6.3 | / 10 |
Users | 3.7 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.3 |
Five strangers are trapped in an elevator high above Philadelphia, starting to realize that one of them is not what they seem.
Starring: Chris Messina, Logan Marshall-Green, Jenny O'Hara, Bojana Novakovic, Bokeem WoodbineHorror | 100% |
Thriller | 68% |
Supernatural | 34% |
Mystery | 23% |
Video codec: VC-1
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
French: DTS 5.1
Spanish: DTS 5.1
English SDH, French, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Digital copy (as download)
BD-Live
D-Box
Mobile features
Region free
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
The greatest trick the devil ever pulled? Apparently, staging a suicide, drawing five damned souls together into one place, playing a series of increasingly sinister mind games, killing off his annointed victims one by one, and making a public spectacle of his immense power; a successful tactic the Father of Lies has employed again and again throughout history. Or at least that's what we're told in the first few minutes of Devil, a silly but digestible B-movie plucked from the mind of filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan. No, Hollywood's once-beloved fallen angel didn't write or direct Devil -- those duties thankfully fell to Hard Candy screenwriter Brian Nelson and Quarantine director John Erick Dowdle -- but it hardly matters. His fingerprints are all over the crime scene. Quirky characters with dark secrets? Quasi-religious themes slathered in age-old genre conventions and wince-inducing dialogue? Transparent sleight of hand? High concept setup with a bargain-bin payoff? A looming twist ending with an over-inflated reveal? Hail, hail, the gang's all here. I will say Nelson and Dowdle do their best to flesh out Shyamalan's skeletal story, and in some ways they succeed. But the results aren't nearly as compelling, frightening or unsettling as they could be.
"You must consider that one of these people might be the Devil."
Unfortunately, Universal's 1080p/VC-1 transfer is a hit-or-miss affair. Though it isn't entirely clear whether Dowdle or the encode is to blame (I suspect the former), rampant crush plagues the proceedings, mashing shadows, suit coats, hair, guard uniforms and dim passageways into dark, amorphous blobs. Black levels range from oily to greasy (neither of which should be taken as a compliment), contrast spikes and lulls, and delineation is ungodly. More often than not, detail survives the onslaught -- the majority of closeups look quite good, object definition is noteworthy on the whole, and ringing isn't an issue -- but fine textures are occasionally washed away in the madness. While I'm fairly certain noise reduction hasn't been applied en masse (a fine veneer of grain suggests as much), the results are sometimes quite similar. Smearing sullies several key shots, bouts of softness crop up at inopportune times, and scenes in the elevator grow increasingly problematic as the devil closes in on his final victims. That being said, all is not lost. Tak Fujimoto's bleak palette remains strong from beginning to end, skintones are convincing throughout, overall detail is still commendable, and anomalies like artifacting, aberrant noise and significant banding are nowhere to be found. Moreover, scenes that take place on the street, in the building's lobby, in the security booth and on the upper floors of the skyscraper don't raise any red flags. Sadly, it isn't enough to save the transfer's soul. In the end, Devil delivers an at-times strong, at-times underwhelming presentation destined to leave more discerning videophiles in a huff.
Devil's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track is much more satisfying than its video transfer, even if a few obvious issues prevent it from completely rising above the fray. Dialogue is clean, clear and neatly prioritized (albeit to a fault at times), rear speaker activity is both engaging and enveloping, and dynamics effectively ratchet up the tension, often in spite of the film's shortcomings. Likewise, eerie pans and pinpoint directionality drag the listener -- kicking and screaming -- into the belly of the beast, and the LFE channel lends its full support to Fernando Velázquez's overpowering score and the elevator's most unnerving creaks and groans. Complaints? Regardless of its finer qualities, LFE output isn't as consistent or commanding as it could be, voices are a bit thin on occasion, and ambience is sometimes subdued in service of of conversations. Even so, Devil's lossless track will delight fans of the film, please any reasonable audiophile, and give more critical cinephiles at least one thing to enjoy.
The Blu-ray edition of Devil serves up ten minutes of anemic special features that bring very, very little to the table. Universal has included its usual suite of goodies -- BD-Live functionality, mobile device interactivity, D-BOX support, My Scenes bookmarking and a Digital Copy download code -- but it doesn't make up for the lack of commentaries, documentaries and behind-the-scenes material.
I've tried to resist using "the devil's in the details" ever since I started writing this review, but it's too perfect to avoid any longer. Devil's devil is in the details, be it the film's hollow story and contrived characters, Dowdle's direction and Nelson's script, or Universal's problematic video transfer and ten-minute supplemental package. Both Devil and its Blu-ray release could be so much more, but each one squanders its potential and comes up short. Hopefully, Shyamalan's next "Night Chronicles" production will pack more punch at the theater and at home.
2010
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