Movie Review: Devil

Let me first start off by saying that I'm in no shape, way or form a fan of M. Night Shyamalan. He is arguably on a downward spiral with successively poor to abysmal movies ranging from The Lady in the Water, the big kick in the face The Happening, to 2010's biggest stinker, The Last Airbender.

By then, I took a pledge that it would be the last time I will pay to watch any movie he's involved in - which I obviously didn't follow. Ha!

Surprisingly though, I was not at all disappointed with the movie. In fact, I liked it. Not only was the film a compelling, riveting bit of movie making, but Shyamalan's involvement was limited to writing and co-producing only. Haha.

Suffice it to say, this tightly executed horror thriller actually left me speechless. I mean, from the opening credits to the astounding classic thriller scoring, I was instantly intrigued. Then, the film introduced it's story line and characters and I became completely engaged. And as the film moved into it's climax, I was on the edge of my seat with ample anticipation. It did end rather abruptly though, as if it was a TV show that had to end by a certain time. But that's just me nit-picking, I guess.

Technically, it was at par with its contemporaries. The direction was good, the acting was surprisingly believable and the cinematography was appreciable, especially the wide variety of camera angles and frames attempted to portray a simple elevator as some claustrophobic scary machine. The musical score, on the other hand, was the typical string instruments going back and forth, which was a good thing.

Of course, the movie was not without flaws but I was aware that for me to truly enjoy the film, I must succumb to the little hints of absurdity of its plot and some scenes that need to be inserted to move the film along.

That being said, what remains was probably one of the most nifty and cleverly written, acted, and directed films I've had the pleasure to enjoy this year.