To be honest, I had alot of reservations about seeing this M.Night Shyamalan-produced film. I'm not the biggest fan of his work, other than the obvious The Sixth Sense. Yet, this is a current horror movie, and I feel it's one of my duties at DBH to bring to you, The Reaplings, reviews of recent films as well as my Netflix views. So with that disclaimer out of the way...
Devil begins with a suicide and an investigation by a detective in the midst of alcoholic recovery. Meanwhile, five strangers, each with a criminal history, board an elevator in the building where the suicide occurred. Eventually, the elevator gets stuck, leading to odd occurrences with the five trapped inside. The detective begins to suspected the suicide and the incidents in the elevator are related and begins to do another investigation.
I don't know what to make of this movie. Certainly, the jump scares are fantastic(as evidenced when my girlfriend leapt about ten feet off the theatre) and the tension is real good. The problem as I see it lies within the detective and what we come to find out about him and the last survivor. Where is the conflict within the detective? The ending just didn't seem believable to me. The message was fine, but still, Shyamalan should have added that extra layer of depth. Overall, this movie is better than his more recent efforts, but not The Sixth Sense-caliber.
7/10
5 comments:
Succinct review Rhonny, but M. Night was def a one trick pony, and this film kinda looks like another attempt to flog a long dead horse...
sheesh. u mean he couldn't even get it right having other people write and direct? that's crazy. thanks for the info. i can save that money to go support other films now. that's the way to do it! :)
Eh, I fell like maybe everyone's being a little too hard on M Night....
Then again, I seem to be the only person in the world who actually liked The Village.
And jump scares? Blegh, my least favorite kind.
The main sticking point of this movie for me was the detective and the survivor at the end. You would think there would be an additional conflict inside the detective's psyche going on.
As far as jump scares go, I don't jump easily, but I measure their effectiveness based on what my girlfriend does since she's not really into horror like I am.
Shyamalan only provided the story. He didn't write the movie or direct it. If you wanted extra depth, that should have been up the director and writer. However, I stand by my defense that M. Night should have directed this movie. I found the problem to be with the Hispanic evangelist, since they hardly used him. The hate seems to be generated purely because of M. Nights name when it wasn't even HIS movie. It should have been.
Post a Comment