DEVIL

DIRECTOR: JOHN ERICK DOWDLE

STARS: CHRIS MESSINA, BOKEEM WOODBINE, BOJANA NOVAKOVIC

“FROM the mind of M. Night Shyamalan” boasts the poster, but although he came up with the plot, the wannabe Hitchcock left directing duties to Dowdle (Quarantine), with Brian Nelson (Hard Candy) penning the screenplay. And is Shyamalan’s name that much of a drawcard these days, anyway? After early successes with The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, there was a critical backlash against his reliance on big twist endings that sometimes undermined what had come before. Thankfully, Devil is a movie that plays fair—it establishes a set of rules, then sticks to them. Which is not to say there aren’t unforeseen bends along the way…

Say what you like about M. Night, he can come up with a catchy premise. In this case, five strangers are stuck between floors in a malfunctioning lift. The chaos caused by a suicide elsewhere in the Philadelphia high-rise, an electrical storm outside and the resident maintenance man going AWOL mean it’ll be a while before they can be freed. Then the blackouts start and, under cover of darkness, those in the elevator begin to die. The guards and cops watching via security camera can’t believe what’s happening and the theory is put forward that one of the surviving passengers may literally be the devil in disguise.

There are no big-name stars in the flick, though many will recognise Messina (Julie & Julia), Woodbine (TV’s Saving Grace) and Serbian-Aussie beauty Novakovic (Edge of Darkness), who play the investigating detective and two of the unfortunates trapped in the lift, respectively. While not entirely original—it borrows key elements from an Agatha Christie novel—Devil is a satisfying B-grade thriller that doesn’t outstay its welcome or leave you groaning at the end. It’s also reportedly the first part in a trilogy called The Night Chronicles, each of which will be a standalone tale based around a supernatural situation. Get in on the ground floor now.

Devil opens in cinemas on December 2.