Post by StevePulaski on Sept 18, 2010 22:39:40 GMT -5
Rating: ★★
Devil marks the first film in the new Night Chronicles series, each film following supernatural beings and the concept of "the devil". The devil has always been an interesting concept for movies especially when used in a respectable way. When used here, it's nothing more than a lukewarm, mediocre horror film with no appeal or attract factor. I was hoping this would be like a "perspective horror" movie. A horror film where to get the full effect you need to imagine yourself in the shoes of one of the victims. Recent films like Open Water and Frozen are creepier if you think that way. It's an interesting concept not utilized to the fullest in Devil which is the most disappointing thing here.
Going into this with very little knowledge on plot and having only seen one trailer, what I was going to see was pretty much foreign. I was hoping at least 85% of the film would take place in the elevator they were stuck in, but if you were to take all 80 minutes of this film (75 without credits) and piece together all the scenes that are in the elevator you would get around 35 minutes of movie. Thats all. We should have the feeling like we are in the elevator stuck with these strangers. We should feel like the characters are feeling. They cant escape to get aware of things in the "outside world". Why should we? Am I thinking too deep into this? Or did I just go in expecting a movie that possibly doesn't exsist?
The story follows five unnamed strangers as they board an elevator heading to their own specific destination. The elevator gets stuck between floors and the five are trapped. The security guards who are put in charge of the elevator management notice the five whom are stuck and soon learn they can communicate with them, but they can't hear them talk back. Whenever the lights go out in the elevator, someone dies, and the five learn one of them is the devil in human form. Which one is it is a mystery. But we learn the secret from one of them and some background history that may come in handy later.
The main problem for me is how the film is handeled. We have to infer a lot to have the movie make sense. The ending (which I will not ruin) may take some research like it did for me to figure out exactly what happened and why the devil makes the choice he/she does. Just for the film to have the name M. Night Shyamalan scares me more than the actual film. M. Night is one of the few directors/producers not to have really one good film out. Even the praised classic The Sixth Sense I find overrated. It seems like every film Night ever made was panned or unnecessary. Was there any reason to make a movie on Lady in the Water or a live-action adaptation of the animated TV show The Last Airbender?
Devil may seem creepy for the first twenty minutes, but it's effect wears off. The fact they keep switching from in and out of the elevator is annoying and the more it makes me wish scenes in the elevator with the strangers wasn't so limited. While it knows what it's supposed to be, Devil doesn't make too much of an effort to show off what it really can do. Another mediocre horror film undeserving of two more movies follwing it.
Starring: Chris Messina, Bojana Novakovic, and Bokeem Woodbine. Directed by: John Erick Dowdle.
Devil marks the first film in the new Night Chronicles series, each film following supernatural beings and the concept of "the devil". The devil has always been an interesting concept for movies especially when used in a respectable way. When used here, it's nothing more than a lukewarm, mediocre horror film with no appeal or attract factor. I was hoping this would be like a "perspective horror" movie. A horror film where to get the full effect you need to imagine yourself in the shoes of one of the victims. Recent films like Open Water and Frozen are creepier if you think that way. It's an interesting concept not utilized to the fullest in Devil which is the most disappointing thing here.
Going into this with very little knowledge on plot and having only seen one trailer, what I was going to see was pretty much foreign. I was hoping at least 85% of the film would take place in the elevator they were stuck in, but if you were to take all 80 minutes of this film (75 without credits) and piece together all the scenes that are in the elevator you would get around 35 minutes of movie. Thats all. We should have the feeling like we are in the elevator stuck with these strangers. We should feel like the characters are feeling. They cant escape to get aware of things in the "outside world". Why should we? Am I thinking too deep into this? Or did I just go in expecting a movie that possibly doesn't exsist?
The story follows five unnamed strangers as they board an elevator heading to their own specific destination. The elevator gets stuck between floors and the five are trapped. The security guards who are put in charge of the elevator management notice the five whom are stuck and soon learn they can communicate with them, but they can't hear them talk back. Whenever the lights go out in the elevator, someone dies, and the five learn one of them is the devil in human form. Which one is it is a mystery. But we learn the secret from one of them and some background history that may come in handy later.
The main problem for me is how the film is handeled. We have to infer a lot to have the movie make sense. The ending (which I will not ruin) may take some research like it did for me to figure out exactly what happened and why the devil makes the choice he/she does. Just for the film to have the name M. Night Shyamalan scares me more than the actual film. M. Night is one of the few directors/producers not to have really one good film out. Even the praised classic The Sixth Sense I find overrated. It seems like every film Night ever made was panned or unnecessary. Was there any reason to make a movie on Lady in the Water or a live-action adaptation of the animated TV show The Last Airbender?
Devil may seem creepy for the first twenty minutes, but it's effect wears off. The fact they keep switching from in and out of the elevator is annoying and the more it makes me wish scenes in the elevator with the strangers wasn't so limited. While it knows what it's supposed to be, Devil doesn't make too much of an effort to show off what it really can do. Another mediocre horror film undeserving of two more movies follwing it.
Starring: Chris Messina, Bojana Novakovic, and Bokeem Woodbine. Directed by: John Erick Dowdle.