Devil - Fahrstuhl zur Hölle

Managed to intrigue you & create an atmosphere. A little harsh in some scenes!

I enjoyed the cinematography. Especially the opening scenes and the scenes inside the elevator shaft. The music was typical string instruments going back and forth... could have been more eerie and composed with more feeling.

I was pretty shocked to be sitting in an empty theater on opening night. Guess MNS has sort of blown his reputation.

I didn't try to guess the ending, I decided to just enjoy the ride. It did end rather abruptly, as if it was a TV show that had to end by a certain time. They could have fleshed out certain scenes longer and made a more comprehensive experience.

I went to see this alone as nobody I knew was interested... I'm glad I went, it was enjoyable, more so than I expected it to be.

The concept was intriguing, so I was very eager to watch Devil. And I did like it on the whole. I was dubious though seeing as M Night Shyamalan was producing and writing, now I loved The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable and Signs and The Village had some good things too, but after that his films had ranged from strange to dire.

I think it was a good thing that Shyamalan produced and wrote this movie rather than directed, that way we could see more of the promising story-telling that he proved he was capable of with The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, and less of the trying to do too much notion that spoilt The Village for example.

Devil is not a perfect movie, it is too short, the ending was rushed and abrupt and the character of Ramirez was rather annoying with the unintentionally funny bit with the pizza slice really jarring with the atmosphere. However it is smartly directed by John Erick Dowdle, the atmosphere is spooky and tense and the cinematography and sound effects are really effective.

The music score is does enhance the mood mostly, but there are times when it does get rather obvious. The dialogue is apart from a couple of cheesy and out of place moments with Ramirez taut and the story complete with a great idea is well paced and works very well generally. The characters are not the most memorable but they are more than the stereotypes that we found in The Happening and Lady in the Water, and the acting while not award-worthy is good with Chris Messina and Bojana Novakovic particularly noteworthy.

All in all, a decent film that falls slightly short of what it could've been, but it could've been much worse than it turned out. 6.5/10 Bethany Cox

I didn't have that much expectations for this movie. Just watched it as it was horror drama and runtime was also short. To my surprise, the movie was good. It had elements of horror and surprise and keeps you gripped till the end. You want to know how will movie end. Overall, it was a good watch.

After several weaker movies, Shyamalan begin to work on a new trilogy about the presence of supernatural evil in big cities. He concentrated on the script and preferred to let other people direct the movie and so you might expect that this first part of Shyamalan's renaissance must be a well elaborated and twisted masterpiece. Well, this is absolutely not the case, there are no major twists or surprises in the story. But that doesn't mean that this movie is without the glimpse of a doubt a very well done psycho thriller.

Let me mention the negative points first. The movie isn't really long. There are only two minor twists and the first one is not that much surprising while the second one is an interesting turning point of the story but also a little bit predictable towards the end of the movie. The story is not really innovating and this time, Shyamalan really delivers what he announces in the previews. Because of the short running time, not every character is extremely well developed and profound. The critical and philosophic influence that many movies of Shyamalan had is not very present in this movie.

But there are more positive points about this movie. There is a high tension present throughout the whole length of the movie and this is what makes the watching experience breathless and intense, you don't see time pass at all. The movie spares out the unnecessary and goes straight in your face which isn't that usual for Shyamalan's earlier works. That is something new, fresh and innovative coming from him and a little positive surprise for many but maybe also a little deception for some of his more purist fans. The interactions between the characters in the elevator are intense and very interesting. Every character has a very unique and special behaviour and something interesting to hide even if the characters could have been more developed if the movie had maybe twenty minutes more running time. The actions in the movie become more and more intense towards the finish and end up in a well done finale that leaves you with no open questions.

All in all, this is surely not the best of Shyamalan's movies but way better than the last stuff he has done before this movie. It is not a very surprising and philosophical movie, but rather a short and intense psycho thriller. It is a very good movie but far away from being the best movie of the year. It is worth watching it at the cinema or at home, but i wouldn't recommend buying this movie at the full price without having seen it before.