Devil
Movie Review
"Devil"
Review by Eric D. Snider
Grade: C
Rating: PG-13
Released: Friday, September 17, 2010
Directed by:
Cast:
There's nothing wrong with the premise of "Devil," which is that five apparently random people are trapped in an elevator and one of them might be dangerous. In fact, there are several things right with that premise -- notably that it involves strangers in a confined space who might kill each other. Many a fine Agatha Christie mystery (or Agathy Christery, as the kids call it) has been built around that simple, elegant scenario.
Agatha Christie's stories had good dialogue, though, and "Devil" does not. With a screenplay Brian Nelson ("Hard Candy") and a story by M. Night Shyamalan, the film is filled with clunky, lifeless language, some of it laughably hokey. What's more, as creepy things start happening in the elevator, the plot fixates on the idea that one of the stuck passengers is the Devil, limiting the other possible explanations and losing a chance to really keep us off-balance.
But the film is campfire-story engaging for a while. The five characters in search of an exit are an oily salesman (Geoffrey Arend), a cranky old lady (Jenny O'Hara), a well-dressed younger woman (Bojana Novakovic), a quiet ex-soldier (Logan Marshall-Green), and one of the office building's security guards (Bokeem Woodbine). Back in the control room, a police detective (Chris Messina) watches the elevator surveillance camera and tries to communicate with the passengers, while also trying to investigate who these people are and which of them is lethal.
The director, John Erick Dowdle, made good use of enclosed spaces in "Quarantine," and does so again here. He also explores the vastness of the outside world, letting the cameras rove up and down skyscrapers and through vast lobbies. He achieves a certain suspenseful tone, not very strong or powerful, and certainly never scary, but not boring, either.
Then the goofy "fate" and "coincidence" factors in the story increase, moving it over the line from kind of creepy to kind of stupid. It never recovers, and the last act is sadly unsatisfying. Up to that point I'd generally been enjoying it, ready to give the film a lukewarm endorsement. Now it's lukewarmer, and not really an endorsement: You could do worse, but you could also do a lot better.
Note: Contrary to regular industry practice, this film was not screened for critics before opening.
Grade: C
Rated PG-13, a little profanity, some blood and moderate violence
1 hr., 20 min.
Copyright © Eric D. Snider.
This work may not be transmitted via the Internet, nor reproduced in any other way, without written consent from Eric D. Snider.
This item has 11 comments
September 17, 2010 at 9:48 pm
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What's more, as creepy things start happening in the elevator, the plot fixates on the idea that one of the stuck passengers is the Devil, limiting the other possible explanations and losing a chance to really keep us off-balance.
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Really Eric? You're upset the film follows the story it was marketed as and not what you wanted it to be? This is why i prefer reading horror reviews on horror websites. They know a good horror film from a bad one because they know what a horror film is. So many people enjoy horror films until near the end when they can no longer tell themselves its just a creepy thriller and have to accept that its a horror film.
September 18, 2010 at 11:46 am
Let's not get carried away, Brandon. Whether the Devil is involved or not, the dialogue remains wooden and "clunky", the atmosphere tepid, and the film still falls apart in the last act. So the sentence you fixate on is irrelevant to the reasons that the film is mediocre.
September 18, 2010 at 1:00 pm
I fixated on that sentence because it is a flaw in the REVIEW. I said nothing about the movie itself. I'm just unhappy with lackluster reviews for horror films. Good or bad i prefer a review written by someone who understands the movie well enough to review it properly. Instead Eric reviews the film as if hes unsure of whether or not the devil was involved and unsure of whether or not the film would have been better off without the devil. The film is called Devil. Its about a group of people locked in an elevator with the Devil. Good or bad, he needs to review the film as it is, not as he wants it to be.
September 18, 2010 at 1:47 pm
To be clear, I have no problem with a movie being a horror movie, or with a horror movie being about the devil. Nor was I surprised that the movie called "Devil," in which the dialogue mentions the devil every two or three seconds, turned out, in fact, to be about the devil.
