Stars: Chris Messina, Geoffrey Arend
Director: John Erick Dowdle
Release Date: December 21, 2010
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Devil is like an extra long episode of The Twilight Zone. Imagine, if you will, five strangers stuck inside of a broken-down elevator. Whenever the lights go out in the elevator, something sinister happens. A detective on the outside is trying desperately to set them free and figure out which one is the killer. One of the security guards who operates the security camera inside of the elevator begins to believe a tale that he was told as a child: that the devil is amongst them.
M. Night Shyamalan, praised for The Sixth Sense and ridiculed for The Last Airbender, wrote the story that Devil is based on and was also a producer. John Erick Dowdle, known for the horror remake Quarantine, directed. The cast is a mesh of virtual unknowns without a real standout in the bunch.
Devil plays on a number of fears. The thought of being stuck in a confined space, such as an elevator, with other people is unnerving to most. During the movie, the audience is pretty much stuck in the elevator with these people and the claustrophobic atmosphere is evident. Being trapped in an elevator is bad enough, but when people start to die, everyone turns against each other. It suddenly becomes a witch-hunt with everyone accusing the others of being to blame.
Then, of course, there's the small matter of being trapped with the devil. This should be a terrifying experience, one that leaves us shaken long after we finished watching it. Unfortunately, this does not happen. There is some violence with some blood, but these moments happen very quickly. This movie could have done so much more with this concept, but with its semi-family friendly PG-13 rating, it can only do so much.
Ultimately Devil feels more like a B-movie than anything else. The dialogue can be forced and generic at times. The film has a particularly low-budget feel to it, but many films that take place in one setting are typically viewed as low-budget. It's not a terrible movie, but it's not terrifying either. Definitely unsettling, though. For those expecting an M. Night Shyamalan twist, prepare to be disappointed. There's a little something at the end that's a bit of a surprise, but not a huge plot twist. This film is meant to be the first installment of a trilogy called Night Chronicles; each one is to have a different director and will be based on one of Shyamalan's stories. No word on what the next story will be. Hopefully the next film will be scarier, and rated R.
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