 Hey friends, you're watching behind-the-scenes divine intimacy radio in a few minutes. We're gonna have a I don't know We we do a lot of important shows I think that We cover a lot of the most important topics anyone would be concerned about but what we're gonna talk about today is and You know, I'm just I don't want to over blow it The passion of the Christ if anybody asked me what was the number one movie That I've ever seen in my life and in the effect that it has on people I think the chosen ranks up in that list this movie nefarious. So we're gonna talk to the One of the writer and producer and director About is in that list. I think it's it's I think it's in my top five so I Think it's that good and that important and and that's we'll talk on the show about why I think that but if you're interested in nefarious and Understanding a little bit about the movie and why it's now in my top five. Yeah, I'm solid on that Hang out with us for a minute and then we'll jump into the show before I go into the show. I Want to tell you about an opportunity coming up in October of 2023 Bishop Liam Carey Claire Dwyer father John Burns father Ignatius Schweitzer Regina Marie Gorman dr. Mark Meravali They're all they and others And these are all of course amazing speakers are going to be at our annual Avala summit and and the title of the summit will be the Marian mystery in the triumph of the immaculate heart It'll be at the shrine of the most blessed sacrament in Hansville, Alabama again October 13th through the 15th We usually have at least 200 people on a waiting list. So if you don't want to end up on a waiting list and actually want to go Head out to spiritual direction comm forward slash events and sign up for that for this incredible summit that's coming up And 20 octo in October. I think that's good enough. We'll Jump into the show now Okay on your mark Get set go. This is Dan and Jordan Burke. Welcome to divine intimacy radio your radio haven of rest You're hermitage of the heart. That was I don't know I got like three hours. You just don't Are you convinced that that's what it is? I was trying to remember that was good No, you did fine good your monastery of the mind where we lift our hearts and minds to the heavens To draw on the wisdom of the saints and to help us navigate the tumult of this life And I'm here with Jordan Burke because Stephanie is otherwise occupied and Jordan has done a lot of research In the area of the bar conversation where we're going to talk about today In fact, Jordan is the spokesperson for a new book from Sophie Institute Press entitled the Pope's Exorcist 101 questions about Father Gabriel Morse. There you go. So why don't you introduce our guest our guest is Kerry Solomon? He is the writer producer and director of nefarious. He's wearing a lot of hats He's also created gods not dead. Do you believe and unplanned among many others? And we are very excited to have this conversation today. Yeah, welcome to the show Kerry Thanks for having me Well as I said this offline we were talking but I think I want to say it again Because I had to process through it a little bit. I think this show is in my top five all-time movies This movie sorry this this movie nefarious is in my all-time top five and And the way I judge movies, you know, I used to run the National Catholic Register and EWTN news and We had movie critic That worked for us. I mean in an art review person and The way that he looked at all of these kinds of things is totally different than the way I do and there's nothing It's just different. I'm not capable to be an art critic But my question about a movie that I see because I see so few is Is it tell does it tell the truth Will it help people to heaven and this movie of all the Christian movies I've seen with the exception of and I'm not putting in the competition But I mean just the list is very small the passion of the Christ of the chosen series so far has been extraordinary It's a few issues with respect to Catholic doctrine, but it Minor, you know this movie truth and impact those two Criteria are is on in my top five. Yeah of all time. I don't know. Do you agree with that? 100% agree and I I do as a side hobby I would like to watch a lot about behind the scenes of movie making and I was I will say even though you don't want to say You're an art critic. I'm not an art critic, but I noticed how visually beautiful Certain aspects of this movie was yeah, how certain shots were done to kind of help push the story forward and show different transitions It's it's all just it's I'm gonna gush over this movie the entire time, but I'm I'm doing it In a very analytical way. Yeah, so it's not just it's not just hype. It's it's an incredible movie So Carrie, thank you so much for for you and your team for doing this this great work. What? If you wanted in a nutshell Describe the movie for our listeners those who haven't seen it What what's the movie about? Well, it's a story about a serial killer By the name of Edward Wayne Brady and it's his day of execution now in The prison system in the United States. You will not be executed unless you've proven to be sane so on the day of his execution his psychiatrist actually kills himself and so that brings all the questions into Doubt on whether or not Edward Wayne Brady is either crazy or not crazy So they have to bring in the state has to bring in a new psychiatrist new psychiatrist is progressive. He's very very Smart