Devil (2010– 80 mins) C. Messina, L. Marshall-Green, J. O’Hara, G. Arend  

Devil was written by M.Night Shyamalan… yeah I heard you snicker. Relax it’s not goofy or effects laden. What it is, is a short-ish film-ette more along the lines of a short story/fable. The best way to explain the movie itself is to use a quote from early in the movie by one of the security guards.

When I was a child, my mother would tell me a story about how the Devil roams the Earth. Sometimes, she said, he would take human form so he could punish the damned Earth before claiming their souls. The ones he chose would be gathered together and tortured as he hid amongst them, pretending to be one of them. I always believed my mother was telling me an old wives’ tale.

So the film is basically people on an elevator and one of them is the devil. The tension and mystery leading up to the reveal and trying to figure it all out makes it a pretty good little film. It doesn’t try and drag things out much and doesn’t try to cloud things up with too much details. Sure, some might argue that the lack of details might detract from it, but I don’t think so. If we get too much back story of the characters it will detract from the mystery and suspense. Instead we get information only when it is truly necessary. It has some minor horror elements to it but I would say it’s more of a thriller vibe then a true horror movie, so if you don’t like horror movies don’t get too turned off by the label. This could be what M. Night needs to stick to for a while, writing. He directs and the whole world is out for his ass to give him crap about every scene and every slight imperfection. He might not be my favorite director either but he has been getting a crappy wrap lately. This is a well written idea and executed well, so lets get Mr. Shaymalan to pump out some other decent stories and go from there.

Verdict—> If you have any liking for thriller/mystery/light horror type movies then this is a good one. I don’t claim to like “horror” movies and I thought this was good. It’s short so pick it up for a first half of a double feature. I think most people might be surprised that while it’s not Oscar worthy it’s a decent little film.

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