M. Night didn't direct this one, he just came up with the story and produced it. The guy who directed Quarantine directed this one. So, the question is, does this one continue M. Night's descent towards Uwe Boll territory, or what?
So, in case you don't know, Devil is about these 5 people trapped on an elevator, and one is the devil. We learn that there's this old legend that the devil will come down to Earth in human guise, torture people, and then kill them. Only people who deserve it though, and that's where our trouble begins.
Firstly, the movie has a nice concept, but it's flawed. Due to the fact that we are not to find out who the devil is until the end of the film, then the devil can't kill in broad daylight in the elevator. That leads to all the kills happening in the dark, complete with the gruesome sound effects. The lights come back on, and someone is dead. Now, like I said, for the movie, that makes sense, but it doesn't make much sense if you think about it. If you're the devil, don't you want to take out everyone as soon as possible? If the devil had, he might have got away with all the souls! (more on that later...)
Oh right though, it's because he's psychologically torturing his prey! Right? Err, wrong. This is the laziest devil in history. Other than giving a woman a scratch in the side, this devil does nothing. All the torment they go through is stuff they caused themselves. I guess the devil was tormenting them by trapping them in an elevator? But that's pretty weak. I want a vicious devil, not a lackadasical one!
At the end, one of the guys repents for his sins (they're all bad, but not murderer or rapist bad...more like insurance fraud bad...so obviously, the devil couldn't get more souls more worthy of punishment, like say, death row), and the devil then can't take his soul. Wha? So that's it, you just have to apologize for your sins and the devil can't do anything? Okay, I'm sorry I ever hurt anyone in the my life. Okay, now the devil can never get me! WHAT? Who thought of this? To make it worse, the crime this guy perpetrated (and it was an accident, not pre-meditated) was against this cop (he killed the cop's wife and son), and the cop, after 5 years of drinking, and almost ending his own life, finally finds the guy who offs his family...and he forgives the guy, too! Wow! Everyone seems to be in a forgiving mood for a movie called DEVIL!!!!!!
And what was with that guard? The narrator of the movie? One guy dies in the elevator, and he starts telling the cop "It's the Devil!!!" What? Who does that? I mean, I know M. Night is Mr. Exposition now in his movies, but c'mon, you expect me to believe one person dies in the movie, and he's like "It's the Devil, my Mother told me this tale!"???
I didn't hate the movie, though. There was good spookiness in the film, and it is interesting to try and pick the devil out of the suspects, though I singled out the culprit pretty easily. You're also sort of wondering who is going to die outside the elevator, and some people do die. The concept, like I said, is neat, and the filmmaker was smart enough to keep the movie short, so as to not expand the existing plot holes.
That said, this movie was ok. There's problems with the storyline, and the devil is too easily recognized for it to work effectively as a mystery, especially to people who have watched tons of mysteries and plot twists. I will say it was a nice attempt at a claustrophobic horror movie, but at the end of the day, it didn't quite live up to it's promise.
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
- Stephenstein
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