he's well dressed. He's very good at what he does very liberal obviously total atheist And basically he comes in very self-assured and the warden tells him look the guy you're gonna deal with is You just don't understand. He's a mastermind and so think Hannibal Lecter that kind of thing and of course The psychiatrist has the attitude of like this is what I do for a living. I don't have anything to worry You don't have anything to worry. I'll be out of here in an hour. Well, the psychiatrist goes in to talk to the serial killer Edward and basically introduces himself and Ed the serial killer knows every single thing about him And so it kind of throws the psychiatrist off and they are from that point on They start a dialogue and as they're in the middle of the dialogue the serial killer stops and says basically Oh by the way, I'm a demon Which basically the psychiatrist smiles at because they he's been told that this guy's gonna try and convince you He's crazy. So he doesn't have to get executed. So it goes and progresses from there We go back and forth throughout the story. Is he isn't he is he isn't he and that's the basics of the story I would say think C. S. Lewis the screwtake letters meet silence the lambs. Yeah, that's a that's a perfect way to describe it Yeah, I think so too one thing I want to get out right away so we don't miss it is I've we've had a lot of folks So we've been promoting it in our community in the possibly be a community it's the first place that I did a review for the movie a positive review and Some very devout Catholics said they were afraid to see it and they're not going to see it because they're sensitive and I want to argue against that I really think it's worth Enduring whatever you think you have to endure. I mean this movie was not gory. It is not I don't categorize it as a horror film You know in a sense, it's a psychological thriller in a way it well for perspective for listeners the passion of the Christ is more gory Way more and then there's no gore in this movie at all. Yeah, and there's nothing gratuitous You don't you know, you don't see murders, right? You know that sort of thing so Carrie, I'm sure you've had the this question put to you. Do you think that? Are there any issues with people being scared about seeing the movie? I'm glad you brought that up. You know, this is not a demonic satanic movie Which is everyone's first for quite honestly if I looked at the poster And I didn't make the movie. I wouldn't go to the movie. I would be scared There was a reason we did the poster originally by the way, even though the church is embracing it We wanted to bring in those young people that are at or people that are Absolutely obsessed with the demonic and the occult because we feel that they're being lost in waves literally every one of these garbage Horrific movies that comes out as infesting people and so what we knew is that the the Poster would not attract the church. It would set off good people So I think it's a good reaction that people are having Yeah, but at the same time it was Trojan horse to bring in the people that really need to see the movie In that perspective. So like when you talk about gratuitous, there's no sex. There's no bad language We don't drop an F bomb in the whole movie. I mean, there's none of that I am a devout with Chuck. We are devout devout Catholic Chuck is my business partner the end co-director writer and so on and So I don't think that I will tell you If you look at the fruit of our tree unplanned pro-life movie Abby Johnson God's not dead Do you believe what if and this movie amongst all this stuff? You have nothing to fear nothing to worry There's not it's two guys in a room now before you say to yourself. Well, that would be boring It's not boring Yeah, I think Of any possible scenario that you could paint about two guys in the room You will not you will not be you will not be able to anticipate other than the clues We're giving you now what this thing is gonna feel like or seem like so it's I'm so Pleased to say that you did this on purpose because that was kind of my suspicion looking at everything because there's quite a few things in the movie that Are presented one way But if you're looking at it within the context of the entire movie It seems as if there's a deeper meaning to it So one of the things I wanted to ask you about was the if you're comfortable talking about it Of course, but the older priest spirit spoiler alert. Yeah, okay Go ahead the the the older priest in the movie. Yeah, so I guess we should say spoiler if there's yeah I'm sure other people have heard about it. Yeah, but um, I I always I've heard some people be critical of that But then I'm watching it within the context. I'm thinking this seems like it was on purpose This represents an aspect of what we're experiencing in the church today and represents it in a really Yeah, I would say that yes, that was intentional We we knew exactly what we were doing. We did it for two reasons The first reason is we had to address the point Why don't they bring in somebody like who knows what he's doing which is what they would probably do in this situation? So we want to get that out of the way from a story point But that was the minor point what we wanted to show was this is a priest that has the power and authority of Jesus Christ And he is a priest of the Catholic Church, right? So he walks in the room and what happens is the demon literally