Movie review: Devil

Starring: Chris Messina, Bojana Novakovic, Bokeem Woodbine, Jenny O’Hara, Geoffrey Arend, Logan Marshall-Green, and Jacob Vargas


Directed by: John Erick Dowdle

Screenplay by: Brian Nelson

Story by: M Night Shyamalan

The first release in M Night Shyamalan’s The Night Chronicles series, Devil is a supernatural thriller that follows the story of five strangers (Bojana Novakovic, Bokeem Woodbine, Jenny O’Hara, Geoffrey Arend, and Logan Marshall-Green) trapped in an elevator who discover that one of them is the devil; as they try to figure out who amongst them is responsible for the rising body count, a detective (Chris Messina) monitoring the situation tries to piece together what is really going on. The story isn’t complex – the general focus is on the elevator occupants as those on the outside try to help them, and the basic back-stories of the characters are touched upon as the film proceeds. The premise is a nod to Agatha Christie’s 1939 novel And Then There Were None, and the plotline is as simple as it is effective, although it succeeds more as a thriller than as a horror flick. The smart direction and decent script make the film both riveting and claustrophobic, and succeed in building suspense as the film heads towards the anticipated twist at the end (which you may or may not be impressed by). Don’t let the fact that it comes “from the mind of M. Night Shyamalan” put you off; it isn’t the dross that you’d expect based on the filmmaker’s recent work. That said, there isn’t anything exceptionally new or original about the film either, and it doesn’t exactly go out of its way to avoid clichés; still, because of both competent filmmaking and performances, and its brisk pace, the movie ultimately delivers. With a runtime of only 80 minutes, Devil is a short but sharp thriller that is likely to enthral fans of the genre, especially those with the requisite suspension of belief skills.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 13^th, 2011.