Devil

Five strangers step aboard an elevator in a Philadelphia corporate high rise. They include a mechanic named Tony (Logan Marshall-Green), an old woman (Jenny O'Hara), a temp security guard named Ben (Bokeem Woodbine), a sleazy mattress salesman named Vince (Geoffrey Arend), and a beautiful young woman named Sarah (Bojana Novakovic). During the elevator ride, the power is cut. As the five passengers begin to wait for help, their personalities clash. These are five people who probably didn't want to be in an elevator together in the first place, and now that they're stuck, tension is building.

The lights in the elevator periodically go out for brief moments, and when they do, the group can sense something or someone moving amongst them. When the lights come back on, they find that one of them is severely injured, or even killed. As the passengers aboard begin to panic, one of the security guards watching the action on a monitor from a security camera (Jacob Vargas) notices something. Right before the lights go out, a demonic-looking face briefly appears superimposed over the image of the passengers. He fears that there is something evil hiding within one of the people stuck inside. A police detective who is also helplessly watching the action, as he tries to think of a way to save these people (Chris Messina), thinks there's a more rational answer. He's a cynic to begin with, having almost lost everything due to alcoholism and a tragic car accident that cost him his wife and son five years ago.

Devil takes all of these characters (both those trapped inside, and those watching), and tests their will and faith. It's certainly a workable premise, and I could see it being successful as part of an hour-long horror anthology TV show. But as a movie, even one that runs a very brief 80 minutes, it's repetitive. Once we figure out the pattern that the movie follows, we can predict what scene is going to come next. This obviously lessens the tension that the film itself is trying to build, and as a result, we lose interest and just wait for the reveal at the end as to who is causing all of this. Given the title, it's no surprise that the answer is indeed supernatural and demonic. The mystery lies in just who is evil entity tormenting these people. The filmmakers go to great lengths putting all of the passengers in a shady light, revealing dark secrets in their past. But, if you watch closely how one of the passengers reacts to everything, it's not too hard to narrow it down.

The film is actually the first in a series of horror films labeled "The Night Chronicles". They are films dreamed up by filmmaker M Night Shyamalan (he is credited as head producer and for the story), and then handed off to other teams to bring to the screen. For Devil, director John Erick Dowdle (Quarantine) and screenwriter Brian Nelson (30 Days of Night) have been assigned the task. They do an admirable job of setting up the situation and getting us involved, but the events that unfold are not as effective, and the characters thinly developed. I never got the sense of growing claustrophobia that the movie is obviously aiming for. And while I can certainly admire the film's use of darkness, allowing the audience to use their imagination in depicting its demonic villain, it backfires and becomes repetitive when we realize that a blank screen with some sound effects is pretty much the only scare the movie's got when it comes to scares.

Even if the movie never did quite grab my attention, I did find myself admiring how it was made. The movie opens with a surreal opening credit sequence, where we see the city of Philadelphia turned upside down. It grabs our attention, and creates an oddly ominous mood for things to come. The movie is also competently acted, with Logan Marshall-Green, as one of the trapped passengers, and Chris Messina as the detective delivering the standout performances. But none of this really matters if the material they're given delivers no real thrills, which it doesn't. Devil ends up being a bland little supernatural mystery that repeats itself far too often, and never really seems to go anywhere.

If Shyamalan wants to continue his Night Chronicles series, I suggest that he fleshes his ideas out a little more, giving the filmmakers more to work with. There's an interesting idea for a movie here, but it seems to be constantly holding itself back. The film promises us claustrophobic thrills, but all it gives us is some actors standing in an elevator, periodically cutting to black over and over.

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