'Devil'

'Devil' (PG-13) (1 1/2 stars)

Writer: Brian Nelson
Director: John Erick Dowdle
Starring: Chris Messina, Logan Marshall Green, Jenny O'Hara, Dojana Novakovic, Matt Craven, Bokeem Woodbine, Geoffrey Arend

"Devil" is a slow and ineffective thriller with not one scare or original thought. You know you are in trouble when you guess after a half hour what the surprise twist will be. "Devil" is produced by M Night Shyamalan and he can't even find and produce a good horror movie let alone write and direct one. "Devil" tells the very dull story of a group of people who get trapped in an elevator together. There is an old woman, a thug looking type, a beautiful woman, an arrogant salesman and one of the security guards. The performances are okay but these have to be some of the dullest characters I have ever seen in a movie. The pretty woman gets attacked as the lights go out and each time the lights go off again everyone starts to get picked off one by one. There is also a cop on the chase who had his family killed by a drunk driver and he is investigating a murder in the building. You know all these parts will come together and the movie is very predictable. There is the talk of a devil by another guard and the movie starts to be a mystery and weirdly enough it turns into a religious movie. Who is the devil among these people? I guessed who it was a half hour in and most will because it is spelled out pretty much. This movie is not very clever, the suspense is non existent and I really am annoyed when a movie pulls out the religious card. If this is supposed to be a morality tale and a religious fable then don't rip off the audience pretending to be a bloody, horror film. I am getting tired of Shyamalan finding projects with weak twists and I think his career is in trouble. Sit down for a year and reinvent yourself with a movie along the likes of a "Sixth Sense". I expected a movie called "Devil" to be scary, suspenseful and gruesome. I don't know, maybe I am expecting too much.