''Diablo'' is a 2015 Canadian-American

revisionist Western The revisionist Western (also called the anti-Western, sometimes revisionist antiwestern) is a sub-genre of the Western film. Designated a post-classical variation of the traditional Western, the revisionist subverts the myth and romance of th ...

psychological thriller Psychological thriller is a genre combining the thriller and psychological fiction genres. It is commonly used to describe literature or films that deal with psychological narratives in a thriller or thrilling setting. In terms of context and c ...

film produced, co-written and directed by

Lawrence Roeck Lawrence Roeck is a Canadian director, screenwriter and film producer known for '' Diablo'' and '' The Forger''. Early life and career At a very young age, his family moved from Calgary to California. His filmmaking career began in Alberta dur ...

, and starring

Scott Eastwood Scott Eastwood (born Scott Clinton Reeves; March 21, 1986) is an American actor. His notable films are '' Flags of Our Fathers'' (2006), ''Gran Torino'' (2008), '' Invictus'' (2009), '' The Forger'' (2012), ''Trouble with the Curve'' (2012), '' ...

Walton Goggins Walton Sanders Goggins Jr. (born November 10, 1971) is an American actor. He has starred in a number of television series, including ''The Shield'' (2002–2008), '' Justified'' (2010–2015), '' Vice Principals'' (2016–2017), ''The Righteous ...

, Camilla Belle and Danny Glover. It was the first western film starring Scott Eastwood, the son of Western icon Clint Eastwood. It was released on January 8, 2016 by Orion Pictures and

Momentum Pictures Momentum Pictures is a film distributor and a subsidiary of Entertainment One, itself part of Hasbro. Prior to 2013, it was a brand of Canadian distributor Alliance Films used for its releases in the United Kingdom, and was one of the leading in ...

Synopsis

In 1872, a young

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

veteran loses his home to a fire and is forced on a desperate journey to save his kidnapped wife. Jackson, a former member of Union General Sherman's army, embarks on an odyssey of both rescue and revenge. At nearly every turn he encounters a mysterious figure named Ezra who delights in tormenting him, while gleefully murdering any witnesses to their encounters. But things are not at all what they seem. It develops that Jackson committed countless atrocities under Sherman's command and may have actually experienced some sort of psychotic break in the process. What Jackson perceives and believes may be completely disconnected from the reality of what is actually happening around him.

Cast

as Jackson *

as Ezra * Camilla Belle as Alexsandra *

José Zúñiga José Zúñiga (born April 1, 1965) is a Honduran-American actor.José Zúñiga profile
filmrefere ...

as Guillermo * Danny Glover as Benjamin Carver * Nesta Cooper as Rebecca Carver * Adam Beach as Nakoma * Samuel Marty as Ishani *

Joaquim de Almeida Joaquim António Portugal Baptista de Almeida (born 15 March 1957) is a Portuguese actor. Almeida began his acting career in theatre during the 1980s, he started his film career appearing on the 1982 action film '' The Soldier'', and later ach ...

as Arturo *

Tzi Ma Tzi Ma (;) is a Hong Kong-American actor. He is well known for his roles in television shows, such as '' The Man in the High Castle'' and '' 24'', and films, such as ''Dante's Peak'', ''Rush Hour'', ''Rush Hour 3'', '' Arrival'', '' The Farewel ...

as Quok Mi *

Rohan Campbell Rohan Campbell is a Canadian actor. He is known for starring as Frank Hardy on the 2020s television series adaptation ''The Hardy Boys'', opposite Alexander Elliot as Joe Hardy, and as Corey Cunningham in the 2022 slasher film ''Halloween Ends'' ...

as Robert

Release

The film was released at the San Diego film festival on October 2, 2015.

Critical reception

The film was panned by critics. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film has a "Rotten" 19% rating, based on 21 reviews, with an average rating of 3.47/10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film has a score of 35 out of 100, based on 9 reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".

The AV Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

calls it " dious despite its brief running time." Odie Henderson at RogerEbert.com writes that the film ”goes for shock value with its twists, but plays its hand far too early. Our knowledge of events and of character force us to question why the people in the climactic scenes act as stupid as they do." And

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

says: "The twist...isn’t without promise.... Yet it’s nonetheless clumsily handled, and the last stretch of the film goes south in a hurry."

Accolades

''Diablo'' won the ''Best Narrative Feature'' award at the

San Diego International Film Festival The San Diego International Film Festival (SDIFF) is an independent film festival in San Diego, California produced by the non-profit San Diego Film Foundation. The main event has traditionally been held annually in the autumn at venues in the ...

in 2015.

References

External links

* * {{Rotten tomatoes, diablo_2016 2015 films 2015 psychological thriller films 2015 Western (genre) films American Western (genre) films Films set in 1872 American psychological thriller films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films