The Dark and the Wicked is a 2020 American supernatural horror film written and directed by Bryan Bertino, starring Marin Ireland, Michael Abbott Jr., and Xander Berkeley. It follows two siblings who encounter a demonic entity at their familial farm after the suicide of their mother, who had long been caring for their infirm father. The film had its world premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival on August 28, 2020. It was released on November 6, 2020, by RLJE Films. Plot Louise and Michael are siblings who are brought back to their family farm in Texas when their father's illness, which keeps him bedridden and uncommunicative, cared for by his wife and a nurse, worsens. Their mother seems disturbed and expresses a desire for the children to leave. At night, she hangs herself in the barn after cutting off her own fingers in the kitchen. As time goes on, Louise and Michael start to understand what happened to their mother. The nurse confides in them that she heard her whispering to the father, but it seemed as if she was speaking not to him, but some other presence. Michael finds their mother's diary, which describes her fears of an unnamed and possibly demonic presence preying on her husband. At their mother's burial, Louise and Michael meet Father Thorne, a priest who claims to have known their mother. Later that night, Father Thorne appears at the farm, beckoning them from outside, before vanishing before their eyes. Meanwhile, Charlie, a ranch hand who lives on a nearby plot of land in his RV, witnesses a vision of what appears to be Louise, speaking indistinctly and cutting herself repeatedly with a kitchen knife. The entity drives a distraught Charlie to shoot himself in the head with his shotgun. Louise is subsequently unable to reach Charlie by phone, unaware that he is dead. Louise calls the phone number that Father Thorne gave her to ask why he visited the farm the night prior. The man who answers claims to have never met her, and says that he lives in Chicago and has never been to Texas. Worried for their father's safety, the siblings summon a doctor for a house call and request that he be moved to a hospital. The doctor determines that their father's health is grave, and that he is on his deathbed. He tells the siblings he cannot relocate him