La reunión del diablo

M. Night Shyamalan is one of those love him or hate him directors for whom there's no middle ground, so it hasn't helped that he's given his detractors a lot to crow about with his recent downward spiral with successively poor to abysmal movies ranging from The Lady in the Water to 2010's biggest stinker, The Last Airbender. It's been a critical pile-on for the one time golden boy who wowed audiences and critics alike with The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable.

Things have gotten so bad that when the trailer for Devil hit theatres with the on-screen tag line "From the Mind of M. Night Shyamalan", guffaws were reported from audiences and on-line gadflies like Perez Hilton had a field day posting viral videos mocking the promos.

All of which is too bad because not only is Devil a compelling, riveting bit of movie making, but Shyamalan's involvement was limited to writing the story and co-producing, which, given his recent track record, was probably for the best.

Smartly directed by John Erick Dowdle, whose last effort was Quarantine, the equally tight and faithful remake of the Spanish horror REC, Devil marks the first instalment in a trilogy of films dubbed The Night Chronicles, which revolve around the supernatural in modern urban settings (the second film is tentatively titled Reincarnate, about the jurors of a murder trial who are haunted by a supernatural being, and Unbreakable 2 rumoured as the third instalment).

In Devil's case, the plot could easily function as a textbook case of film school 101, tasking a writer and director to fashion a small story, restricted in scope, set in the cramped environment of a stalled elevator. You can almost hear film school professors saying "if you can pull this off, you can do anything". Happily, Dowdle succeeds with flying colours.

Devil is as compelling as the story is confined. It's smart from beginning to end, almost like the hybrid elevator equivalent of Hitchcock's Lifeboat and Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians. A disparate group boards a Philadelphia office tower elevator, only to become trapped between floors and mortally victimized by someone among them who clearly possesses supernatural ability every time the lights flicker and momentarily go out.

Don't look for spoilers here as I won't be providing any. Suffice to say that Devil is one of the most smartly written, acted, and directed films I've had the pleasure to enjoy this year.

Who knows, maybe this is the beginning of Shyamalan's road back to respectability. If nothing else, it shows that he still has the chops as a top notch story teller.

I know this was "from the mind of Manoj Night Shyamalan" and it was riding on a wave of pretty bad press, but strangely enough, I found the movie to be pretty good.

This movie delivered what it promised, a solid taut thriller which can keep one on the edge of the seat for the optimum 1 hour and 20 minutes of running time. The acting was surprisingly consistent and good throughout by all the actors involved (tough for a low budgeter to achieve), the screenplay didn't indulge in unnecessary Boo moments to propel things forward, the script was solid and everything tied up well at the end.

I mean cmon critics, for once please give Shyamalan a break! Far better return on my money than the steaming goo pile called the "Due Date".

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

First of all, the plot of the movie was very interesting and when I first watched the trailer of the movie, I really liked it. The storyline was very well written and most parts of the movie were well-explained. The characters were kinda interesting and well-developed, but not really likeable. The filming location of the movie was basically an elevator in a huge skyscraper, it was very claustrophobic. The killcount of the movie wasn't really bloody, but most kills were done in a really shocking way. The casting and the acting were both just fine. Also, it was a very intense movie and there were too many shocking scenes! The ending scene was definitely unexpected and the plot twist was really good. Moreover, there were many jumpscares and scary scenes during the movie and most of them were definitely unpredictable. Overall, it was a really good movie, full of plot twists and I would definitely recommend it to anyone.

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