DVD Reviews

Devil – DVD Review

By Jeff Swindoll Dec 20, 2010, 16:37 GMT

Trapped in an elevator high above Philadelphia, five people discover that the Devil is among them – and no one can escape their fate. This chilling, supernatural thriller from M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, Signs) will keep you on the edge of your seat all the way to a heart-stopping ending with a truly wicked twist. ...more

Sometimes the Devil comes to Earth to claim some wicked souls personally. That’s what customer service is about dammit. The devil is in the details and this movie may have been a smidge better if the cards were played closer to the vest and not so obviously. I guess I’ll have the devil to pay for those remarks.

A suicide has occurred and Detective Bowden (Chris Messina) has traced the crime scene back to a Philadelphia high-rise building. Bowden is just getting his life back together since the death of his wife and son by a drunk driver five years ago. Something odd is happening in the building though.

An elevator is stuck between floors containing five strangers, a dour young man (Logan Marshall-Green), a fashionable young woman (Bojana Novakovic), an old woman (Jenny O’Hara), a smarmy salesman (Geoffrey Arend), and one of the building’s temp security guards (Bokeem Woodbine).

The elevator is being monitored by two security guards, Ramirez (Jacob Vargas) and Lustig (Matt Craven), but the camera has lost audio so they can only see the panicked elevator passengers. As the lights begin to flicker and go out, Ramirez begins to realize that the Prince of Darkness is afoot and here to claim the souls trapped in the elevator.

There’s an old folktale called the Devil’s Meeting in which Ole’ Scratch comes to Earth, hides amongst a group of sinners, torments them, and then escorts them to Hell.

M. Night Shyamalan trots out the first film in his produced/inspired “Night Chronicles” using that premise and a healthy dose of Agatha Christie, Twilight Zone, etc. The premise and film isn’t all bad but there are some laughable things done bringing it to the screen.

Firstly, there’s some way too telegraphed narration that tell us too much. It would’ve been more effective to let the mystery unfold in the narrative of the film instead of telling us the premise up front and immediately. Almost like they thought their audience wouldn’t get it.

Never think your audience fools, plus it kills most of the suspense you’re hoping to generate. The other thing that had me rolling my eyes was how Ramirez proves the devil is afoot.

So if my toast falls jelly side down then Lucifer is about. I think he was in my kitchen this morning… he left dirty dishes in the sink too! The film does use its cramped setting well and has some moments of tension and suspense with that.

Depending on your sensibilities though, some of the sillier aspects of the storytelling may negate whatever good things the film does potentially generate. The devil may well be in the details as the film was made cheaply ($10 million, that’s cheaply in Hollywood terms) and made 5 times its budget, so expect Night Chronicles 2 to show up sometime in the future.

Devil is presented in widescreen (2.40:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include 4 minutes of deleted scenes, the 2 minute “The Story” making of, the 2 minute “The Devil’s Meeting” about the legend, and the 2 minute “Night Chronicles” about the idea for this series of films.

To play Devil’s advocate, Devil is a good idea that’s half done. It has some good things going for it, but some unintentionally funny things make it drop a notch or two. When it does get it right it does well.