Devil: Movie Review

M. Night Shyamalan was one of our favorite screenwriter/directors. He built a brand name that only a few were able to do in the film industry and he did it at an effortless pace. People actually waited, lined-up and respected his films. He could have actually started a genre in which the "twist-at-the-end" is king. You might have noticed though that these are all in the past tense. As quick as M. Night built an empire, he destroyed it significantly faster. There are a lot of theories why this happened and we can all speculate endlessly. Is it forcing the twist too much or is it just over-promoting himself and his name? Is it likely his decision to go out of his game with "The Last Airbender"? The important thing though is that M. Night is finally back with what he is known for - his supernatural stories with a twist. "Devil" intrigues us more than any other film he has had since "The Sixth Sense", or maybe "Signs". Can M. Night pull off a lifesaver at the right time? Read on to find out what we think. 

A worker has committed suicide by jumping from a building. As police investigate on what has happened, five complete strangers step onto an elevator located in the same building. The five strangers are Vince (Geoffrey Arend), a mattress salesman who is a scam artist, Jane (Jenny O'Hara), an elderly woman who is actually a thief, Ben (Bokeem Woodbine), a temporary security guard with a violent past, Sarah (Bojana Novakovic), a gold-digging heiress and finally Tony (Logan Marshall-Green), who served in Afghanistan. All have dark pasts, all have been brought together to get stuck on the same elevator. As strange things begin to happen, it becomes obvious that the devil is one of the five. The question now is, who? "

Devil" represents what M. Night Shyamalan has missed as a screenplay writer for so long now. We're ecstatic that he is finally back up from the pit. First off, "Devil" has a simple story and setting and yet it was so effective in bringing the chills and thrills. The claustrophobic nature of the elevator further exaggerates this point, as well as the blinking elevator lights. Each time the light go off, something bad happens and the anticipation just builds up more and more. What made this a classic Shyamalan though is that the twist was not forced. Everything actually feels natural or believable and it all falls into place with little or no effort. The ending will surprise you and provide more (in our case, a moral lesson to boot). No film of his could probably surpass the brilliance of Sixth Sense but nonetheless, we love this movie. "Devil" is only the first film in a trilogy dubbed as "The Night Chronicles". Given how this film has performed, we cannot wait to see the other two films already. 

Rating: 5 reels

Why you should watch it: 

- it's a whodunit game with a supernatural twist 

- the story and the twist are as good as the first few Shyamalan films - totally fun and entertaining 

 Why you shouldn't watch it: 

- there's nothing we can think off right now