The Devil Really Isn't That Bad

I don't think I'm the only one who has come to believe that M. Night Shyamalan is ridiculous over the last several years.  His last few movies were so bad I either laughed through them or walked out of them.  I'm not sure which is worse.  No matter how bad his last movie was, however, I always plunge in and see the next one.   I've seen every movie this man has made in the theaters.   You may wonder why I would do this to myself and I think it is because I'm the type of person that can hold onto a lot of hope.  I hold onto that hope long after the hope should be gone.  I even went to see all of Lucas's painful  first, second (you know what I mean) Star Wars trilogy.  I was hopeful one of them would be watchable.  Lucas, of course, let me down.

Shyamalan, however, did not.  Although The Devil has gotten very mixed reviews,  I believe it was Shyamalan's best film in years.The plot was engaging.  I cared about the characters.  The mystery thickened with each death and the suspense tightened with every step closer the devil took to the main characters.   The plot of this film is simple.   Periodically, the devil gathers a group of the damned and kills them in a public venue so people know he's still there and he still has power.   In this film,  the damned are gathered in an elevator to await their death.   Of course,  the police and the people in the elevator don't know why things are happening until it is much too late to stop the inevitable.

I'm not saying this movie was as good as The Sixth Sense, but it was certainly a turn in the right direction for a director who has promise, but has made a few mistakes.

"DEVIL is actually superior to any of Shyamalan's recent directorial outings even as it recycles themes and ideas from his earlier works."

Steve Biodrowski  of Cinefantastique