Devil

Synopsis: Five strangers get trapped in an elevator. One of them is the Devil, and he (or she) is killing the others off one by one…

Andrei Tarkovsky once said "The allotted function of art is not, as is often assumed, to put across ideas, to propagate thoughts, to serve as an example. The aim of art is to prepare a person for death, to plough and harrow his soul, rendering it capable of turning to good." That is, I guess, my way of introducing a noble purpose to this derivative but surprisingly fun piece of horror.

Five people who don’t have names (and to be honest it’s better that way), are the hapless victims of the Devil. He has assumed human form to torment his victims before carrying them down to Hell. Trapping them in an elevator doesn’t really seem like an immediately obvious way to do this but it does guarantee a captive audience to pick off in a variety of nasty ways. What’s interesting is that they all deserve it. Police outside are investigating, security guards and office maintenance men are trying to free them from the elevator, and what is discovered is that everyone inside is guilty of something. One is a con artist, one a blackmailer, another a thief, the other two are a thug and a murderer respectively. They’re being punished for their sins, though you could argue the punishment is a bit in excess of the crime.

The scares are delivered effectively, the music pumps through the film, giving urgent pacing (though it’s fairly derivative and only serves to reinforce the point that the worst thing to ever happen to the art of the movie score was Hans Zimmer) and the acting is adequate. Devil totally fails to achieve the lofty heights of my opening quote, but it’s clearly something it aspires to. And I’ll credit it a little for trying to be more than a cheap horror flick. It’s a decent popcorner, probably only worth a rental on DVD, but if you’re looking to kill an hour and a half you won’t feel too ripped off if you lay down your hard-earned for this.

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