What I was saying was that this particular scenario would have been more frightening and suspenseful, in my opinion, if it had not had the supernatural element -- or, at least, if it hadn't announced right from the start that one of these characters in the Devil, so don't even bother trying to find other explanations. Plenty of movies ARE extremely terrifying and effective using supernatural angles; plenty of horror movies ARE excellent; I just didn't find this to be one of them.
September 20, 2010 at 11:17 am
Saw the movie. I actually think something that did a better job with this premise recently is the Doctor Who episode "midnight". I just found everything to be too obvious for this film. Oh, and I do not mind short movies, but it doesn't help when the word 'devil' is spoken in what feels like every sentence for 75 minutes.
September 21, 2010 at 12:59 pm
When something is only 80 minutes long and it's still repetitive.... something's wrong.
"The film is called Devil. Its about a group of people locked in an elevator with the Devil. Good or bad, he needs to review the film as it is, not as he wants it to be."
I don't think you understand suspense. If you think it should be that obvious, why even go to see it?
Should they print the plot twist on your ticket stub so that you know exactly what the movie is about before you go in?
Most GOOD movies are about not telegraphing what's going to happen the entire time. People gain enjoyment from finding out whether they were right or wrong, or even finding out the truth when they didn't have a guess in the first place.
The review seems fine, the movie seems terrible.
September 22, 2010 at 12:24 am
The problem I had with Devil (besides the very early shutdown of possible outcomes) was the bad dialogue. The revelation that takes place between the detective and the security guard within 5 minutes of meeting one another is sort of laughable. I'm not sure how they could have fixed the unfolding of the supernatural plot, but they couldn't do it with more believable dialogue?! Oh - and the last scene was unnecessary. I "got" what transpired. Did we need to beat it to death? Although it was entertaining and not too long. That's huge these days!
And hey - could they have fixed the problem of the title by calling the movie something like "Elevator" or "Claustrophobia?" I'm not a movie exec, but you know what I mean.
September 23, 2010 at 10:43 pm
Theres no problem with the title. It doesn't "give something away." The movie was not a murder mystery where you don't know who did it. It was supernatural horror film about a group of people trapped in an elevator with the devil. Thats what it was billed as, thats what it was. No one needed to hide the fact that the devil was doing it because it wasn't a surprise nor was it meant to be. That was the whole point.
The question of whats happening to everyone isn't meant to be suspenseful. We know the devil is doing it, we're suppose to. The suspense comes from wondering which of the people the devil is. He needs to review the film for what it is: a supernatural horror film, not what he hoped it would be: a murder mystery?
Theres no big twist, we know its the devil from the onset. Thats not a fault, its a selling point to horror fans everywhere.
October 5, 2010 at 5:42 am
I think the alusion to Dr. Who raised this discussion from good to excellent. And Brandon, you have an entertaining writing style. I hope you are writing other things, perhaps movie reviews? :-)
November 13, 2010 at 1:50 am
I just saw it at the dollar theater. Yep, it was worth that... a buck (actually, two on a Friday night). There are good horror movies, and there are 'meh' horror movies. This one is definitely 'meh.' I certainly will not argue with what is preached or discussed, but I wasn't terribly moved by the presentation. So, I'll second Eric's C grade. One final note: [BIG SPOILER DELETED]
December 27, 2010 at 2:56 am
Just saw this on DVD the other day... This would have been pretty good if it weren't for the narrative backstory. It got to the point where it seemed ridiculous. "When the devil appears, he will always ride a scooter down 101st St. and then get a donut, and if someone with a green hat is in the donut shop and doesn't use exact change, then they will also die." Of course, I'm being absurd, but that whole thing got to be a very specific story that some kids' mother told him (I mean really... who does that and where did they come up with all of that?) and then whaddya know, the devil in the film follows that exact screwy story.
The simple Bible quote at the beginning would have been fine, and that same character could have acted the same way in the film, reacting as if he saw the devil and all that, and the idea of the devil being involved would have been suitably and more subtly inferred. But really, the whole backstory thing should have been axed.
I really liked the upside-down intro. A simple gimmick, but it gave a suitably jarring feeling to the intro. The rest of the film didn't live up to that, but anyway...