Do you believe in God? If you do, then it stands to reason you believe in the devil. If the devil does exist, what does he do? How much influence does he have over day to day events. And exactly how much of the mayhem in modern society does he actively participate in?
The neat "B" thriller Devil asks these questions and more. The film opens with an amazing camera shot by cinematographer Tak Fujimoto (Silence Of the Lambs, Philadelphia, The Sixth Sense) and a voice-over narration relating a story that a mother used to tell her children, about the devil here on earth.
It seems the devil likes to disguise himself as a human and walk amongst us. He gathers those whose souls he plans to take in one place and then torments them before he kills them and collects their souls. In this case it is five strangers riding in a express elevator, in a high rise building. The elevator stops between floors and the terror begins. And God help anyone who tries to interfere with the devil's plans!
Fujimoto's clever opening is just the beginning of some excellent cinematography that gives the film a real sense of claustrophobia and menace. The five stranded passengers, played by Bokeem Woodbine, Geoffrey Arend, Bijana Novakovic, Jenny O'Hara and Logan Marshall-Green, all give smart, tight performances. Chris Messina as the Philadelphia Detective trying to help free them also delivers solid work.
A film like this requires a tight script without ridiculous plot points and screenwriter Brian Nelson delivers. You don't leave the theatre asking why didn't they do this or why didn't they do that? The script is a bit of an homage to the Agatha Christie story And Then There Were None and features some devilish accidents, not quite as gruesome as the ones in the Omen series. The movie is suspenseful but does not have as many outright scare moments as you would expect. It also plays down the gore and relies on the unseen violence to generate tension.
Many of the negative reviews of this film have mentioned M. Night Shyamalan in their first paragraph. It has become fashionable to knock this one time promising film director and many of the 'critics" go to great lengths to pan the film because of him. Many knocked his directing abilities, not realizing that he did not direct this movie. The job was done by John Erick Dowdle (Quarantine).
The film is the first of a trilogy called The Night Chronicles being produced by Shyamalan. It will be a series of films dealing with the supernatural in modern, urban society. The next film, Reincarnate, will be released some time next year.
Devil, now playing in local theatres, is a thriller that is guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat and make you look at strangers in the elevator more closely.
At The Movie House rating *** stars
Other films of interest:
The Omen,
The Devil's Advocate
Blackout
The Shaft
Drag Me To Hell
The Exorcist
1 comment:
I'd like ot see this movie. The scariest movie I ever saw was the original Texas Chain Saw...I saw it after having 5 cups of coffee. It was very disturbing...I thought "Seven" was pretty good too.
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