At an office building in Philadelphia, five seemingly random strangers board an elevator. Much to their surprise, it breaks down in between floors, and they make a call to security to assist them out. Despite the fact that those on the monitors have no way of actually hearing them speak, they still spot the group and send repairmen to help. On the outside, a detective named Bowden is assigned to a case of suicide, which seems to have taken place at the same architecture. He is requested to head over and identify those who are trapped, but every time that the power flashes inside the device, something horrific occurs, with one guard believing that the culprit may not lie in these people, but something far more sinister.
It's inevitable that all good things must eventually come to an end. Beginning with 2006's Evil Bong, I had what one could mistake as a nice "streak" going for me. Every film that I was watching produced good feedback, with final thoughts ranging from decently entertaining to DAMN good. This is all the more shocking when you consider the incorrect opinion many have of there being very little worthwhile horror movies that came about during the latter half of the 2000s. As I entered another new decade, I was feeling optimistic. After all, the year 2010 gave us I Saw The Devil, Tucker And Dale Vs. Evil, Stake Land, and Trollhunter, so who wouldn't be a little stoked?
And then, M. Night Shyamalan reared his ugly head, taking my run of solid luck and wiping it on his posterior. Okay, if we have to get technical, the Sixth Sense and Unbreakable director can't claim a flick like Devil as his own, but his stink covers the entire project in a way that you just can't ignore so easily. Hell, even without his involvement as the initial conceiver of the story, the man would still have his name attached as a producer, as would one of his closest confidants by the name of Sam Mercer, who has stood by the much-maligned Shyamalan throughout most of his spiraling, perplexing career. But as one can see by the poster and a quick visit to IMDB, both of these gentlemen do have this to add to their resumes, and that is a truly sad thing to say.
Several portions of Devil, including the plot that unravels outside of the lift itself, feel awfully clunky and awkward. It doesn't help when Shyamalan and screenwriter Brian Nelson (Hard Candy, 30 Days Of Night) concoct some truly absurd and flat out dumb dialogue for our assorted leads to spout (be on the lookout for Jacob Vargas' sandwich line). Performances are a 50/50 split of actors trying far too hard to look interested or seeming as if they just woke up from an all night bender that consisted of nothing but alcohol and downers. Having still not seen the Academy Award-winning feature Argo, I don't want to be too hard on Chris Messina's performance as the main protagonist who is attempting to decipher what is exactly occurring inside this mechanical hoist, but my god, he gives off a vibe that screams that he would rather be spending time with his family rather than acting through a mediocre picture from John Erick Dowdle, whose other recent works include Owen Wilson vehicle No Escape and the wholly unnecessary Quarantine. Thankfully, there is a small light in Devil's rather dark-filled product: composer Fernando Velazquez manages to piece together a fairly stable score, adding in touches of real dread for what is to come in this claustrophobic area. One wishes that he had decided to fasten it to a better film though.
Devil could have been, should have been, and perhaps one day WILL be a supremely satisfying experience. In the hands of a more talented group of individuals, the cool-sounding concept would have provided for far more excitement and legitimate scares, rather than leave you rolling your eyes and growing somewhat disinterested in its revelations that you're very likely to correctly guess within the first act. Given that the gap in between remaking older motion pictures is much smaller than you would think, perhaps we shall see this handled better by the time that we as people have reached the middle of a new decade. Before that time period arrives, however, the purportedly planned followup may have been released to theaters, and if the rumors are true of Shyamalan's wishes for there to be a series of projects that can serve as his equivalent to John Carpenter's infamous and beloved "Apocalypse Trilogy," then the wait for a retelling could take longer than even I thought it would. If you're curious about the end results, and would like to agree or disagree with the paragraphs regarding my disappointments, Devil is readily available for purchase on DVD and Blu-Ray at most retail outlets and stores, and the option to watch it on Netflix Instant Streaming is still an option (at least as of this writing).
Tomorrow, Shyamalamadingdong is (hopefully) a one and done guest on Unseen Terror, and we'll take a trip back into zombie territory, albeit with a fiery Latino twist.
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