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Devil (2010 film)

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Devil
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJohn Erick Dowdle
Screenplay byBrian Nelson
Story byM. Night Shyamalan
Produced by
Starring
Narrated byJacob Vargas
CinematographyTak Fujimoto
Edited byElliot Greenberg
Music byFernando Velázquez
Production
companies
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Release date
  • September 17, 2010 (2010-09-17)
Running time
80 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$10 million[1]
Box office$62.6 million[1]

Devil (also known as The Night Chronicles 1: Devil) is a 2010 American supernatural horror film directed by John Erick Dowdle. The screenplay by Brian Nelson was from a story by M. Night Shyamalan. The film stars Chris Messina, Logan Marshall-Green, Geoffrey Arend, Bojana Novakovic, Jenny O'Hara, and Bokeem Woodbine. Devil was released on September 17, 2010. Critics praised the film's atmosphere and performances, but criticized the short running-time and convoluted story.

Plot

A man jumps from the thirty-fifth floor of a skyscraper, and an elevator within the building gets stuck shortly thereafter. Within the elevator are the temporary security guard Ben Larson, the mechanic and former soldier Tony Janekowski, the mattress salesman Vince McCormick, the young woman Sarah Caraway, and an unidentified elderly woman. At certain intervals, the light within the elevator turns off for a few seconds at a time. When the light first reactivates, Sarah suddenly has a bite mark on her back, and the people within the elevator begin to suspect each other. When the light goes out a second time, Vince is killed when his jugular vein is slit with a shard of the elevator mirror. The security guards in the control room, observing the elevator from a camera, can communicate with the passengers, but cannot hear what they say. A repair technician sent to investigate the elevator dies when his relegation guard fails. One of the guards attempts to handle the fuse box in the basement and is electrocuted.

Meanwhile, a suicide note from the man who jumped from the building is found, in which he speaks of the Devil's approaching presence. On the elevator's third blackout, the elderly woman is found hanged on a power cable, and during the fourth outage, Ben's neck is broken. The only survivors, Tony and Sarah, suspect each other and arm themselves with shards of the mirror. Bowden, a detective in the control room who was assigned to investigate the suicide, attempts to defuse the situation with the story of his recovery from alcoholism, which was brought about by the death of his wife and son in a hit and run. The perpetrator left behind only a car wash coupon, on which "I'm so sorry" was written.

When the light goes out one last time, Sarah's throat is slit. As Tony attempts to stop the bleeding, the Devil manifests in the form of the elderly woman. The elevator suddenly plunges into the depths, but stops before the spring locks. Tony confesses over a radio that he fled from a fatal accident five years ago. Bowden realizes that Tony is responsible for the death of his wife and son. The Devil, powerless now that Tony has repented of his sin, vanishes. As the corpses of Sarah, Ben, and Vince are wheeled away, Bowden decides to take Tony into custody, and, while en route, says that Tony killed his family in that accident. Much to his own surprise, he forgives Tony.

Cast

Production

In October 2008 M. Night Shyamalan and Media Rights Capital announced that Devil would be made with the Dowdle brothers as directors and Brian Nelson as screenwriter.[2] Filming started on October 26, 2009 in Toronto with John Erick Dowdle as director and Drew Dowdle as an executive producer.[3] There was additional shooting for the film several months later in Los Angeles and Philadelphia.[4] Joe Cobden had to train for four months to prepare for his role. He said that preparing for his death scene, which took four days to shoot, was the hardest scene to shoot except for the introduction and closing.

Story sources

John Erick Dowdle and Drew Dowdle said that the movie is based on a Devil's Meeting, which is a premise that the Devil is on Earth to test evildoers by tormenting them.[5] Shyamalan acknowledged that the basic structure of the story was "an Agatha Christie nod."[6] In Christie's 1939 novel And Then There Were None, as in Devil, a group of people with guilty pasts are trapped in an isolated area and begin to die one by one.[6]

Release

The film was set to have a release date on February 11, 2011, but was bumped up to September 17, 2010. The film's trailer debuted online on July 13, 2010.

Critical reception

The film was not screened to critics in advance.[7] Devil has received mixed reviews. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports a mixed score of 52%, with an average rating of 5.1/10, with the site's consensus being "It's better than many of the other films M. Night Shyamalan has been associated with, but Devil never gets more than a few low-budget thrills out of its fiendishly promising premise."[8] Dennis Harvey of Variety gave Devil a lukewarm review, saying "Like the solid B-thrillers of yore that often outshone A-pics topping double bills, M. Night Shyamalan-produced Devil is nothing very special or original, but it gets the job done briskly and economically."[9]

Home media

The film Devil was released to DVD and Blu-ray Disc on December 21, 2010.[citation needed]

Possible sequels

Devil was intended to be the first of The Night Chronicles trilogy,[10] which involved the supernatural within modern urban society. In June 2010, Shyamalan announced the second film titled 12 Strangers, later changed to Reincarnate. The film was about a jury discussing a case dealing with the supernatural. Chris Sparling was set to write the script and Daniel Stamm would direct.[11] Shyamalan also confirmed that the story for the currently untitled third installment was going to be taken from the abandoned sequel to Unbreakable.[12] As of 2019, neither film has been produced, but his unused Unbreakable sequel idea later became the basis for Split.

References

  1. ^ a b c "Devil". The Numbers. Retrieved 27 December 2012.
  2. ^ "Dowdle Brothers Team For Shyamalan's 'Devil'". Bloody Disgusting. October 28, 2008.
  3. ^ "The Dowdle Brothers Gear Up for 'Devil', First Casting!". Bloody Disgusting. October 16, 2009.
  4. ^ "Addition Shooting for M. Night Shyamalan's 'Devil'". Bloody Disgusting. June 21, 2010.
  5. ^ "The Devil's Meeting - The Myth, The Devil, The Legend". Thedevilsmeeting.com. Archived from the original on 2010-11-30. Retrieved 2010-12-11.
  6. ^ a b Horowitz, Josh (September 1, 2010). "M. Night Shyamalan Explains Origins Of 'Devil'". MTV. New York City: Viacom. Retrieved April 16, 2019.
  7. ^ Ryan, Tim (September 17, 2010). "Devil Screening". Rotten Tomatoes. Los Angeles, California: Fandango Media. Retrieved December 11, 2010.
  8. ^ "Devil Movie Reviews, Pictures". Rotten Tomatoes. Los Angeles, California: Fandango Media. Retrieved November 20, 2018.
  9. ^ Harvey, Dennis (September 17, 2010). "Variety Review". Variety. Los Angeles, California: Penske Media Corporation. Retrieved December 11, 2010.
  10. ^ "M. Night's 'Devil' Moved Way UP to This September!". Bloody-disgusting.com. Retrieved 2010-12-11.
  11. ^ "Last Exorcism's Stamm on Board Shyamalan's Reincarnate". ShockTilYouDrop. September 15, 2010. Archived from the original on June 20, 2012. Retrieved September 15, 2010.
  12. ^ "Unbreakable 2 Story to be Used for Third Night Chronicles". ComingSoon.net. September 3, 2010.

External links

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