Film Review | Devil

Out of all the bad things that we imagine could happen to us during an average day, I would hazard to say that being stuck in a lift would be on top of that list. Not because there aren’t scarier things out there, but I don’t think we really give much thought to a suicide bomber showing up at our workplace, an epidemic spreading or a crazed homicidal maniac running amok with an AK-47. At least not in our genteel isle.

But trusting an enclosed metallic room to transport you safely from one floor to the next – often with fellow citizens in tow, cultivating an awkward silence – can be quite tense. And while the journey rarely elapses an entire minute, it often feels like forever.

In Devil, a stop-gap film for thwarted supernatural twist maestro M. Night Shyamalan, this idea is exploited for all its worth. Marking the debut of Shyamalan’s proposed ‘Night Chronicles’ (a loosely connected series of films about the urban supernatural) it is directed by newcomer John Erick Dowdle (Quarantine), who brings Brian Nelson (Hard Candy, 30 Days of Night)’s screenplay to life… itself spun off from Shyamalan’s initial story concept.

Despite the connection to Shyamalan – self styled Hollywood genius riding on the success of The Sixth Sense and not much else – there is an endearing quality to Devil, co-written and effectively ‘presented’ by Shyamalan himself but leaving the rest to budding filmmakers.

What looks to be just another day for five Philadelphia office workers takes a turn for the grisly when they find themselves trapped in the lift of an inner-city office building. As the ragtag group of characters fail to relax into each other’s company, their tension becomes far more palpable when one of them is injured following a blackout. As the group tries to zone in on a suspect, the police and the building’s security guards – led by a detective with a tortured past – can only watch as the chaos unfolds.

The fact that Shyamalan is not directing this is definitely a good thing – employing new blood to propel your ideas may be the best thing he’s done in a while, given the consistently shoddy output he has been churning out post Unbreakable (only his second!). Dowdle and Nelson do a competent enough job of crafting a taut little thriller that makes good use of its airtight premise (the debt to Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None has been acknowledged).

It’s made clear that there’s no real ‘twist’ here, and the framing device is contrived and sloppy. Shyamalan has always relied on the supernatural to wrap things up for him when it gets tough, and this only worked to its full effect in The Sixth Sense… otherwise, some of his best work (Unbreakable) used it most sparingly.

Instead, what’s best in his films is usually the moody set up, reared to implode… and it’s a lesson internalised with the utmost of earnestness by his protégés.

The one thing Devil truly has going for it is its simplicity. Never let it be said that this is an ambitious plot or setup… or that Dowdle aspires to the same narrative gymnastics of his master.

He has tautness down, and he’s got the gumption to create something terrifying… what he lacks, unfortunately, is narrative inventiveness… or, perhaps, he is too burdened by Shyamalan’s insistence on relying on the supernatural too much.

Because just like the simple terror of being trapped in an elevator, sometimes the devil doesn’t need to physically show up for your day to be ruined.