Friday, December 10, 2010

Devil

Directed by:  John Erick Dowdle
Written by:  Brian Nelson
Starring:  Chris Messina, Logan Marshall-Green, Bojana Novakovic, Jenny O’Hara, Bokeem Woodbine, Geoffrey Arend


It’s been a long time since I’ve watched a new horror movie, hence the stretch to write a review for Devil.  Being a much dreaded PG-13 horror film, and based on a story by M. Night Shyamalan, my expectations were rock bottom. Luckily, it turned out to be pretty decent.  In fact, it might even be his best movie since Unbreakable, which isn’t saying much.  Nothing can be worse than The Happening (except maybe Twilight).  This is probably due to the fact he had little to do with this movie as possible, leaving the writing and directing to someone else.

The plot is based around an old folktale that begins with a suicide, and ends with the devil punishing a group of people until no one remains.  The movie starts with that suicide, a jumper from a large office building.  After that, the wheels are set into motion as all of our main characters become trapped in an elevator in that building.  On the case is Detective Bowden (Chris Messina), who is a recovering alcoholic after his family was killed in a hit and run accident.  Also behind the scenes are a couple of security guards, one of whom is the token folklore expert, giving out vital information sparingly.  He naturally proves his theory to the police by dropping toast and having it fall jelly side down (or is it jam?).  Anyways, this ‘devil’ will be disguised as a regular human and our job during the movie is to figure out who it is.  Is it Sergeant Crisp from The Rock (Bokeem Woodbine)?  Maybe… maybe not.

Everyone involved did a pretty good job here (although the detective kind of bothered me for some reason).  As the film chugs along, you change your suspicions to a new person every 10 minutes.  Once you are sure its one person, they die, so you start suspecting another, and then they die.  There aren’t any clues revealed to completely give it away, and everyone has their own reasons to not be trusted.  The best way to watch is to just enjoy the ride and not over-think things, since you’ll most likely be wrong. 

Production value was decent, and they made the most out of the low budget, which was more than earned back its opening weekend.  With an 80 minute runtime, this movie will not waste too much of your time.  If you skip the ‘clever’ upside down intro shots and the credits, that leaves you with about an hour and 10 minutes, an ideal length for a movie like this.  You’ll only have to wait an hour to find out who the devil is!

Overall, this movie turned out to be better than I thought, but not great.  It wasn't overdone and stupid like most Shamalama movies, so that was nice.  There also weren't any plot holes that I could think of, which is rare for most mainstream horror movies.  That combined with the short runtime made it a very efficient thriller.  Devil is what it is, and it’s a good popcorn flick.  So don’t be the ‘smart guy’ and continuously try to impress people by figuring out who the devil is from the beginning.  Just sit back and keep your theories in your head, since no one cares if you knew it was them all along… because you most likely didn’t. 


Total Score:  5/10
Buckets:  0/5

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