DEVIL (2010) – Trailer [M. Night Shyamalan]

One Response to "DEVIL (2010) – Trailer [M. Night Shyamalan]"

1. localite says:

   September 29, 2010 at 7:23 am

   Devil 2010 Movie reviewed by Movie Mobsters,

   I walked into Devil, the first installment of the Night Chronicles, prepared for the worst; a stuffy, eye-rolling exercise in diabolical tension and daft plotting. After this summer’s mind-numbing Airbender I was just about done with Shyamalan as a creative force, and yet, Devil makes good on its slender, claustrophobic premise and its promise of high-strung supernatural malice. Not a perfect thriller by any means, it delivers a good, spooky fable in under 80 minutes, with little extra fat. It turns out that handing over the writing and directing duties, to John Erik Dowdle and Brian Nelson respectively, was a good idea after all.

   The set-up has the makings of a ripping good episode of The Twilight Zone; five strangers get trapped in a malfunctioning elevator and as things begin to go unusually wrong, they suspect that one among them is more than they initially seem. The world is broken down to two planes; the one inside the elevator, where tensions and fear are ratcheting up each time the lights go out, and the one outside, where a recovering alcoholic detective races to save the occupants of the lift. There’s not much more than that, except for the inclusion of a superstitious security guard who believes that the events of this day are being orchestrated by a malevolent and unseen hand.

   The people inside the elevator are almost absurdly balanced in their diversity—there’s a fussy Middle Eastern businessman (Geoffrey Arend), a grungy looking white dude (Logan Marshall-Green), a burly black security guard (Bokeem Woodbine), a grouchy old woman (Jenny O’Hara), and a beautiful young one (Bojana Novacovic). All of them conceal secrets that someone or something inside the lift wants to exploit and reveal. Chris Messina is the heart-broken Det. Bowden, who has his own back-story demons to contend with, but no time for it, as rescuing the dwindling group is of greater priority. One of the guards remembers a story his mother told him involving the devil drawing souls together before claiming them. He thinks the Father of Lies is traipsing about Philly, looking for yuppies to ensnare, but Bowden isn’t convinced. Something, to be sure, is happening and its roots run deeper than initially guessed.

   Dowdle’s direction is key to making Devil convincing as a cinematic thriller. The opening credits float over the early dawn cityscape of Philadelphia, but Tak Fujimoto’s camera work is turned upside down. Instead of the skyline we recognize, we are thrown into an off-kilter world of submerged cathedral tops and diving skyscrapers. It’s a simple trick, but one that resets our brains for the odd-ball tale at hand. Think of it as the equivalent of Serling’s Zone narration, signaling our entry into lands foreign to normal logic.

   All of Devil, from its spiritual subtext to its Agatha Christie inspired premise (think Ten Little Indians in an elevator) is striving to emulate that previously mentioned anthology classic. If it doesn’t quite hit the verve that the Zone’s morality chillers managed, it gives it a good shot, with a well designed soundscape that hurtles noises at the audience like they were 3-D objects, accompanied by a towering, ear-drum rupturing score by Fernando Velázquez. Visually, the vertiginous, canted angles of Fujimoto’s camera create a disorienting atmosphere that helps unite the stories inside and outside of the elevator. Unfortunately, the acting is mostly routine and stilted, and not every revelation moves the narrative along successfully.

   I’ll say no more about Devil from a story perspective, so that the film’s secret pleasures can be arrived at fresh. Just don’t go in expecting a brain burning horror movie, or something filled with wailing cgi or demonic iconography. It’s a slight and understated tale for most of the going, ramping up for it’s harrowing moments of gothic terror at unexpected instances. Less a story about the bogeyman, and more a cleverly constructed tale of paranoia and conspiring cosmic forces, Devil succeeds at what it’s going for. Shyamalan, who began his career with films that explored the spiritual extinguishing of the soul. as well as its subsequent redemption and re-ignition, has found another way to tell the same story. He may have, in fact, found his new niche, playing Serling to a whole new generation of gifted tale-tellers.

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