Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
A group of people are trapped in an elevator high above Philadelphia, and one of them is the devil.
Devil is a tight, efficient supernatural thriller with a genuinely clever high-concept premise — strangers trapped in an elevator with the devil among them. The plot is compact and reasonably well-executed for its modest ambitions, and the cast performs solidly within genre conventions. Cinematography is competent, making good use of the claustrophobic elevator setting with effective lighting and tension-building. It has enough novelty in its specific execution (the Shyamalan-produced religious horror angle, the detective framing device) to stand slightly above average, though it doesn't transcend its genre roots. The ending, however, deflates somewhat — the reveal and resolution feel rushed and rely on a somewhat convenient moral epiphany that undercuts the dread built throughout.