The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist. As for M. Night Shyamalan, the greatest trick he ever pulled? Well it certainly doesn’t include his last couple of movies!
Devil is not directed by Shyamalan, nor is the screenplay. But he is responsible for the story and it’s all under the Night Chronicles umbrella, which are a trio of horror thrillers with Devil being the first one out of the bag. Currently, Shyamalan is bad news. His past successes of the Sixth Sense and Signs are long forgotten, thanks to the atrociously bad selection of movies he has come up with. Signs of trouble started with The Village (which I really enjoyed) but then the house of cards started to fall with Lady in the Water and that progressed onto The [nothing]Happening and then this years Last Air bender. So, can Devil start turning the tide for Shyamalan and take him back to his former glory?
The plot here is relatively straight forward. A group of strangers all pile into a lift which suddenly gets stuck, and a selection of bizarre and crazy things start to happen. Thanks to a highly religious security guard, the audience is led to believe that the Devil is in the lift. But which one is the Devil? So essentially, this is a whodunit with a few scares along the way, topped off with a sprinkling of gore as attempts are made to rescue the hapless bunch. This hapless bunch are made up of a Security Guard, a marine, a mattress salesman, the good-looking 20 something female and an old lady. As the movie meanders along to it’s conclusion, the tension in the lift starts to rise as does the body count and of course all of this is watched on CCTV by a cop and a bunch of security guards.
Shyamalan is known for his twist and Devil is no exception. I honestly didn’t see it coming and that’s testament to a movie that does draw you in somewhat. The cast are relatively unknowns so you don’t have any real connection to them, but as time passes by I’m sure people will have their own favourite who they want to survive. So the cast do a good job here at convincing you who they are, or even who they’re not.
The problem with Devil is that it’s not as an intense an experience I had expected it to be. It dips it’s toes into various pools, but never completely dives in. For example the gore level. While not imperative to a movie, I believe it should be all or nothing or certainly more than what is shown here. The other problem with it, is that once the first person crokes it turns into a Final Destination type viewing. In other words you know some horrific death is about to take place and and your left waiting for it to happen. And when it does happen, its a bit bland and uneventful. And then you do it all over again. And again. Nothing wrong with that, but we’ve seen it all before and it wouldn’t be so bad if it had more of an impact on the screen, but it doesn’t. If anything, Devil seems to er on the side of caution a bit too much. As for the scare factor, that too is a little bit uneventful, with one possible scare moment throughout, and even that isn’t great.
All that said, Devil isn’t a complete waste of time. The character’s are really strong in it and the twist is just enough to satisfy. Not a true return to form for Shyamalan, but it’s a step in the right direction. The greatest trick Shyamalan pulled could well have been The Sixth Sense, but Devil proves he’s got a trick or 2 left yet!
