That pesky, elevator-riding ‘Devil’

One wouldn’t think if the Devil descended upon the world that his first stop would be an elevator in a Philadelphia skyscraper. There must be more nefarious bangs for his buck elsewhere?

But, alas, that is the gimmicky premise of Devil, a new and surprisingly decent film directed by John Erick Dowdle and based on a story by M. Night Shyamalan.

The premise: Five people get stuck in an elevator, and one of them is the “Feared One.” Eventually the lights go out in the elevator, and a person is violently killed. Only four suspects left, so who is the Devil?

The premise continues until there are only two people remaining in the elevator. Watching the demonic melee is a team of security guards and police officers who have access to video footage where they can see the innards of the elevator, but they can’t hear the victims inside.

The character names are all wonderfully basic: Jenny O’Hara of The King of Queens plays the Old Woman, Bojana Novakovic plays the Young Woman, Bokeem Woodbine plays the Guard (he was taking the elevator to deliver a package), Geoffrey Arend plays the Salesman and Logan Marshall-Green plays the Mechanic.

Devil, although it certainly can’t be considered a great film, isn’t half bad either. Dowdle’s direction and Brian Nelson’s screenplay are fitting and supply enough “jump” moments to make the 80 minutes fly by. In some ways, I was thinking that a movie with this premise shouldn’t be so good. But it is. It reminded me of Frozen, the 2010 gem from Adam Green. Both movies are about horrible consequences among a few people in a contained space.

The point where Devil trips up is pretty much with everything that isn’t happening in the elevator. Chris Messina’s portrayal of Detective Bowden, a man who is still mourning the car-accident deaths of his wife and child, feels too ancillary to the action. After all, we are talking about the Prince of Darkness here. Why must we focus on this man’s inner turmoil?

Also, Jacob Vargas is given the unenviable task of playing Ramirez, a security guard who tries to ground the entire movie in a pushed religiosity. Unfortunately, the character feels too much like a crutch as if he knows the screenplay and thus what will happen next.

Devil succeeds mostly because it should be a blunder. For 80 minutes, it does what good movies should do: keeps one riveted, keeps one scared, keeps one interested, even one’s tongue is permanently planted in the cheek. I’m already looking forward to Shyamalan’s next movie under his new production banner: The Night Chronicles.

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

• Devil
  

• 2010

• Directed by John Erick Dowdle
  

• Starring Chris Messina, Jenny O’Hara, Logan Marshall-Green, Bojana Novakovic, Bokeem Woodbine, Geoffrey Arend and Jacob Vargas
  

• Running time: 80 minutes

• Rated PG-13 for violence and disturbing images, thematic material and some language including sexual references

• Rating: