It’s unquestionable that Devil was purposely marketing itself as an M. Night Shymalan film. And I cannot understand for the life of me why they would do that. Is it an ego thing since the production company is owned by Shymalan himself? Is the general public dumb enough to be shepherded into a film based on a pretty good film eleven years ago? Devil wasn’t directed by M. Night.  He didn’t even write it (that credit goes to Brian Nelson).  But  it is the first of a trilogy of films called The Night Chronicles, all based on Shymalan’s ideas.  The point of all this is moot. Shymalan didn’t direct it. He didn’t write it.  The movie still sucks.

Five random (or seemingly random) strangers get on an elevator in Philadelphia. The elevator gets stuck. Someone or something is killing the passengers one by one every time the lights in the elevator go out. Oh, there’s an atheist cop played by Chris Messina who’s observing the whole thing through security cameras, and he’s deftly paired with an overly religious Mexican security guard.

As this film is written by the master of attempted twist endings, it should be no surprise to anyone that the ending defy’s logic. Although like his last few films, it’s all mostly predictable. The characters are shallowly developed. Director John Erick Dowdle seems to relish the opportunity to feature claustrophobia more prominently than his cast (this is evidence by his previous film Quarantine, the rather bland remake of Spain’s [REC]). But ironically, cinematographer Tak Fujimoto uses his camera angles to make the inside of the elevator seem stifling, but certainly roomy enough for between one and five live passengers for a few hours. Any tension claustrophobia may have brought to the situation is quickly written off since we know next to nothing about the characters, so we don’t care when the racist old woman is hanged, or the cocky mattress salesmen is impaled by a shard of glass mirror.

Devil may not be as hacky as, perhaps, Lady in the Water.  But there’s nothing here new, exciting, or a suspenseful.  The physical limitations of the main characters chould have been a tremendous asset of the script.  And Nelson has proved he can do much with little like in Hard Candy.  But everything falls short and flat.  Devil will be a distant, and faded memory by the time you get to your car.

1 out of 4 stars

Quarantine is co-written and directed by John Erick Dowdle (The Dry Spell, The Poughkeepsie Tapes).  It follows a news correspondent and her camera man, as they shadow a team of young firefighters for a night.  They mess around at the fire station, waiting for a call, when it finally comes.  They’re called to an old apartment building full of weird tenants.  An older woman is foaming at the mouth, and exhibits extremely aggressive tendencies.  She attacks one of the police officers trying to help her, and he’s severely wounded.  When they try to leave the building to get help, it turns out that those outside have blocked all the entrances, putting them all under quarantine, but providing them with no information.  Stuck in a creaky, extremely poorly lit building, the disease spreads slowly at first, and then frighteningly quickly.  Luckily, one of the tenants stuck there is a veterinarian, who, after a few hours of caring for the sick, finally realizes that a frothy mouth and extreme aggression may mean rabies!  And fortunate for us, the film crew was there filming the whole injustice!

The gonzo style of filming is quite effective here, even if it was still used to conveniently turn off in order to avoid explaining certain things.  The entire perspective of the viewer comes from the cameraman’s camera.  It’s not like this is original.  George A. Romero’s Diary of the Dead, did the exact same thing earlier this year at Sundance and other festivals.  The Duplass brothers did it this year with Baghead as well (not to mention the scores of films that did it before them).  So while it’s not new subject matter, Dowdle did the genre proud with this effectively creepy film.  Lead actress Jennifer Carpenter (Dexter, The Exorcism of Emily Rose) steals the majority of her scenes, and was convincingly scared.  There’s no lack of gore, and in this case, it’s warranted.  In the last ten minutes, Dowdle takes the easy way out and follows orthodox horror conventions, which was pretty disappointing.  However, while the film leaves something to be desired, it’ll make you jump, and squirm in your seat if nothing else.

2 out of 4 stars

Rottentomatoes: 57% – Cream of the Crop: 38%

This is the red band trailer