Devil



    
"Shyamalan has obviously never made a deal with the Devil."

    At this point in his career, M. Night Shyamalan is asking to be ridiculed, and audiences are more than happy to oblige. Shyamalan made apparent his capacity for cinematic genius his 1999 film The Sixth Sense, and moviegoers expect him to deliver. Though his following films have been no worse than 90 percent of the junk people pay to see, Shyamalan has been failing in his competition against himself; and with his latest film, Devil, it looks as if he's finally thrown in the towel.

    As with almost all of Shyamalan's films, Devil introduces the supernatural to the everyday in an unprecedented fashion. This formula worked in The Sixth Sense and, to a certain degree, in Unbreakable, Signs and, some would argue, The Happening. Devil, on the other hand, felt like an intended insult to expectant audiences. It was almost as if Shyamalan thought he could pose as some sort of prodigal son with his intense trailer for Devil, then take his fans' money just to scoff at their faithful, but unwarranted, devotion.

    The enticing, misleading trailer is the oldest trick in Shyamalan's book; but in Devil, he took this 'art' to a new low. Reminiscent of Shyamalan's The Village trailer, the Devil trailer promised a nonstop thrill ride and delivered 90 minutes of waiting in vain for something scary to happen. I am the girl who will take seven flights of steps to avoid the elevator. How, then, did the premise of being stuck inside a broken-down elevator with the Devil not cause me the least bit of discomfort? The few cheap thrills were so obviously staged that instead of getting chills when the Devil revealed its soulless eyes, I thought about how nice it might be to have some of those black contacts for my Halloween costume. In a movie about the force of Evil, I expect to feel my heart pounding in my chest. Thankfully, I had some vodka that I snuck into the theater to help remind me I was still alive.



    A couple days later, I look back with a sober mind and attempt to retrieve some redeeming quality from the abysmal film. Instead, I'm forced to come to grips with the fact that within the complete void of both plot and scenery, as nearly the entire film took place inside the elevator, was stock characterization and mediocre acting. For a point of reference, one of the five possibilities for Satan was the monkey-resembling college student from Super Troopers. You know--the one who ate the whole bag of weed when his friends' car was pulled over by the cops. Yep.

    If I am so disappointed by Devil, you might wonder at how I can justify giving it any stars at all. The breakdown is such: Devil gets one star for at least loosely incorporating the theme of guilt into a movie about Evil; and it gets a half star for not keeping me trapped in the dirty, wet, sticky Washington Cinema 7 for longer than 90 minutes. Guilt is the darkest feeling imaginable, and too often movie directors try to recreate Hell without it. If Shyamalan had focused more on this subplot of guilt, it may have even saved the film. It seems he may have meant to, but didn't know how, especially since the catch phrase he associated with Devil, "Bad Things Happen for a Reason," hinted in this direction.



    The most embarrassing part of this whole mistake is that I, and I'm betting many others, will most certainly return to the theater for Shyamalan's next tease. Typically, an artist only gets so many attempts to coherently express their vision before his/her benefactors pull the plug. Shyamalan somehow gets an unlimited pass from his curious fans, if only because of the weirdness of his premises and his recklessness with the critics and at the box office. Too often creative artists are paralyzed by a fear of failure. He presents exactly what he extracts from within, without being obsessed with obtaining blockbuster status or awards. A courageous failure is more enticing than a sellout any day.

    Devil is rated PG-13 for violence and disturbing images, thematic material and some language including sexual references.





*You must be logged in in order to leave a comment!

Username: Password: