Release Date: September 17th, 2010Click here for the Devil Trailer.
Five strangers enter an elevator on what appears to be a normal day with none of them expecting the horrors they are about to face. Not more than a minute into the trip the elevator stops, stranding inside the five individuals. With two security guards, Ramirez(Jacob Vargas) and Lustig(Matt Craven), working frantically to get the people out, the police show up, led by Detective Bowden(Chris Messina) and his partner Detective Markowitz(Joshua Peace) who are investigating an apparent suicide that took place in the building earlier that day.
The news of the suicide reminds Ramirez of a story his mother told him when he was little. The story tells of the Devil roaming the earth and sometimes taking human form to torture and take the souls of the damned. The story always begins with a suicide opening the doors for the Devil to come in. Ramirez believes that the people in the elevator have been selected by the Devil to be punished for the sins of their past.
According to Ramirez's mother's story, the Devil is one of the five people in the elevator, and one by one they will each be killed with the last person being killed in front of the love of his/her life. As more problems occur and individuals in the elevator actually do begin to die, Bowden races to figure out just exactly what is going on and try to save those in the elevator before the devil takes his dues.
Ok. I'm not going to lie. When I saw M. Night Shyamalan's name attached to this film, I was, like I always am with him, a little wary. Let's be honest though, the last few movies from Shyamalan haven't been the greatest (The Last Airbender ringing any bells?). But I decided to give it a chance and not "judge a book by its cover", and I'm glad I did.
Throughout the movie I kept wondering where Shyamalan would throw in his big "twist" that would completely change and, most likely, ruin (*cough cough* The Happening *cough cough*) the entire movie, but that point never came. Another point that also never came was M. Night Shyamalan's cameo that he makes in all of his films. It was only after this that I realized why this movie wasn't failing.....because Shyamalan wasn't directing it. In fact, he didn't direct or write it, he was merely a producer who wrote the story from which this movie was created.
The movie was actually directed by John Erick Dowdle, and the screenplay was adapted by Brian Nelson with Shyamalan acting as a producer and creator of the concept. So now you know why this film didn't suck. So let me get into why this film was good.
The concept was very intriguing with five people trapped in an elevator, one of which is the Devil aiming to kill everyone else. This movie could have gone very badly. Most audiences do not like the feeling of being trapped. When making a film where the main characters are stuck in one solitary, confined space, audiences could feel claustrophobic which would deter them from enjoying the film. Thankfully, the film pulled out of the elevator regularly to allow audiences to breath.
If you are into suspense, then you will definitely like this film as it keeps you on the edge of your seat for the entire 80 minutes. In the beginning you immediately try to figure out which of these five people is the Devil and as the movie progresses, and each person is slowly killed off, you desperately try to figure out what is going on which makes the entire film very attention grabbing.
The film is also a little scary at times. You always know when something bad is about to happen as the lights in the elevator begin to flicker on and off and eventually shut off for about a minute. When they come back on, somebody has been killed in a gruesome way. Another thing I really liked about the movie is how clues were dropped that tied everyone together by bringing up bad things they have done in their past making them perfect for the Devil to take.
I thought all the performances were very good. I recognized some of the actors like Bokeem Woodbine, Gefforey Arend, Matt Craven and Jacob Vargas. Others like Chris Messina, Bojana Novakovic and Logan Marshall-Green all did excellent jobs. This film was probably difficult to film with the actors all confined to one set. However, they all seemed to handle it well. I loved how they turned on each other in the film, it added even more suspense to the already stressful film.
Overall this was a very good movie. The film switched between inside and outside the elevator enough to keep the audience from feeling trapped, and it definitely had an interesting and suspenseful plot with a killer twist ending that may shock a few people. The acting was all very good, and the gore was enough to be scary/creepy but had enough moderation to not be disgusting. In my opinion, M. Night Shyamalan should stick to making stories and let other people direct them as it seems to bode better for him.
I give Devil 8 Devil Infested Elevators out of 10.
Take some time to say hi to my sponsors:
Good to talk about devil.From a director who's had a devil of a time lately comes a "Twilight Zone"-ish horror movie.
ReplyDeletedevil
Every year millions of people visit Los Angeles in Hollywood in hopes of experiencing a taste of the film and television experience.
ReplyDeletePritto