jumps up from the table. Yeah, that was great Scripture are you literally in fear and by the way, this is a just an Easter egg I don't know if you guys caught it or not When Sean jumps up Sean Patrick Flannery who's playing nefarious From the table if you look at it when they if you see it again look at his hair There's two horns of hair One of our crew was watching it saw that they thought they saw yeah, yeah, right And so the horns of hair because he's in his defense mode, right? The horns are out It's the only time you actually see the demon that way, right? So he backs away and the the priest comes in and suddenly he's saying look you have nothing to worry about I've never been to an exorcism, you know, that it's really just things of our disordered mind You have nothing to worry about. I'm never gonna do an exorcism. Yeah, you know, let's all get along Let's be the the liberal kindler gentler social justice warrior You know, I know you might have mental conditions, but I'm gonna help you that kind of thing the minute He sees his authority The demon comes right back the table and in mockery of the priest sits down and crosses his legs and says I should have had you in here sooner. The horns go eventually disappear because there's nothing to fear He knows the guy is a poser and the reason we did it was very simple. This is a problem in the church today Yeah, our problem is we see and amongst Catholics in my opinion We seed our authority immediately the evil so covert. They want to shut the churches down. Okay, you want to get vaccinated? Oh, we need to have everybody vaccinated. Oh everybody we can't give mass because that's too That's that would be dangerous and so with there's this insanity in the world right now Well, we wanted to say look, there are great priests out there as far as I'm concerned There are really a lot of great priests, but this progressiveness this kindler this kind of we don't talk about evil all these things Basically, that is what we want to show and I and I think we did a good job of that We even put the rainbow scarf on them The minute he walks in the room with that scarf, you know exactly what we're saying you killed it you killed it Che Guevara Yeah You know what this guy's my new best friend Okay, we're gonna go to a break when we come back We'll continue our conversation with the writer producer director of nefarious Carrie Solomon an amazing movie that every Catholic should see with with some caveat But I really think that that y'all ought to see it and support it. We'll we get back from the break We'll keep digging into What was behind the scenes in the movie? We'll be right back Hey friends, I Do mean it wholehearted support of the movie. It's I think It's really important that you get out and support this these these are these things are tough to distribute when they tell the truth and You we it would be huge for you to watch it Take your friends to watch it. I mean I'm telling you you will save souls if you do it. I really believe that I You know actually I'm gonna open up with that when we well before we go back Is there somewhere where people is it gonna be on a streaming platform at some point? I know I have had a lot of well We can tell them we can just send them to who is nefarious right calm. That's probably that's we're gonna Have your notices and all that yeah, and you know I mean they can find it anywhere movies are shown like Fandango or their movie theater art We're still in movie theaters, but yes, we're gonna try and get it out everywhere We're gonna definitely be on Apple and Amazon and you know it and there are different stages You go through it'll definitely come out on DVD and all of that as well. Great. Okay, great All right, I think we'll just jump back into the show by the way How much time do you have allotted for us today? Do you have time for Part two or you just have only this half hour. I I can do whatever you want. Okay, awesome. All right So let so I think We answered one and two You what you think we answered to yeah, you explained Okay, the purpose behind it. I mean we can cover it again. No, I think that's good. All right Let's let's go ahead and head back into show. I think I know where we're gonna go On your mark it said go This is Dan and Jordan Burke. Welcome back to divine intimacy radio We're talking about one of the most important movies that has come out in my lifetime And it's entitled nefarious. We're talking with Kerry Solomon writer producer director of nefarious Why is it so important? I'll give you an example. I have a spiritual directee Who asked me the other day if they have by it seen nefarious and this this is a devout very devout man Who's up has a beautiful apostle? I mean this guy is no Slouch going from good to better He he's he's not a reaver. He's just he's been just dead serious about his faith forever The movie rattled him to the core and he said he realized things about the way he thought That Were that he doesn't want to he realized they were dangerous to him and he said I'm gonna watch this movie every year So it's not just so so of course it will help those non Christians You know at Border out on the edge or is it of the church that Catholics Christians? It'll help them too because they'll see junk they allow in their head coming out of the mouth of a demon But it will also help you if you're devout because and this is I mean a realm that we live in I've written To best-selling books