Devil
by Gary Barnidge on October 5th, 2010
When you hear the name M. Night Shyamalan you will either think of two things, the first being the great movies of Signs and the Sixth Sense with great twists, or you think of such catastrophes such as The Village, The Lady in the Water, and The Happening. This time around just the story is from the maniacal mind of M. Night Shyamalan.
The movie is about 5 people trapped in an elevator for reasons above their knowing, and while trying to figure out what is happening people in and around the elevator end up having accidents that are unexplained.
The Film starts out very tantalizing with the view of the city being in an upside down manner as if you were looking in a mirror which I feel helps bring the tension to a forefront. The music in the beginning and throughout the movie helps to build the characters by the way it hones in on a certain characters with a certain tone. It also keeps you guessing on what is going to happen with the way the music jumps around to help hide the true nature of what is going to happen.
The way John Erick Dowdle presents the film with simple lighting tricks to help build the suspense and intrigue in the movie is similar to the way he did in Quarantine. He delivers a product that keeps you engaged because you are wondering what is going to happen next and to whom it will happen. The film is rather short but doesn’t feel short because you get into the movie trying to guess what will happen which helps build even more suspense for the viewer.
The Acting isn’t really needed to deliver a compelling story but with that said the acting in the movie was rather good despite not having to do much but express fright and disgust. Chris Messina (Detective Bowden) had the toughest job of acting because he had to show many different ranges of acting from anger to sad to disbelief. In which he delivered a very believable character.
All in all the story is very simple that will keep you guessing til the very end with simple tricks to get scares.
7 out of 10








