsen, everything clicked. Ticia has real personal experience inside the Mormon church and the world of the FLDS, and that gave us an authenticity and specificity that I never could have achieved on my own. We combined that with the witch elements I'd been thinking about and suddenly the whole thing had a shape. The FLDS world is genuinely one of the most fascinating and disturbing subcultures I've ever researched, and I think we've barely scratched the surface of it with this film.
Genevieve Mooy, Robin Goldsworthy, and Daniel J. Phillips behind the scenes of Diabolic
Can you tell us about your journey into filmmaking, what first drew you to becoming a director?
DJP: It started the way it starts for a lot of people. Making films on weekends with friends, saving up to afford a blood pack or building something from scratch to get a certain effect. There was something about putting images together and making people feel something that I found completely addictive from a really young age.
I pursued formal training but honestly I think the most important education is just making things. Being on set under pressure and having to make real decisions in real time is where you actually learn. Nothing replaces that.D
What are your favourite horror films, and how have they influenced your style or storytelling in Diabolic?
DJP: The Shining is probably the greatest horror film ever made for me. What Kubrick does with atmosphere and psychological dread is extraordinary. Very little actually happens for long stretches of it but the sense that something is fundamentally wrong is completely overwhelming the whole way through. That confidence, that willingness to trust the audience and sit in ambiguity, is something I really aspire to.
The Exorcist is still incredible every time I watch it because it takes character and emotional reality so seriously. The horror works because the people feel completely believable first.
The Conjuring is also a massive one for me. James Wan is a filmmaker I hugely admire. There's nothing particularly novel about that story but the direction is so confident and so clear that it stands out as one of the best horror films I've ever seen. It's just a very well made film. I also really enjoyed The First Omen more recently. Arkasha Stevenson directed it with a lot of confidence and I thought it was doing something genuinely interesting thematically around female autonomy and institutional control that felt very relevant to what we were exploring in Diabolic.
Diabolic Out Now | Exclusive Interview With Daniel J. Phillips
Were there any specific filmmakers, genres, or visual styles that shaped the look and tone of the film?
DJP: James Wan is a big one from a genre perspective for the reasons I just mentioned. Outside of horror, Denis Villeneuve and David Fincher both inspire me enormously because of how controlled and intentional their filmmaking feels. Even when things are visually stylised, the emotional logic is always completely clear. I find that incredibly difficult to achieve and incredibly rewarding when it works.
For Diabolic specifically we were very deliberate with camera movement, sound design and pacing. Everything was designed to create a sense of psychological pressure that builds gradually across the film rather than relying on jump scares. We wanted the dread to feel inescapable.
What were some of the biggest challenges you faced during, and how did you overcome them?
DJP: Independent horror filmmaking is basically just constant problem solving. Every single day something is trying to destroy your schedule.
The biggest ongoing challenge was balancing ambition with resources. We were trying to make something that felt cinematic and visually confident on a limited budget, so every setup had to count and every creative decision had to earn its place. We fought for every shot in that film.
We also relied heavily on practical effects, which I love but which are genuinely terrifying when something goes wrong. The key is having an incredibly skilled and resourceful team around you who can adapt quickly. We had that, fortunately.
How did you approach building tension and atmosphere in the film compared to more traditional horror techniques?
DJP: The approach was always to earn the tension through character first. If the audience genuinely cares about and understands a person, the horror becomes so much more effective because the stakes feel real. I think the reason The Exorcist still holds up is entirely because of that. You believe in those people before anything frightening happens.
We were also very deliberately working against certain genre expectations. We leaned into some familiar horror tropes early in the film quite consciously, specifically because we intended to subvert them later. It's a kind of contract with the audience where you're building expectations in order to break them in a more satisfying way.
I made some stylistic choices on this film that were genuinely quite risky. They could have completely not worked. I'm really pleased that audiences responded to them.
Did anything unexpected happen during filming that ended up improving or changing the final result?
DJP: There are always moments on a shoot where something doesn't go to plan and you have to find a better solution on the spot, and occasionally that solution turns out to be more interesting than what you originally intended. I think that's part of what makes filmmaking exciting and sometimes genuinely terrifying.
What I'd say more broadly is that the actors consistently brought things to their roles that weren't on the page, and being open to that always made the scenes richer. Elizabeth in particular had an instinct for Elise that I trusted completely. Sometimes she would find an emotional truth in a moment that I hadn't anticipated and the right call was always just to let that happen and capture it.
How did you work with your cast to bring out the performances needed for such an intense horror story?
DJP: The most important thing is creating an environment where actors feel genuinely safe to take risks and fail without judgement. Horror is demanding because you're asking people to maintain very heightened emotional states repeatedly across long days, and that's exhausting. If they don't feel supported, they'll start to protect themselves and the performances will close down.
We also spent a lot of time in prep talking about performance temperature and tone, making sure everyone understood the world we were building together. We were going for something grounded but not hyper-naturalistic, and that's actually a quite specific and difficult calibration to get right. The cast understood it and approached it with a lot of care and intelligence.
Daniel J. Phillips and Michael Tessari behind the scenes of Diabolic
What advice would you give to aspiring filmmakers who want to break into the horror genre?
DJP: Just make things. The gap between what you imagine and what you can actually execute closes with every project you complete, and you learn more from finishing something imperfect than from developing something perfect indefinitely.
I'd also say take the genre seriously. The best horror films are about something real underneath the surface, whether that's grief, trauma, social anxiety, institutional failure, whatever it might be. The scariest films are the ones where the horror is a metaphor for something the audience already carries with them. If you're just trying to make something scary for its own sake, you're missing the most powerful tool available to you. And commit fully to whatever tone you choose. Audiences can feel when a filmmaker is hedging their bets creatively, and it breaks the spell immediately.illips
Huge thank you to Daniel J. Phillips for taking the time to give us an interview; I'm looking forward to checking out the film.
Diabolic is now available via DVD, Blu-ray & Digital, you check out the trailer below.
