Shyamalan thriller fails to deliver

Devil

(Cert 15, 77 mins, Thriller)

Security guard Ben (Bokeem Woodbine), mechanic Tony (Logan Marshall-Green), salesman Vince (Geoffrey Arend), his wife Sarah (Bojana Novakovic) and an older woman (Jenny O’Hara) all enter the same lift only for the car to become stuck between floors.

As tensions within the claustrophobic space explode, Detective Bowden (Chris Messina) works tirelessly to free the five strangers from their suspended prison in a Philadelphia office block, monitoring the situation closely via CCTV.

The cop clashes with devoutly Catholic security guard Ramirez (Jacob Vargas), while in the elevator car, as the thickening air of fear and paranoia compels the stricken passengers to turn on one another.

Based on a story by M Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense), which has been adapted for the screen by Brian Nelson, Devil is a supernatural thriller about a group of apparent strangers, who discover that one of their number is Satan.

The plot threatens to crash to terra firma well before the elevator ever moves, underpinned by religious mumbo jumbo about atonement and sin.

Director John Erick Dowdle, who previously made Quarantine, the English language remake of [REC], cranks up the tension within the cramped, static central location, allowing his camera to prowl the lift shaft where the nightmare unfolds.

Characterisation is weak so there is never any threat that viewers will be chewing their nails down to the cuticles. Since the story tumbles from the imagination of Shyamalan, there is the obligatory twist.

Rating: 2/5