I am happy to report that I REALLY liked this!
Devil (2010)
Directed By: John Erick Dowdle (Quarantine)
The Prologue
For some, just the name M. Night Shyamalan is enough to make them run away from a movie, and as to why I’m not sure. The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs, hell even The Village were all very good movies. Now maybe The Happening wasn’t anything to write home about, but you can’t bat 1.000 forever. Plus, I’m not even sure how much M. Night Shyamalan had to do with this besides the story idea. The man who is behind the camera is the same man that gave us Quarantine which probably would be more well received had not actually existed, but what can you do right? Anyway, Devil is the first of a trilogy called The Night Chronicles, a trilogy that will deal with supernatural elements happening in an otherwise normal setting. And the way I see it after Devil, they are off to a great start with that..
The Movie
So as the saying goes, ever so often The Devil will trap and torment a group of people before killing them and ultimately taking them to hell with him. It is also said that this will happen after a suicide and that The Devil will often shape-shift taking a human form to accomplish this. Well on this day we have a suicide, we have a group of people trapped in an elevator, we have someone who is working at the building that this is happening in that has heard the legend and has a pretty good clue what is going on, and we have a detective that is at war with his faith following his own tragic events he’s been having to try to recover from. When you add this all up, M. Night Shyamalan being involved or not, you have one of the more interesting and well written films of 2010.
I’d probably go as far as to say that while this movie seems to have a few people skipping the term “horror” film while talking about it, I’m pretty sure that’s what it is. And I’d also go as far as to say that when you think back at a list of horror films rated PG-13, that this is hands down one of the best, if not THE best. Some may want to attempt to compare this to The Last Exorcism just based on religious elements, and if you never believe another thing I ever write on this site believe me when I say it’s head and shoulders better than that film. The film never really drags and it keeps you on your toes and guessing with one of the more interesting plots you’ll find. Maybe it’s not a 100% original story, but then again these days what is? There’s are moments that will make you jump, not too many, but enough to keep you at least a little tense.
From the moment you find out there’s a very good chance The Devil is on that elevator you will find yourself trying to analyze every character on the darn thing, just as the police and building workers are doing themselves while watching the trapped people. You find yourself trying to think ahead and think back at what has went down and what is going down just to see if you can figure things out, and even if you figure some things out, you probably won’t guess the whole thing until the movie shows it’s hand to you. And I am very pleased to say this film doesn’t show it’s hand too soon. Like a great man once said, just when you think you have all the answers the film changes the questions.
While PG-13, you still get some pretty cool looking kills. It’s not an all out blood bath, and I’ll admit my only beef with it is I wish it were. But what you get is a film that at least comes across scary, something most horror films seem to forget to do. There’s no real smoke and mirrors as the story unfolds, just a well written plot, and very good story telling. Maybe there’s no really likable characters, but isn’t that part of the point? Why else would The Devil go through the trouble of seeking these people out and all that if they were? What you do however find at the end of the day is a film that has a good lesson to it, one that may be lost on many. I’ll confess that if you are not a very religious person you may not find things as creepy or as fulfilling once things wrap, but still..while it may not be as great to you as it ended up being for me, I assume you’ll still have enough here to really enjoy the story. And of course..you get a twist!
The Conclusion
One of my favorites of the year here in 2010. I don’t care if you hate M. Night Shyamalan and Quarantine, you get the goods here with Devil. Great plot, great acting, and oh yes..great twist! I’m more than sure you’ll be hearing more about this film from me when it comes to the year ending Top 10s that are made around the horror world. I know it may be a little hard to believe that this movie is as good as I’m saying it is, but you should really give it a try, you may find it’s a lot better than you’d have assumed heading into it.
The Rating (8/10)
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