DEVIL Review
By
Vandy Price
This may be the best movie M. Night Shyamalan's been associated with since 'The Village' and he neither wrote the script for or directed 'Devil'. This is a film based on an idea the filmmaker had, that plus wearing the producers hat seem the only ties he had with the project, so don't doubt it as much as you probably already are. As with any other scary movie, the scares here were quite obvious and some of it had no hope of avoiding succumbing to a horror cheesefest. This is only in small parts though, it is not sprinkled throughout the movie nor does it take away too much from the overall tone. I went in with expectations that believed everything I just stated, and so that may account for how much I actually enjoyed the movie. It never tries too hard or goes for the ridiculous. It is consistently tense and well paced with a short running time. The key word with this movie is "simple", the film is set up with a narrator who exposes the entire plot in the first few sentences which I thought odd that it revealed the "secret". Yes, the devil is among these people trapped in an elevator, there is no need to suspect otherwise. But, our atmosphere is established, our main character is given a back story that makes us wonder why we are given such information. When the five strangers enter the elevator we know little or almost nothing about them. In fact, we only know one of their jobs and no names. Over the course of the film we o of course learn their names as well as the reasons they have been brought together. It is interesting to watch the plot structure develop and it is almost fun in a way, a good time but not at the cost of the film. The movie is occasionally frightening, but makes up for it with a consistently dark tone and Chris Messina who holds this all together nicely. This is certainly no masterpiece and it could have been much more interesting and a heck of a lot scarier given the subject matter, but I was not disappointed and I completely expected to be, so that says somethin.
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