Although there are many things wrong with this movie it does in a way keeps itself interesting for the audience. "Devil" wants to be a product of fear and it succeeds at one point with it's suspense but towards the end it gets lazy, predictable and boring. The first thing you notice wrong is the story from the first 5 minutes of the movie. You got cops who don't apply the usual methods in those situations not to mention you got a body falling from 35th floor over a truck and nobody from that specific building notices. It's ridiculous and unrealistic but let's say that was "the devil's work". You would think the headache will stop and you could move on but you're meeting these characters which are developed in the most superficial way I have seen in a long time. These characters are also unlikeable, you actually despise anyone at one point so you don't even care about their outcome. Problems persist when you find yourself betting on who's next to die and you have like 200% chances of wining. The story it's not only silly but it's bad executed the only good parts being revealed at the end where you're kind of reminded of the ending of Saw, so the twist ain't impressive since you've already seen it executed in an almost perfect manor. Devil is a weak attempt at being horrifying and "claustrophobic" to the audience. In fact, if I think about it, it's a "claustrophobic movie" since it mixes bad dialogue, bad twist, bad situations, religion, elevators, bad cops, bad managers and staff, bad firemen and so on.
The acting is terrible in my humble order. Not one character I liked, not one character I've seen to be actually involved in this movie, no passion, no honesty, everything is cheesy and dull. It just makes me wanna become an actor and show these guys how things work. The only good stuff was at the end, but even then, the edited voice was the coolest part and the eyes of the devil but not the acting itself. On another hand, if you give it a thought, the devil acts only in the dark so most of the times you cannot even see what's happening. It's like: lights off, bumping and screaming and mourning, lights are on, dead body. Yeah, that's so terrifying I just literally sh*tted while laughing so hard.
The execution of the movie though was pretty much impressive and there you could see John Dowdle's work, probably backed up by Shyamalan's ideas . I liked the sound, the score, the editing of the movie but I found cinematography to be above average. It really showed at times like a low-budget horror flick, which it is, but you have so many others that still find a way to be visually stunning.
I don't know what to say about this movie, there are Shyamalan fans who will probably liked it, but as a personal favor I would tell you "don't bother with it". You got nothing to loose, there's no intelligent twists, there are no scary moments, the characters are complete douches and unlikeable, the premise is stupid but to balance things I would add that it has it's moments of suspense and it makes you wanting to know not "what the end is" but if the end is "the one you expect" to be. At least it keeps you interested to one point...
The acting is terrible in my humble order. Not one character I liked, not one character I've seen to be actually involved in this movie, no passion, no honesty, everything is cheesy and dull. It just makes me wanna become an actor and show these guys how things work. The only good stuff was at the end, but even then, the edited voice was the coolest part and the eyes of the devil but not the acting itself. On another hand, if you give it a thought, the devil acts only in the dark so most of the times you cannot even see what's happening. It's like: lights off, bumping and screaming and mourning, lights are on, dead body. Yeah, that's so terrifying I just literally sh*tted while laughing so hard.
The execution of the movie though was pretty much impressive and there you could see John Dowdle's work, probably backed up by Shyamalan's ideas . I liked the sound, the score, the editing of the movie but I found cinematography to be above average. It really showed at times like a low-budget horror flick, which it is, but you have so many others that still find a way to be visually stunning.
I don't know what to say about this movie, there are Shyamalan fans who will probably liked it, but as a personal favor I would tell you "don't bother with it". You got nothing to loose, there's no intelligent twists, there are no scary moments, the characters are complete douches and unlikeable, the premise is stupid but to balance things I would add that it has it's moments of suspense and it makes you wanting to know not "what the end is" but if the end is "the one you expect" to be. At least it keeps you interested to one point...