Review of Devil (2010) by Christopher H — 12 Jan 2012

It's not as bad as the previous films M. Night Shyamalan has been associated with, but that is not saying a whole lot. One of the biggest problems with the film is that the big twist is given away by the title.

This reduces the film to waiting for a climax that ends up being unsatisfying. The film foolishly tries to deceive the audience by throwing one red-harring after another, only to have a big reveal that the audience was never given a fair chance at guessing.

Shyamalan continues to show his incompetence as a writer, their are scenes and moments of dialogue that seem to have been made for Rifftrax to poke fun of. However, three elements prevent this movie from being completely bad.

Director John E. Dowdle gives some good cinematography and occasionally succeeds in building some tension, if only a little. Despite a really bad script, the actors do a good job in making the best of it.

Chris Messina and Logan Marshall-Green give performances that almost transcend the cheesier aspects of the film. The film also has some good music that gives the movie a Twilight Zone feel to it. In fact, this whole film feels like an episode of the Twilight Zone padded out to an hour and twenty minutes.

If this movie where a television episode of a horror anthology, it probably would have been a lot more solid.