The Devil Made Them Do It — and the Devil Should Be Ashamed
Way of the Wicked is one of those movies that makes you question not only the nature of good and evil, but also the nature of filmmaking itself. Directed by Kevin Carraway and starring Christian Slater in what appears to be a hostage situation disguised as a performance, this straight-to-DVD supernatural thriller is less “The Omen” and more “The Oops.”
It promises a gripping story about a boy who might be the Antichrist. What it delivers is 90 minutes of confused mumbling, cheap lighting, and Christian Slater staring into the middle distance like a man remembering his agent’s betrayal.
A Story So Confused Even Satan Would Need a Flowchart
The film opens with Father Henry (Slater) visiting the home of a 12-year-old boy named Robbie Mueller, suspected of using dark powers to kill a bully. Now, in a better movie, this would set up a chilling exploration of faith, fear, and moral ambiguity. In Way of the Wicked, it sets up five minutes of awkward dialogue and an unholy number of medium close-ups.
Robbie’s mom kicks out the priest, because apparently it’s rude to accuse your son of being Satan over dinner. Smash cut to five years later — because nothing says “seamless narrative transition” like a jump cut that feels like you accidentally skipped a scene on your remote.
Robbie (Jake Croker) reappears as a new student at Heather Elliott’s high school, where Heather is immediately drawn to him — probably because he’s the only guy at the school who looks like he has a driver’s license and a soul contract.
Meanwhile, Heather’s father John (played by Vinnie Jones, in what might be his least violent role yet, which is saying something) is still grieving over his wife’s death. He’s a detective, which is good, because this movie’s plot is a crime.
The High School from Hell — and the Budget from a Student Film
The school scenes play out like an after-school special directed by someone who’s never met a teenager. We get the classic love triangle: Heather, Robbie, and Greg, the jealous jock who seems contractually obligated to pick fights near lockers.
When Greg starts a fight with Robbie, something invisible throws him around like a ragdoll. It’s supposed to be scary. It looks like a deleted scene from Poltergeist 5: The Hormonal Years.
Afterward, Greg gets into a farm accident — which sounds dramatic, until you learn the machine that kills him has “no engine.” It’s a moment that should be terrifying but instead looks like an episode of MythBusters gone wrong.
Detective Dad investigates, frowning his way through crime scenes like he’s auditioning for CSI: Purgatory. He suspects Robbie, but also suspects the script doesn’t make any sense. He’s right.
Christian Slater vs. The Paycheck
Let’s talk about Father Henry. Christian Slater has made a career out of looking like he knows something you don’t. In this movie, he looks like he knows exactly how bad the script is.
Every line he delivers drips with existential fatigue. When he tells John that Robbie “might be connected to a prophecy,” you can almost hear him whisper, “I was in Heathers, for God’s sake.”
His character dies halfway through the film — strangled by his own cross, no less — which feels less like a plot twist and more like divine mercy. Somewhere, in the editing bay, an angel got its wings.
The Tone: Half Horror, Half Hallmark
The real problem with Way of the Wicked is that it has no idea what it wants to be. One minute it’s a supernatural thriller about demonic possession; the next, it’s a slow-burn father-daughter drama that feels like it wandered in from the Hallmark Channel.
You can almost imagine the director’s pitch meeting:
“It’s The Exorcist meets Gilmore Girls! But, you know, without the budget. Or the acting.”
The dialogue is a minefield of unintentional comedy. Lines like “He’s not evil — he’s misunderstood!” are delivered with the emotional weight of a mall commercial. At one point, Heather sighs, “You don’t understand him, Dad,” and you can almost see Vinnie Jones fighting the urge to respond, “Neither do the screenwriters.”
The Special Effects: Lucifer’s Interns at Work
Let’s address the “horror” part of this horror movie. The visual effects are… generous, if you consider PowerPoint transitions visual effects. The invisible forces that supposedly hurl people across rooms are clearly just stuntmen on wires. The CGI looks like it was rendered on a 2004 Dell laptop running Windows Vista.
When characters get thrown into lockers or strangled by unseen powers, the camera shakes violently — the classic “if you can’t show it, jiggle it” technique.
And then there’s the climactic gunfight. Robbie levitates, bullets stop midair, and everything glows slightly, as if the movie has finally achieved enlightenment in the art of nonsense.
The Twist Ending: The Devil’s Got Daddy Issues
The grand finale attempts to redeem the preceding hour of confusion with a twist: it wasn’t Robbie who had supernatural powers — it was Heather all along!
Yes, the shy, misunderstood daughter was actually the one committing murder via invisible force. This should be a shocking revelation. Instead, it lands like a wet balloon. You half expect Vinnie Jones to respond, “Well, that explains the electric bill.”
Heather tearfully admits her power, John looks vaguely disappointed, and the credits roll as if they, too, are trying to escape.
Performances: Deliver Us from Overacting
Jake Croker, as Robbie, plays “the possible Antichrist” with all the menace of a teenage barista who forgot your order. Emily Tennant, as Heather, delivers her lines like she’s reading cue cards held just off-camera.
Vinnie Jones, to his credit, seems genuinely angry throughout the entire movie — which might just be method acting, since he’s trapped in Way of the Wicked.
Even the extras look lost. There’s a classroom scene where a teacher is lecturing about “ethics,” and you can see the background actors blinking in confusion, probably wondering if this is part of the script or a cry for help.
The Direction: Way of the Confused
Kevin Carraway directs with all the energy of someone trying to film a sermon while half-asleep. The pacing is glacial. Scenes drag on long after they’ve died, like ghosts haunting their own runtime.
The cinematography seems allergic to light. Half the film takes place in dim rooms where everyone’s faces are half-shadowed, as if the camera itself couldn’t bear to look directly at the material.
Every once in a while, the film hints at ambition — a reflection in a window, a symbolic cross — but these moments are swallowed by endless scenes of people talking about things that might be happening somewhere else.
The Verdict: The Devil Works Hard, But the Editor Works Harder
★☆☆☆☆ — One fallen angel out of five.
Way of the Wicked wants to be The Omen for a new generation. Instead, it’s The Omen’s awkward cousin who got kicked out of Sunday school for plagiarism.
It’s neither scary nor campy enough to be fun. The pacing is a crawl, the dialogue is laughable, and the acting feels like a community theater production of Constantine. Even the devil himself would watch this movie and say, “Eh, I’ll pass.”
If hell is eternal suffering, then Way of the Wicked might just be the trailer.
In the end, the film’s greatest miracle is that it ends at all — because after ninety minutes of cinematic purgatory, you’ll be praying for deliverance, too.
