Let's get this out of the way first: I do not believe that we have witnessed the end of M. Night Shyamalan. Everyone hates everything he does now, expecting everything to live up to the "I see dead people" craze, but I'll be the first to tell you that I didn't really care for The Sixth Sense as much as everybody else did when it was released. I found it to be somewhat boring and Haley Joel Osment got on my last nerve. I consider Signs to be Night's true masterpiece, and The Village was vile, putrid garbage that smelled up a room more than a stink-ridden Police Academy script. And....I liked The Happening, it was a great throwback to B-movies of the 50's and 60's with suspense that was drenched in everything that was campy. I took it as that, and as such, the movie worked for me. Nobody else saw it as anything other than the last nail in a directorial coffin. So basically by me saying the preceding statements, that could pretty much damn this review all to hell, but I guess in this case, that's a good thing.
But I firmly believe that Shyamalan is at least trying to keep the trend of psychological terror going, and although he never will compare to him, I think the beginning of "The Night Chronicles" could be something that keeps the spirit of the great Rod Serling alive. Serling was a master of combining the ironic with the terrifying, and also a writer/producer who knew when something was crap and when something was not. (Oh, how we could have used him in Season 6 of LOST).
That being said, I enjoyed the M. Night-penned story (but not directed) Devil, the first in the series of films. I was hesitant, due to early word-of-mouth, and Hollywood's obsession with Satan has become more overused than Charlie Sheen's room at the local rehabilitation clinic.
This was a good movie. It was simple, short, and got to the point....all the while building an interesting story that could've been found at CBS studios on Rod Serling's desk back in 1960: 5 people get stuck in an elevator and one of them may be the Prince Of Darkness. This recalls for me an old Twilight Zone episode entitled "The Howling Man", which uses a similar story.
What works in these situations is the buildup. The un-knowing. I'm a junkie for any horror movie, but my favorites always tend to be the ones that use unseen horror. A prime example being Roman Polanski's Repulsion, a movie I believe was an inspiration for Darren Aronofsky's critically acclaimed Black Swan. Repulsion is a movie that slowly builds, and you know that something is not quite right, and that lingering dread which is present in every single scene is crucial. When you're sitting there watching a film and feeling uneasy and you don't know what it is that makes you feel that way, that can be just as terrifying as watching Jigsaw throw Shawnee Smith into a pit full of used syringes. (Yeah, I watched SAW II. I think I was coming down with the flu that day so my mind was not clear.)
Devil is not perfect, it has it's share of flaws. Toast falling jelly-side down and security guards breaking into psychotic prayer add a bit of ridiculousness, plus a twist (Gasp! In a Shyamalan movie??) that if you are paying attention is blatantly obvious after the first 5 minutes. But the movie works and I would have really enjoyed it if there was a feature on the DVD to watch it in black-and-white so I could revel in the nostalgia of a story that was "submitted for my approval". Hey, they used it on The Mist DVD.
Two of my favorite Satan-inspired horror movies are The Omen and Rosemary's Baby; both of those films use psychological horror and the unseen to a masterful degree. However, I must admit that the Devil has never been more comically played in film than by Billy Crystal. If you don't know what I'm talking about, see this, which is a great movie that's strange for me to recommend seeing how I consider that director very overrated, but it was one of his better efforts. It puzzles me, since I don't know the nature of his game....
Devil, 2010
Grade: B
2 comments:
I notice you failed to mention Lady in the Water, one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Paul Giamatti is such a great actor. It's a shame he chooses such shitpiles to star in (I'm looking at you too, The Illusionist).
FUMoR recommends Sideways, a movie that received great reviews in 2004 and yet seems to have become a forgotten enigma. Giamatti does his best work in it and shows what a gifted actor he is, yet he failed to receive an Oscar nomination. As far as Lady In The Water goes, throughout its many flaws, the best thing about it was probably Giamatti.
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