Devil (Review)

And then the blood flood comes pouring out… no?

Reading some of the quotes from US reviews gave justification for cautious optimism, there were a few glowing reports but at worst the consensus appeared to “the best thing M. Night Shamalamading-dong has done since The Sixth Sense”.

No probs being runner up to an all time classic like that – a shame now that I must report that Devil wouldn’t have made the qualifying heats, let alone the final.

We open by being informed that this is part of “The Night Chronicles”, indeed part 1 apparently. That’s like being kicked in the nuts and then being told that is the first in a series of such kicks, in other words hardly anything to look forward to.

The film starts with an annoying voiceover spouting supposedly serious and ominous information about an old folk tale and foretelling of events to come in the film.

Unfortunately this laughable device is used again and again throughout – I guess it was to build suspense but to me it only heightened the frustration of being $20 lighter in the pocket for all this!

Now Ding-Dong likes suicides in his films and they do look pretty cool and give an abrupt, sudden scare – the only one in this film – the cops lead by Detective Bodan are on the case.

They ascertain that the deceased must have jumper from a great height and sorta floated across the road to where he landed, so they take their case to the nearest high rise.

Meanwhile seemingly 5 random people enter an elevator in the building – a businessman, a businesswoman, a slightly more casually dressed man, a more senior woman and a security guard. The lift breaks down shortly after and they are stranded momentarily.

I’ll go without naming or providing any further descriptions for reasons that will soon be obvious.

Within minutes people lose patience, they get a little touchy and angsty, and the fact that periodically the electricity shorts out for a few seconds only gives them more reason to be jumpy and irritable.

The building security “team” and old guy and a younger Mexican (I think) man are on the case, informing the maintenance man to get moving on the lift and informing the trapped quintet that “it will all be over soon”. If only…

Now the security team has access to a camera in the lift and can monitor the goings on and the temperament of the trapped, the intercom unfortunately only works into the lift, so no message or information can get out.

Some “odd” visions appear on the camera, the lights continually spot in and out and someone gets a minor injury.

I’ll leave the descriptions of events there. After all the title alone says one thing, the byline on one poster brags “Five strangers trapped. One of them is not what they seem”.

Join the dots people!

The jumpy little Mexican security guard seems a few steps ahead of everyone else, he declares early that “You must consider that one of these people might be the Devil”. Bold words you might think, bizarre nonsensical words, but then our amigo backs his claim up by… dropping his toast and seeing it fall jelly-side down!

That proved it for me. Without a doubt the Devil is in that lift! After all toast don’t lie.

So we get another 40 odd minutes of people overreacting way too early, as if they saw the poster themselves and felt “Well the audience know it’s coming, might as well act quick”.

The lights continue to flicker and blackout in the lift for short periods, but the events that occur within become more serious and deadly – creating even more tension and panic. Don’t worry though kids: you never care about any of them enough to hope they live or die, in fact one in particular I prayed would endure a brutal and intensely painful death.

The rescue attempt outside muddles along and the Detectives find more dirt on each and every one of the trapped people – helping the audience still awake try to pick the “One”. The Mexican guard has time to unleash one more genius comment before the disappointing reveal and obligatory Ding-Dong twists that must be at least attempted before the credits roll a merciful 80 odd minutes in:

“Everyone believes in him a little bit. Even guys like you who pretend they don’t”

Well thanks Senor for speaking for us. One thing is for sure though, he is no longer speaking about Ding-Dong, this was his last chance with me, that is now dead and buried.

Each time he releases a film from here on I might drag out my Sixth Sense DVD and watch that instead of blowing good money on bad rubbish.

Final Rating – 5 / 10 . Surely after a dozen years and many deplorable films we might see sense and avoid anything “from the mind of” Ding-Dong? Don’t make the same mistake I did – the only thing that might make this film stink worse is if they farted in the lift.

About OGR

While I try to throw a joke or two into proceedings when I can all of the opinions presented in my reviews are genuine. I don't expect that all will agree with my thoughts at all times nor would it be any fun if you did, so don't be shy in telling me where you think I went wrong... and hopefully if you think I got it right for once. Don't be shy, half the fun is in the conversation after the movie.
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