Technically speaking Devil is not an M. Night Shyamalan movie, but he did write the screenplay. And what he wrote is a well worn horror/thriller plot device in use for 60 years... at least as far back as Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. The difference in this case is the fact the entirety of the mystery takes place within an elevator, which is admittedly refreshing.
"The ones he chose would be gathered together and tortured as he hid amongst them, pretending to be one of them"- Ramirez
The film opens with a narrator telling an old story his grandmother used to tell him about the devil, as we see a skyline shot of the city of Philadelphia upside down. It's a very effective shot because it's quite disorienting, and it puts the senses on edge. It is here in Philadelphia that a janitor outside an office building is running a floor polisher on the atrium tiles. He wears headphones to block out the noise of the machine, and in turn, doesn't hear the body of a man jumping to his death onto a truck directly behind him. Detective Bowden (Chris Messina) is called to the scene and inspects the body, which lay limp upon the roof of the box truck. As he's scanning the surrounding buildings, his partner, Detective Markowitz (Joshua Peace) notices the look of confusion on his face. There's no way that person jumped from any of the buildings surrounding the area because they're all just two stories high. They conclude that the damage to the truck would indicate the body was flung from much higher up. This leads them to the building where five strangers are each boarding an elevator, in the very building the suicide took place.
The five strangers are pretty much what you would expect in a genre film: The salesman-jokester (Geoffrey Arend), a young attractive woman with money on her mind (Bojana Novakovic), the building's guard who just started work there as a temp (Bokeem Woodbine), a quiet, suspicious mechanic (Logan Marshall Green) and an old woman (Jenny O'Hara). No surprise that the elevator gets stuck, and this is when the fun begins.
Up in the security room, the narrator of the opening story, Ramirez (Jacob Vargas), sits with his supervisor Lustig (Matt Craven), trying to calm the fears of the folks in the elevator. It appears they can be heard in the elevator, but they can't hear the passengers response, always a setup for trouble in the horror genre. After a few minutes of exposition to get to know these people, the action begins. The lights in the stranded elevator flicker off, and someone attacks the young lady. Now, the doubt about which one of them did it starts, and each suspects the other. In the security room, Ramirez thinks he sees a face on the surveillance cam in the elevator, leading him to believe the devil walks among them, as his grandmother used to tell him. As things spiral out of control, and the elevator just hangs suspended in the air, Detective Bowden is radioed to check out the scene. This all leads to a twist at the end (of course) as to why this is all happening, and who is behind it.
"He Went and Hanged Himself and Then There Were None"-Ten Little Indians
M. NIght has been steadily going down in stature since his debut, The Sixth Sense. Who among us got excited about The Lady in the Water or The Happening. Even The Sixth Sense ripped off two movies I'm aware of (the ending, at least), so while I liked it a lot, and was surprised by the ending, after thinking on it for a few years I don't hold it as highly as I once did. So I came into Devil with very low expectations, even if he wasn't directing it.
I’m relieved for a couple of reasons: For one, the action begins within the first 10 minutes of screen time; no meandering around with nonsensical exposition. Two: the total picture runs just 80 minutes. That's the perfect run time for a movie like this. Enough time to get the story in, but not enough time for the audience to pick it apart (until it's over). The story can get hokey and downright questionable at times, but I didn't worry about it much while watching it.
Upon reflection, it's easy to see that this film is a little cheesy, but it's not a horrible experience and it might even qualify as a good one. But that doesn't mean it's a good film, which it surely isn't. It's a thankfully quick diversion with a familiar storyline that anyone who has watched thrillers over the years will no doubt shoot holes through. However what's the fun in that? I wanted some scares and suspense, and by and large I got them. Mostly the traditional jump scares, but the scenes of Philadelphia and the underlying soundscape are pretty effective in setting the eerie mood.
The cinematographer, Takashi Fujimoto, deserves some special mention here because Philadelphia has never looked better or more ominous onscreen, and it helps the picture immensely. It elevates the film from schlock to an appreciative attempt to tackle the redundancy of the script in a fresh manner.
Devil is a film that you just have to sit back and enjoy it for what it is, a slightly above average thriller that you’ll be just as comfortable forgetting as you were gliding through its retread storyline.
Double Feature With: April Fool's Day (1986)
Film: 5/10
So Good It's Bad: +.5 (5.5/10
Gore: Minimal
Music: 6.5/10
