Devil (2010)

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Detective Bowden	Chris Messina
The Mechanic	Logan Marshall-Green
Older Woman	Jenny O'Hara	½
Younger Woman	Bojana Novakovic
The Guard	Bokeem Woodbine	½
The Salesman	Geoffrey Arend	½
Ramirez	Jacob Vargas
Lustig	Matt Craven

Review

M. Night Shyamalan and John Erick Dowdle comprise the team behind this clever and coherent chiller about the devil's presence and deeds in our modern, secular urban society. Bearing in mind these two filmmakers' latest output (The Last Airbender and Quarantine, respectively), the confidence and flair with which Devil is made is a pleasant surprise. There is especially one scene early on from a lobby which illustrate this, where we're introduced to the five principal characters in one elegant, continuous take. At this stage, there's not much reminiscent of the typical ominous horror setups, and that is a relief. In this film, we're spared the easy scare-tactics and futile visual effects, and instead treated to a gradual increase in tension as the rope tightens around the characters and we realize that we won't escape the diabolical thematics, which the filmmakers cleverly enough chose to announce early on in order to take the sting out of any potential predictability. Instead, we must concentrate on the hows and whys, both of which hold up until the very end and will ultimately send shivers down your spine. It's not groundbreaking, but it's well played out and highly effective.