spiritual warfare and discernment of spirits and then devil in the castle Teresa Valla spiritual warfare in the progress of the soul So I know and and I've also been in 24 fold right exorcisms and work with multiple possessed people and work with deliverance ministry, so The the truths that they were able to illustrate through art in this movie in a Rock your soul powerful way They get past a lot of the barriers the intellectual barriers the psychological barriers the emotional barriers and And really it will it will break things open for every single person I think like every but we had a small group that saw it that reviewed it to prepare for this show here Yeah, it every one of them were deeply moved including the priest including the priest was with us Yeah, no, I don't remember if you said in the first half, but you had mentioned that Having gone through multiple full right exorcisms You said that there are many things that the demon said in the movie that you had heard from D. Oh gosh So listen, I well I told Carrie before the show. He's the writer-producer. That's our guest today said You you had to have had divine intervention and or An exorcist advisor that's very good because I've heard The exact words the demon in the movie said I've heard directly out of the mouth of the demon And I've heard it not just once it because their their bag of tricks is a pretty pretty limited even though their demons are far superior and intellects to human beings and in power The they're not they're not very creative, you know, our God is very creative So yeah, I don't know if that's where you're going That is where it's going but even speaking on that I one of the things that I noted watching this movie was that it's Borderline catechesis on a topic that isn't often taught on yeah But and but not in any kind of you don't feel like you're in a classroom You don't feel like you're being preached to some Christian movies Just get a little too obvious about the message They're trying to deliver and then you get distracted by that obviousness Nothing like that in this this movie. Yeah, and to drive that home. This was some of Yeah, some of the best acting ever seen just hands down the guy who played nefarious I mean so Carrie to you what? So Jordan recognized him from boondock Saints I think was one of his movies How did you get what I would call an a-list? I don't know if he's an a-list guy, but he certainly is a-list talent Sean Patrick Flannery. Yeah, amazing man. Amazing. Just not a diva just real deal Just everything you saw is exactly him About 15 years ago We were maybe 2003 something like that So almost 20 years ago I did a little movie and the bottom line is that Sean and the budget was like $200,000 and we were just starting out and Sean said yeah, I'll do it which is shocking because he's been in boondock Saints He was powder. He did all this other stuff and the What happened was we got along so well that He basically Said he would work with us any time, but the funny thing was that the Lord put us together In that movie for a reason because when I was done with that movie I felt in my spirit that the Lord was saying to me you're going to do a lot of work with him He's going to become your guy So when we sent him the project and I said to him look you said you do a fruit loops commercial with us because he was That excited. I got a fruit loops movie for you. So and he Even said, you know, I'm in I don't whatever you want to do I'm in I had a great experience with you guys So it was a guy the hand of God thing, you know, I mean everything in this movie. We dealt with demonic manifestation. We dealt with angelic Occurrences it's just an unbelievable sequence of events, but he's a phenomenal actor And if the world was a fair place he would win the Academy award He more than deserves it I don't think anyone is going to do the job that he does in this movie this year for the awards I couldn't agree more. It was so I don't get sucked in the movies in general. It just doesn't I'm not that kind of guy But I'm watching and I find myself praying for him During the movie multiple times. I'm like, oh wait a minute. This is a movie It was that that impressive that well done and I will say I don't know if I want to reveal it on this show Because I want to be careful. I don't want to say something that would affect anyone not sing it changed a one particular view one particular doctrine That I have held that is is is a is a matter of prudential judgment in the church and the church has supported, you know Multiple perspectives on this it changed my mind and I'll carry. I'll give you a hint and I'll let you decide if you want to talk about it I my heart was broken for the the the the killer Because I've seen victims of demonic possession. I know what they do to people and I was I was moved I was I was just about brought to tears at his suffering Knowing so I know why he was I know how people get possessed, you know And you did that brilliantly as well. You revealed the the kind of explanation can have been more perfect Yeah, but of course done artistically, right? But yeah, I found myself incredibly sympathetic to him and to People on death row in general You know They the whole sequence with the I don't know to be honest a lot of people have brought up the death penalty pro con We didn't start out with the idea to make a statement on the death row thing We did it as a story point. He had to die But one of the