My Movie Review: Devil

My Movie Review: Devil
2.5/5

Opening Statement: During a suicide investigation 5 strangers find themselves trapped in an elevator.  As we learn about their dark pasts, and the dark pasts of the people trying to save them. We start understanding biblically why they were brought there, as they die off one by one.


What's Good: Devil is entertaining to say the least, it also has a few good scares to it. I wouldn't go so far to call it terrifying. The negative chemistry between the characters in the elevator feels real, nothing out of the ordinary acting or screenwriting. It feels good enough to keep your attention. The "twist" at the end isn't predictable, but the resolution to the twist is. It ties very well in the end showing a very scary finally. It is said that aspects of it have been based of an Agatha Christie novel, I wouldn't know to much about that, except to say it was probably a good novel.


What's Bad: While the thrills are tight, and the film is entertaining. What it lacks is trust toward its audience. This movie is a biblical fable, with a moral ultimately at the end. That intrigues me, you don't see many modern fables like this. However they spoon feed you everything. You have a mexican christian chanting and explaining the story about the devil whole-heartedly and how he works and such. I feel if they would've kept the camera on the more interesting characters (in the elevator) and let is analyze its moral toward the end ourself, this film would've stayed on the mind much longer. They way it settled is "mindless" unfortunately. I will probably never think about this movie again, I might see it again, but thats it.


The Rant: Shymalan produced the film, and I like this guy. Signs is one of my favorite horror films of all time. I loved The Sixth Sense too. Here is my problem. How has public opinion of this man deteriorated so much? The Village was ok (2.5/5), I never saw The Lady in the Water. The Happening, which everyone hated i'd say was another solid 2.5 along with The Last Air Bender. What i'm basically saying here is there is a serious case of underrated with this man. No he's not a great director, but he's not THAT bad. I think all the negative hype is getting to the general audience. NOTE: I know this isn't Shymalan directed, just thought i'd point out that I will still see the mans movies.


Consensus: Devil is entertaining but it suffers from spoon feeding its not-so-complicated morality tale step by step to its audience.