Review of Devil (2010) by Colson V — 17 Feb 2013

Devil is a big risk. You see, the Dowdle brothers have made some very good movies in the past and writer Brian Nelson has written some very intelligent and successful screenplays. While Devil may be an awful film, it only will be a small smudge on otherwise semi-impressive resumes of these filmmakers. However, the one problem with the backlash Devil is receiving is because of another infamous filmmaker's attachment to the project.

M. Night Shyamalan.

Devil is being judged unfairly becasuse of Shyamalan's involvement and while I want this abysmal film to recieve the harshest punishment possible, I want it to earn honest opinions instead of false ones. See, Devil is a big risk for studios because of Shyamalan. People are tired of him. When I saw Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (Yes, I'm proud to be one of the dozen people that actually paid a ticket to see it), the trailer for Devil played in front of it. The audience was interested in the film but once Shyamalan's name popped up, the theatre roared with laughter. Yes, I know that Shyamalan has virtually nothing to do with the film, but the fact that he has the ego to put his name on all of the marketing is insane and will split filmgoers in half.

Anyway, I went to Devil with an open mind. I loved John Eric Dowdle's previous film Quarantine, and I have enjoyed Hard Candy and 30 Days of Night- films that writer Brian Nelson wrote. I was expecting a creepy, atmospheric thriller about the devil and the the torture that he inflicts on others. Well, almost right away the action starts. The opening act hardly ever gives moviegoers a chance to breathe. Whether it be the opening shot of a suicide, or the group of characters boarding the doomed elevator just 4 minutes later, the pacing moves ridiculously fast.

I was hooked.

Well, now it's about the 10 minute mark and all of the characters are already onboard the elevator. I looked at my watch in shock.

"It's only been 10 minutes! There is still 70 minutes left! What are they possibly going to do now?".

Well, the next 20 minutes consisted of nothing but flickering lights, and blank stares from each character.

That's it.

One character provokes another for no real reason, cut to the puzzled security guards, cut back to the characters in the elevator. That's the pattern for the next 20 minutes. This is when the pacing becomes unbearably slow, almost coming to a screeching hault for no reason at all None of the characters are interesting to begin with and this poses a huge problem when it comes to this down time:

Who cares?

I hate all of these unlikable people and I don't care about their demise. I'm bored to tears and I want something violent or scary to happen. Well, about 40 minutes into this 80-ish minute long movie, somebody finally dies and we get some creepy stuff.

"Hopefully it was just a slow starter and it will get better" I thought.

Well, if Devil is an accurate representation of the devil himself, then the devil doesn't work as quickly or as destructive as you might think. To "heighten the suspense" or to "add creepy atmosphere" the camera lingers on the aftermath of the murders of characters and the awkward facial expressions from the reamining characters for an unnecessary amount of time. I guess what I'm trying to get at is that Devil is a BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORING film.

The only thing worse than the pacing is it's writing. At the start an unnecessary voice over informs us that Satan occasionally likes to dress up as a human; gather together a few sinners in a confined space; and torture and torment them all. The premise seems interesting and definitely Twilight Zone-esque, but the supernatural elements, religious overkill and message about sin and redemption makes it all seem a bit silly. People get stuck in an elevator and almost instantly a churchgoing security guard determines itâ(TM)s the devil.

Yup.

Itâ(TM)s pretty ridiculous and his âsomebody killed himself this morning then the toast fell jelly-side-down therefore itâ(TM)s the devilâ? theory is flat-out laughable. As the story moves forward it goes from interesting to kinda stupid and it never finds its way back. The last act and the attempt at a twist is one of the most predictable and dissapointing things you will see all year. It's absurd.

The first thing that came out of my mouth (I have too much class to point out the sick that's what she said gag) after the film ended was, "Bojana Novickova is pretty". The second thing I said was, "Devil is the worst movie of the year". You see, movies like Killers or Marmaduke or The Last Airbender were all awful, but I wasn't expecting anything out of them. Devil was a movie that actually had some potential. From the director of Quarantine and the writer of Hard Candy and 30 Days of Night, I expected more. It was a laughable, cringe-worthy, and excrutiatingly boring film that offers no thrills or scares.