things I can tell you I do believe I look at it two ways You know if you go and execute somebody they don't have a chance of redemption anymore and the Lord My but on the other hand the church does say look if there's somebody who's this dangerous and doing this kind of thing You are allowed to execute. Yes, exactly. I I'm back and forth on that You know, I think mercy is important what I am against however is this absurdity of the way they kill these death row guys So for example, this is one of the most horrific ways other other Unbelievable they have to hit these guys two and three and four times I mean, there's no excuse for that and now with the lethal injection You can't tell me that we can't kill a person in 10 seconds rather than making going through hours of agonizing pain It's demonic just hang them or shoot them, you know, like we used to do but everything has gotten common You hang a person. They're dead. Bam. You shoot them. They're dead. You know, yeah, that's why we had a firing squad I mean if we're gonna go there, let's get it done then be merciful in the process You know, we should be honoring God in mercy, right? But yeah, but I will agree with you The reason the story point of the execution was in there was because we wanted to show how evil Really works to take a human soul and after literally destroying this soul and making doing all these terrible things It's not enough just to destroy their life, but now I'm gonna make them suffer on his way out before he goes to hell and and so That was the point we were trying to make there now Obviously abortion and euthanasia and all that that was intentional as well. That was intentional, but oh that that's seen but what led up to the scene regarding abortion talking about Moloch and and then and then you know, this is a big spoiler alert is Well, they can't the demon knows exactly What's happening? He knows that the abortion is gonna happen. He counts down and then he he almost screams in an erotic Horrifying way Right at the at the killing of the baby and I was that that if I could have been blown back in my seat Yeah If that were possible, you know, like getting hit by a shotgun. Wow, that scene was was just insane You know, I will say that Gosh, I mean the spirit was all over us and that final statement when the baby is finally murdered And by the way, you don't see this on the screen. He's talking about it So that you know one should be scared of it, but although That final phrase and all hell rejoices It was just when we wrote it I mean, I had to put I had to stop and I had to think there are many times in this movie when we had to stop And we had to think and I will tell you that wow Like when he's talking about ripping a baby out of the womb of the carpenter I mean my goodness to make the carpenter suffer I mean, it's just it was crazy But you know the spirit was on this, you know We by the way as far as all the the knowledge thereof that we put into the piece You know, we did our research, you know, we did a lot of research on this a lot of prayer and you know Father Carlos Martins who has the ex files as a podcast and he's like probably the number one He's certainly up there in the top couple exorcists in the country. He saw the movie and he said This is the best movie on exorcism. I've ever seen. This is exactly what happens. He says I will not Promote the popes exorcists, but I will promote this movie I call it called no Burke gave us his personal endorsement and mentioned me in truck by name That we did a phenomenal job. So I mean the church is rallying to this I have priests by the way, if I can tell you this quick story Uh, it'll take 10 seconds. But friend of mine By the name of carol she's online for confession friend of hers comes out of the confessional And he walks over because she was in the movie She was in the witness room and she ran all the extras He comes over to her when he comes out of the confessional and he has a smile on his face And he says you're not gonna believe what the priest gave me for penance. So she's like, no, what is it? He said he told me to go see nefarious With that With that we've got a wrap up bird time with Carrie Solomon writer producer director of nefarious a great movie Totally, I think everyone should see it. I think kids kids if they're, you know, not mature enough 18 or older I think it'll work. They're mature. They can go if you want to hear part two of this interview head out to spiritual directing spiritual direction com YouTube page and I'll talk about my own involvement with a serial killer named ted bundy And the real realism behind this movie. So thank you, Carrie And we hope we wish you all the best with this uh with this project Until next time may the god of peace make you perfect in holiness. May he preserve you whole and entire spiritual and body You're approachable at the coming of our lord jesus christ. Hold on. Why don't you do that one more time? Yeah Don't any yeah Take two until next time may the god of peace make you perfect in holiness May he preserve you whole and entire spiritual and body you're approachable at the coming of our lord jesus christ And really quickly. Yeah, I wanted to echo what he said you can buy the pope's ex's book Don't go see the movie The movie's trash go watch nefarious instead Yeah, so and if you want to watch part two of this interview hop out to spiritualdirection.com's youtube page We'll see you out there in a few minutes