Devil is the first film in M. Night Shyamalan’s Night Chronicles series about the supernatural interacting with humans.  The premise is simple: a diverse group of 5 strangers enter a high rise elevator and proceed to get stuck.  When strange things start happening a detective that had been investigating a suicide in the same building starts looking for rational answers.  Eventually it’s realized that someone in the elevator is the Devil.  The movie is directed by John Erick Dowdle (Quarantine, The Poughkeepsie Tapes) and written by Brian Nelson (Hard Candy).

I’ve never been a big fan of Shyamalan’s work so I wasn’t expecting much out of Devil. But I’m a sucker for these type of character films that are essentially really simple.  Some of the stuff in this was really obvious and unnecessary, like the huge plot point that the main detective’s (Chris Messina) family had been killed by a hit and run driver years ago.  It was talked about so much that you knew it was going to come back around.  And this isn’t going to be anything that really terrifies you.  It’s just not that type of movie.  Ultimately this is more of a mystery.  Who are these 5 people? Which one is the devil? What are their motivations?

I have to say though that this really held my attention well.  It’s not a great movie, it’s not even really “good” but it’s certainly not bad.  It’s one of those movies that’s entertaining but when you go back to think about it you’ll realize it wasn’t that great.  And on the promise of being entertaining it does deliver.  There’s a sorta “twist” like the rest of Shyamalan’s stuff but it’s pretty predictable.

I’d say if this is on HBO or something like that then definitely check it out.  It’ll get you through a couple of boring hours.