Hello Enthusiacs I am your Lord of Shadows and today we are traveling back to 2010 When M. Night Shyamalan brought us what was to be the first of three films in “The Night Chronicles” Three horror films based around myth and or legend. However the first and our feature today Devil bombed horribly and the other two films were canceled.

Oddly the movie keeps the night chronicle logo with the number 1. I guess they were holding out hope that the series would continue.

The sad thing is the movie has within it the makings of a down right Hitchcockian story. A large group of people trapped in an elevator with faulty power. When the lights go out someone dies because one of the people in this elevator is a killer. So the race is on to save the people before the killer gets them all. All the while no one knows which of the people within the elevator is in fact the killer.

This in and of itself would be an amazing story however the Shyamalan twist rears it’s ugly head and we find the true killer is in fact the Devil……..DON’T ACT SHOCKED! It’s hardly a spoiler or a twist for that matter if your villain is literally the Title of your movie.

But the twist is not the films problem. As per Shyamalan style the acting is so over the top and yet unemotional at the same time. It really does have to be seen to be believed. Every stereotype is here from the former alcoholic, to the rich boring woman, and even the Hispanic religious nut.

That last one is a doozy let me tell you as he is the over actor for the evening. Believing with really no evidence that one of the people in the elevator is the devil because his toast fell down jelly side down.

Yes you heard right. The only evidence these people ever get that the devil is among them is toast falling Jelly side down.

From here we go through a romp through cliche land as the cops and power men fight to open the elevator leaving the people in the hands of the toasty Hispanic.

Now never mind the fact that he is technically correct. If we are to take this movie at all seriously we need to believe the story. However nothing remotely believable come from this character and he nearly single handedly derails the film.

Any thrill or chill is destroyed by his over the top nearly cartoonish acting. Which wouldn’t be so bad except he is the primary character constantly the focus of the plot.

The devil is portrayed as a more incompetent version of Jigsaw. Taking a full day to collect a mere five souls. More than that the plot doesn’t even care enough to have a decent ending.

The movie just kinda ends. The devil reveals himself and thus no one goes to jail and that’s it.

If this was just a thriller about a killer in an elevator it would have worked but as it is it’s a sloppy horror film with a lame ass twist and no talent behind it.

Thank you all for your time and until next time I am your Lord of Shadows saying

Stay Scared.