Review of Devil (2010) by Filipeneto — 21 Aug 2018

This suspense film revolves around a group of people, unknown to each other, who are trapped inside an elevator of a skyscraper, unaware that one of them is actually the demon in disguise, willing to drag them to Hell and punish them for their sins.

Screenplay is based on a story by M. Night Shyamalan, director of "Sixth Sense" among other films. In fact, the concept idea is good, intriguing and succeeds in grabbing the public attention, having been decently developed in the script.

"Who will be the next victim?", "who is the devil?"... these two questions are the skeleton of the film from a given moment and this makes everything more predictable from then on because they're limited to a set of options and conclusions.

The film is too fast and doesn't have a very good pace. We cannot appreciate the suspense when everything is happening so quickly. The actors' work was decent enough, particularly Chris Messina, but most of the characters weren't particularly good.

Jacob Vargas, in particular, played a Latin with strongly stereotyped and absurd characteristics. Cinematography is good, visual and sound effects were well used to densify the environment at the exact moments.

The film has quality. However, it lacks some unpredictability and a deeper story, with stronger characters.