Devil DVD Review

Devil is the first of The Night Chronicles, a trilogy of supernatural horror stories from Sixth Sense Producer and Writer M. Night. Shyamalan.

Devil packs an initial punch with a dramatic suicide. Then five seemingly random people get stuck in a lift on the 21st floor of an office block. But who’s behind it all? M. Night. Shyamalan’s stories are known for their religious themes and this is no exception.

The five strangers have no way out. To make matters worse whenever the lights go out someone gets hurt and no-one can see who’s doing it. There are dark forces at work and the lift soon becomes confessional box, courtroom and place of execution.

The job of saving them falls to Detective Bowden - ably played by Chris Messina - of the Philadephia Police Department who has his own demons to deal with. As he tries to unravel the facts religious Security Guard Ramirez (Jacob Vargas) assists by recounting as narrative his mother’s stories of the Devil. According to Ramirez this is ‘The Devil’s Meeting’, South American mythology that sees a chain of events set in motion that no-one can stop.   

As Bowden delves deeper we discover each person’s identity and their (dubious) links to each other. Everyone has a shady background that makes them perfect Devil fodder, except this doesn’t ring true either. Most of the characters ‘evil’ deeds are not exactly Genocide and is implausible that the Devil should go to so much trouble on their account. 

Unless the last horror film you saw was The Omen this is unlikely to send you screaming out of the house. It is too sanitised to be menacing. Five people trapped in a lift and the Devil playing Blind Man’s Buff should make for decent screaming ground. It fails to do so partly because the action switches so often between inside and outside the elevator that the main casualty is any sense of claustrophobia.    

The other problem is that it’s nigh on impossible to feel anything for characters. Not because of their past evil deeds but because they are painfully one-dimensional and some of the acting is wooden to say the least.

Despite the writer’s trademark twist at the end a terrifying shocker it is not. The Devil is certainly watchable but ultimately as bland as the elevator music that accompanies it.

The Extras

The deleted scenes are intros to three of the five characters which help flesh them out a little. Director John Erick Dowdle and M.Night.Shyamalan give some background on the psychology in The Story and The Devil’s Meeting mythology is explained in more detail.

There is a useful scene bookmarking function while a D-Box motion code function is available for those with a D-Box motion controller.