Devil: A wasted opportunity

Five strangers become trapped in an elevator. The situation becomes worse as each of them is murdered in a horrifying fashion and it’s up to a Detective to undercover the how’s and whys before everyone is killed.

Devil had an intriguing/promising premise that could have provided filmgoers with a thought-provoking thriller in that the devil was trapped in an elevator with four other people, looking to collect their souls. And while there were a few tense moments in which the close quarters and sound were effectively utilized to make the audience jump, they were never given a solid rationalization as to why the devil had to catch an elevator to nab those specific people. Somehow the suicide of a person at the beginning of the film triggered the events but aside from that, the audience just got a bunch of “it’s fate” dialogue and explanations and was left to fill in the blanks for themselves.

Add to that a cast of totally obnoxious characters, the banality of the “twist” in the story at the end of the film (a trademark of the film’s writer/producer M. Night Shyamalan's previous stories, and one he should consider giving up as it seems more contrived than creative anymore) and Devil came up short in delivering on its interesting idea.

Grade: D