Horror Favourites – Daniel J. Phillips

The Australian-produced supernatural horror Diabolic, directed by Daniel J. Phillips (Awoken), is out now on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital.

The story follows a young woman who after suffering terrifying blackouts, 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. The film stars Elizabeth Cullen (Evil Dead Wrath), John Kim (The Little Things), Mia Challis (Clickbait) and Terence Crawford (The Babadook) and we grabbed the director for a chat about the scary movie he loves the most.

Daniel J. Phillips is an Australian filmmaker, director, and producer known for crafting grounded, character-driven genre films with a strong visual identity. With a background in advertising and digital marketing, he brings a strategic, audience-focused approach to storytelling – combining cinematic tension with a clear understanding of how films connect with viewers in a crowded global marketplace.

He made his feature directorial debut with Awoken, a psychological horror that established his voice as a filmmaker drawn to high-concept ideas anchored in emotional realism. His follow-up feature, Diabolic, expanded on this approach, gaining critical attention while further demonstrating his ability to deliver commercially viable genre films with a distinctive edge. His work often explores identity, pressure, and survival, blending elevated genre elements with grounded, human stakes.

Below Daniel talks about the horror movie he loves the most:

“I think The Shining is probably the greatest horror film ever made. What Kubrick does with that film is extraordinary because the horror is almost entirely psychological and atmospheric. Very little actually happens for long stretches of it, and yet the sense of dread is completely overwhelming the whole way through. The way he uses space and sound and Nicholson’s performance to make you feel like something is deeply, fundamentally wrong even before anything supernatural occurs is something I find endlessly fascinating. The Overlook Hotel becomes a character in itself. I’ve watched it more times than I can count and it still gets under my skin every single time.

What I find most interesting about it as a filmmaker is that it completely trusts the audience. There’s so much ambiguity and so much that’s never explained, and rather than that feeling like a weakness, it makes the whole thing more disturbing.

You’re never quite sure what’s real and what isn’t, and Kubrick seems completely uninterested in resolving that for you. I think that confidence is something I really aspire to.

The First Omen is a film I genuinely loved and I’ll be honest, I didn’t expect to love it as much as I did. I think it got a bit lost in the conversation about legacy sequels and whether it needed to exist, which is a shame, because as a piece of filmmaking it’s really impressive. Arkasha Stevenson directed it with a lot of confidence and the film has a real visual identity.

It commits fully to its tone, which I always respond to. It’s also doing something interesting thematically around female autonomy and institutional control, which felt very relevant to me personally given what we were exploring in Diabolic. There’s a scene in that film involving a birth that is genuinely one of the most disturbing things I’ve seen in a horror film in years.

The connective tissue between both films, and honestly what I find most compelling about the best religious horror, is the idea of a system built to contain and control people turning against them in the most horrifying way possible. That’s something that felt very alive to me when we were making Diabolic.”

Diabolic is out now on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital.

Diabolic trailer