The 2010 horror movie was directed by John Erick Dowdle and written by Brian Nelson, while M. Night Shyamalan came up with the story. It’s the story of five strangers who get stuck in an elavator, and also maybe the devil.
PLOT:
Everything seems to be going wrong for the two story-tall NY skyscraper. First a man jumps off the building. Next, large window pieces start falling off the roof. While all this going on, our five strangers meet. They are:
Mechanic ( Logan Marshall-Green )
Young Woman ( Bojana Novakovic )
Old Woman ( Jenny O’Hara )
Guard ( Bokeem Woodbine )
& Salesman ( Geoffrey Arend )
At first, everything’s calm. A little on edge, but calm. After realizing that trying to escape would likely result in a painful death, they try communicating with the guards watching via security cameras. The guards can talk to them, but the strangers can’t talk back.
Suddenly, the lights flicker. The guard catching glowing face in the frame. Ramirez ( Jacob Vargas ) is confident it’s the devil, his theory is quickly dismissed. Young Woman feels something on her back, quickly assumibg it’s the salesman. The lights flicker again. Now Young Woman has a bite on her neck like she’s in a vampire flick and Salesman has blood on his hands. Salesman assumes she fell on him.
Before you know it the salesman is dead and nobody can find out who killed em’. During this period, a team is working on a way to “dig them” out of the elavator. The Guard and Old Woman are the next to bite the dust.
Now, with just Mechanic and Young Woman left, they each KNOW the other is the killer. Young Woman grabs a knife, Mechanic kills her first. Since M. Night Shymalan had his hands in this movie, there’s obviously going to be a major plot twist at the end. Turns out Young Woman wasn’t the killer. Nope, Old Woman in the devil. She confronts Mechanic, making him admit to having killed a woman and her child in a hit and run. The Devil dissapears and Mechanic goes to jail. The End.
CONCLUSSION:
Other than a weakish plot, the only thing that kind of bothers me were the charecters. Specifically how everyone was pretty cookie-cutter. Old Woman was playing a mean version of her King of Queen’s character, Guard was a generic, incompetent guard suspicous of EVERYTHING & Salesman felt like dollar store Ray Romano.
Overall, Devil was a decent horror flick. I wouldn’t necessarily watch it again, but I can’t trash it either. I’d give it a 6/10.
-The Screenwriter