Devil (2010)

Tags

2010, Bojana Novakovic, Bokeem Woodbine, Chris Messina, Devil, Geoffrey Arend, Horror, Jenny O'Hara, M. Night Shyamalan, Movie, Suspense

Do you copy?  Hello?  Am I speaking to the devil…?  Over.

They say the devil is in the details, but…apparently the devil is actually in the elevator.

This M. Night Shyamalan written (and thankfully not directed), claustrophobic, light horror movie is actually fairly effective for the most part, though not really at being overly scary.  It’s more effective as a whodunit…or, whothedevil?

Thanks to some unnecessary narration, we know that the devil has decided to take human form and punish some people in an elevator.  What we don’t know is which of the five people on board the elevator is secretly the Prince of Lies.  Meanwhile, at a security desk, Detective Bowden (Chris Messina) is watching everything over a video camera and wondering what the heck is going on.

I’ve been debating with myself on this one as to whether or not it would be more effective if somehow the audience point of view never left the elevator.  Would it have felt more claustrophobic that way?  Long ago I did another trapped-in-an-elevator movie called Blackout that spent even more time inside the lift, and it didn’t effectively create much claustrophobia either, so…maybe I’m just not scared of getting stuck in an elevator.  Anyway, I actually like the bigger scope of the movie, as it includes several other characters being affected by what’s going on.  It felt more real to have police involved, a mechanic, security guards, etc.

Not a bad comeback effort from the guy that has been on a pretty big Hollywood losing streak.  Maybe writing and not directing is the winning formula for ol’ M. Night.  Believe it or not, I’m rooting for him to regain his former glory.  I liked his first few movies, even the Village, but everything since, not so much.

The Happening (2008)

Tags

Drama, M. Night Shyamalan, Mark Wahlberg, Movie, Suspense, The Happening, Zooey Deschanel

we'll just hide here until the movie's over...

R

Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel

Elliot: Plastic……I’m talking to a plastic plant……I’m still doing it.

Something unknown is causing people to kill themselves all over the northeastern United States.  Elliot (Wahlberg) and Alma (Deschanel) are on the run from whatever it is, along with a bunch of other people.

I knew going in that this movie has been blasted by critics and moviegoers.  I also happened to know all the secrets of the movie.  Basically it was like I had seen it before, so in a situation like that, my enjoyment of a film will rely mostly on the look of the film, the characters, and the actors’ performances.

In this case, it looks good, but the characters and actors ruined it for me.  I thought Wahlberg and Deschanel really didn’t know what to do with the characters and the dialogue.  In most of his movies, Shyamalan has had actors (like Bruce Willis and Mel Gibson) who can play serious and light comedy both equally well, but in this case it just doesn’t work.  Though, to be fair, the dialogue is also to blame.  It’s not nearly as clever or interesting as Shyamalan’s better movies, and neither is the central relationship between Elliot and Alma.  I never really bought it throughout, so the scene near the end that’s supposed to be touching didn’t really have much affect.

The first 10-15 minutes of the movie is a nice set-up with the disturbing suicides, but once the theorizing starts and the characters start running from THE WIND, it really loses steam.  There’s also way too many plot conveniences, like radios that are found at just the right time to turn them on and hear a critical piece of information, etc.

While I didn’t think this was as terrible as a lot of people are saying, it’s still a lackluster effort.  It’s almost like Shyamalan got this new idea and wanted to rush it out to theaters as fast as possible, with no time to write a good script.  Better characters, dialogue and performances would have elevated this up to a very watchable film.

10 – 2.4 for poor characters/acting – 2 for bad dialogue + .3 for the good opening = 5.9