When addressing matters of faith and spirituality (extending to the belief that a very literal 'devil' can walk undetected among humanity), the best horror films are usually those that approach these notoriously divisive, eternal themes with a degree of subtlety, reverence, and grace. Think of William Friedkin's cinematic adaptation of "The Exorcist" -- for as much as that film was about the presence of an evil spirit running amok inside a little girl, it approached the internalized spiritual conflicts of its characters with a proper ambiguity that kept (and still keeps) the viewer thinking. The only ambiguity that pervades during the at-first gimmicky, at-last tedious, at-best passable "Devil" is the increasingly tiresome guessing game of which of 5 seemingly random, trapped elevator passengers will bite the dust next, and how? Commencing with a Biblical quote and threading the cringingly earnest voice-over narration of a cringingly earnest Latino security guard throughout the film's brief 80-minute run time does nothing to create an atmosphere of subtlety or ambiguity. Which is a shame, since M. Night Shyamalan's story idea is ripe with possibility: the notion that the devil is among the 5 passengers, all of whom have some hidden sin to confess, with the elevator serving as a figurative pressure-cooker to bring their guilt out into the open. I am quite fond of claustrophobic, limited-setting thrillers when done well, but "Devil" (despite some fantastic, flowing exterior shots), considering its title and subject, eventually starts repeating the same gimmicks (cue the blackout, followed by another dead body; rinse, repeat), all while trying in vain to create an atmosphere of tension that becomes increasingly futile as the film progresses. The characters are shallowly shaded clichés that exist to be easily disposed by the demands of the plot, and therefore never leave enough of an impression for us to actually care about their fates. Brian Nelson, who wrote the overrated "Hard Candy," covers no new ground in his blandly pedestrian script, leaving director John Erick Dowdle (who made the fantastic "Quarantine" in 2008) to organize PG-13 jump scares into a slick yet utterly disposable piece of Hollywood product.
Review of Devil
