MOVIE OF THE WEEK #2: DEVIL
KEY CAST MEMBERS: Chris Messina, Logan Marshall-Green, Geoffrey Arend, Bojana Novakovic, Jenny O'Hara, Bokeem Woodbine, Matt Craven, Joshua Peace and Jacob Vargas
WRITER: M. Night Shyamalan (story), Brian Nelson (screenplay)
DIRECTOR: John Erick Dowdle
WEB SITE: http://www.thenightchronicles.com/devil
THE PLOT: The latest tale from the brain (but in this case, not directing skills of) M. Night Shyamlan, Devil brings together five strangers - Sarah (Bojana Novakovic), an older woman (Jenny O'Hara), building security guard temp Ben (Bokeem Woodbine), the quiet Tony (Logan Marshall-Green) and mattress salesman Vince (Geoffrey Arend) - in an office high rise in Philadelphia.
Meanwhile, Detective Bowden (Chris Messina) - a man who lost his family to a hit-and-run driver 5 years ago - gets called to investigate an apparent suicide nearby with his partner, Markowitz (Joshua Peace). But once he begins to investigate, he realizes the jumper may have come from the same office building. That's problematic because those five strangers mentioned earlier are now trapped in an elevator ... Which is becoming a powder keg of emotion (and potential violence) by the minute.
And while Bowden and Lustig (Matt Craven) think nothing of it at the time, Ramirez (Jacob Vargas) the other security guard (and deeply religious man) on site in the control room, starts to think something else might be at work. For he thinks this might be the work of a higher (or lower, if you will) power: The devil him - or her - self in the flesh ...
THE TAKE: Here's the long and short of it (short being one way to describe the movie's length) when it comes to Devil: It's not bad ... And compared to his other works, Devil might be the best thing Shyamalan has done since Unbreakable.
Devil works as a solid "B" movie thanks to Dowdle's ability to build up your suspense, Messina's commitment to his role as a cop in search of plausible, not supernatural, answers against Vargas' commitment to exactly the opposite and the strong, silent skill exhibited by Marshall-Green.
While fans of Saw and other torture porn films such as the upcoming remake of I Spit On Your Grave (really Hollywood?!) many may lament the lack of blood/gore, Devil is a throwback to Twilight Zone-style terror. Trying to figure out who - or what - is in control is half the fun (even when the film gets a bit hokey) ... Devil delivers on making sure it doesn't spoil that before it should.
PARTING SHOT: While it's not a heavenly horror film, Devil is a hell of a good time for those in search of about 80 minutes of 'Oooh, what will happen next?' entertainment.
RATING (OUT OF FOUR POSSIBLE BUCKETS OF POPCORN):
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