Devil Review
By Lora Grady
Getting the Shaft
"Devil" is a well-crafted film that starts with a potentially absurd premise - people trapped in a high-rise elevator realize that the devil may be among them! - and uses it to build a story that mixes horror, humor, sentiment, and the now-requisite twist ending with surprisingly satisfying results. It's kind of a shame that "Devil" is being marketed primarily as a horror movie, because general audiences would likely be well entertained by the film's intriguingly layered storytelling. The plot moves along like a police procedural with a unique mystery at its core, and it's fun to see each element fall into place as the story unfolds.
We learn just enough about the characters to understand their place in the story, so the protagonist, Detective Bowen (Chris Messina), is introduced as a recovering alcoholic who lost his family in a hit-and-run accident several years earlier. He is called to the scene of an apparent suicide in downtown Philadelphia, and while he's investigating, a second call comes in from the same vicinity: five people are trapped in the elevator of a high-rise business tower, and the circumstances are growing bizarre and dangerous. The group in the elevator seems innocuous - a salesman, an older woman, a wealthy wife, a young man, and a security guard. However, as the investigation proceeds, the detective learns that his two cases may be linked, and there's more to the situation than meets the eye.
The skill with which "Devil" was written and directed (by Brian Nelson and John Erick Dowdle, respectively) is evident in the way that the disparate story threads are introduced and then interwoven. As the story proceeds, there is action taking place on several fronts: the elevator, with five strangers uncomfortably trading jokes and revealing small pieces of their history before being consumed by panic and paranoia as their situation grows more dire; the security office where guards helplessly watch the events unfolding via monitors; the dank basement and drafty elevator shaft where treacherous repair attempts are being made. Detective Bowen provides the through-line, as he races against time to save the people in the elevator by unraveling the mystery of what brought them all together, on that particular day, in that particular location. He's potentially aided - or maybe just distracted - by a security guard with a religious background, who is convinced that he's seeing something out of the old stories that his grandmother used to tell about the devil coming to earth to torment damned souls. Could he be right?
"Devil" contains some violence and gore, but it's never overdone. Instead, the tension is achieved through other, well-utilized effects. In particular, the events in the elevator are often seen through the security camera's video feed, giving the action a jittery, off-kilter look that can be unsettling. The elevator's lights blink off for short periods of time, and when they come back on, matters within have usually taken a turn for the worse. The audience begins to dread the darkness as much as the people in the elevator must (last year's "Paranormal Activity" used a similar effect, to its benefit), adding to the empathetic chills. Overall, the story touches on a number of shared phobias: being trapped in closed spaces, unexpected darkness, and strangers who aren't who - or what - they appear to be.
Mr. Dowdle also helmed 2008's "Quarantine", a similarly effective horror-thriller about people trapped in a Los Angeles apartment building with an unknown threat. With "Devil", Mr. Dowdle was working from a screenplay based on a story from M. Night Shyamalan. Happily, Shyamalan seems here to have reversed the curse that hung over his last several projects ("Lady in the Water", "
The Happening", "The Last Airbender") and returned to form as a strong storyteller. "Devil" is purported to be the first in a trilogy called "The Night Chronicles" (we shall see). While "Devil" doesn't match the pathos, emotional complexity, or bravura twist of Shyamalan's "
The Sixth Sense", it is nonetheless a thoroughly entertaining piece of work. Just try to see it in a theater where you can take the stairs.
