I enjoyed this MORE than I thought, and it wasn’t just because I met the Dowdle Bros., but because it was ACTUALLY Enjoyable…
Limacher Low Down: DEVIL is actually better than I thought it would be with a story that draws the viewer in and keeps you guessing from the time the elevator stops until the end of the movie. Unlike most horror movies that use music to tell the viewers or giving them the visual of the killer coming after their target DEVIL uses the flickering of lights only to let the viewer know that the shit’s about to go down. I will admit I have been EXTREMELY critical of most of the works of M. Night Shyamalan, but the story flowed nicely and I think the “twist” was better than his other movies.
DEVIL takes place in Philadelphia, go figure w/ M. Night, and revolves around the fact that everything and everyone is in certain places at certain times for a reason. The movie starts off slowly but develops quickly when our main group of people all gets on the elevator. There is the Salesman (Geoffrey Armend), Old Woman (Jenny O’Hara), Security Guard (Bokeem Woodbine), Young Woman (Bojana Novakovic), and the last person to get on the elevator, though he almost didn’t make it, is the Mechanic (Logan Marshal-Green). The elevator is on its way up when it stops suddenly which makes the passengers quickly feel uncomfortable.
The people get antsy and the salesman quickly gets on the nerves of his fellow passengers by singing along w/ the elevator music. The lights flicker, much like seen in the previews, and the first strike happens when the Young Woman gets scratched or bit and the finger of blame gets immediately placed on the only person near her and the only person w/ blood on him, The Salesman. The only reason I mention this is because this is the action that takes place to get the police involved and therefore Detective Bowden being at the scene to observe and report.
The movie slowly progresses and each time the lights flicker the audience gets the feeling of impending doom, and also the people trapped on the elevator get the same feeling. Detective Bowden does some digging and finds out that each of the passengers on the elevator has their own personal backgrounds of bad behavior which leads them to be in the same place at the same time. The whole time everything is going on there is one security guard, Ramirez (Jacob Vargas), who believes these events aren’t just a coincidence and actually resembles stories his mother told him about the Devil. While nobody believes him at first, Detective Bowden starts to question Ramirez about things that might happen and reason why these people were in the elevator together.
The emotions run high, and the whole time everyone is wondering who could it be. The story does a good job of making a point for each person in the elevator to be the Devil, but who could it be? One by One the passengers in the elevator are eliminated as suspects until the reveal lets the audience see who the Devil was the whole time. After that, the story opens wide up. I won’t go into detail because the way everything in the movie gets pulled together was really nice to see from M. Night and it is not his typical how can I shock these people bullshit!
The movie really did a good job of showing the emotions of the people trapped in the elevator and building each detail as well. The way the movie was shot was amazing as well, and isn’t THAT violent which explains the PG-13 rating. While most might groan at the fact this is the first in the Night Chronicles series, M. Night Shyamalan stories that each has a unique story to tell, it was a good way to introduce something new to the world. It might make some people expect more, it doesn’t take anything away from the viewer as well.
