What are your thoughts on Devil? Think about the storyline, dialogue...technical aspects - camerawork, editing, music...then what about tone...etc...? General thoughts?
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTTT'SSSSSSSSSS TROLLING TIME!!! I kid. I'm gonna take this seriously. This is what I thought of Devil.
I first saw the trailer for this when watching The Expendables, and even then, tbh, I wasn't particularly interested in this film as generally I'm not a horror movie fan. From watching the trailer it felt like it was just gonna be another run-of-the-mill horror film that would just end in predicatable circumstances.
The intro to Devil was different, by using an upside down helicopter panning of Toronto (like used in the intro to Inception, watch it if you haven't already) The beginning of Devil started interesting enough, with the suicide scene at the beginning, the crime scene, the establishing of the characters but, that's where the interest dies for me. It's where the usual horror cliches kick in, such as the fate of the elevator repairman, the 'everything's gonna be ok' when you know it's not, a paranormal force used as an excuse for the murders, and, the most forced subject I felt of the movie, the over-use of religion as if it's stone-written fact (the devil's killing people because of their past deeds etc). Besides the 'twist' right at the end of the film, as well as the unfulfilled ending, everything else is cliched; the tight spaces, the screen going blank before reappearing with another corpse, the elevator man, the god-fearer...needless to say, in terms of film quality, it's gone downhill. He should have retired after 6th Sense. It's ok at best, but would never watch it again. 4/10. Oh, and this will grind your gears too. You know the guy who plays the conning salesman? Look who he's married too. The jammy bastard :O Christina Hendricks
Right, as ive never studied films before and yet to learn what to look for, I can only say that i found it an enjoyable film.
The Opening titles to me was a different way from others to open but im still trying to understand what the point of it was, (maybe by turning the world upside down, suggesting that we are closer to hell than we may think?). Also the opening scene of the detective seemed pointless chatting about his drinking. Lets face it the day he has to endure, the suicide then the murders and being helpless to prevent it would have had any sane person reaching for a drink & I feel it would have made for a better film to have shown him fighting his own inner demons as well as the one in the lift, for a guy that hurt he seemed pretty calm throughout the film. next it seems to hurry everybody into the lift then boom, boredom follows, woman gets bitten yet you would'nt believe it from her reaction, you would immeadiatly lash out and use all the profanities known to man. As for the camera work I cannot really comment to me the lift felt like the big brother house with the amount of different angles and i lost the claustraphobic feeling of being in a confined space.
as with the previous comment, I doubt id watch it again but i did find it enjoyable, I suppose the more I learn about film the less it will appeal to me though.
I also thought the film was just OK. As Brian already commented I also interpretted the upside down opening titles to be a Heaven/Hell connotation. Especially since so much of the film was surrounded in religious beliefs. I found it too predictable (maybe that was indeed just the "curse of the media student"). But what I found odd was that the narrator told the audience what was going to happen before it did I.e "The story always began with a suicide" *cue a shot of a man committing suicide. Considering it was supposed to have been a "whodunit" and a horror movie that aspect made it lose its tension and indeed did follow a lot of horror cliches (then again i suppose that can't be helped since genres follow certain iconic conventions that audiences identify with the genre). I also agree with Brian commenting on the claustrophobic lift conditions being lost very early on. Ironically if i remember correctly the Security guard stopped feeling claustrophobic quite quickly as pointed out by another character. You'd think that if anything it would get MORE claustrophobic as the film developed because of the people dying there's less room for them to move around.
As a media student and horror movie watcher i find that it's easy enough for me to figure out what will happen without the narrator telling me. So my interest, and for me the tension, was lost because it wouldn't let me figure anything out for myself like a normal "whodunit" would've.
Thanks you three. Your comments are great. I love what you have said about the film. I liked the opening credits...but it was too obvious at the end when everything was turned back the right way around. At times the camerawork in the lift with the CUs worked...what I didn't like though was the dialogue...I think that the whole film could have been a lot better with a different director. Nathan - I agree about retiring after 6th Sense- I can't believe the same director did both films! There was subtlety and intrigue with that film...Cerys you are right about following the horror conventions... Brian - some great observations...interesting about the detective character, yeah I wasn't convinved completely by him, again it was all too obvious. It could have been better with someone like Mills from Se7en. It had potential this film it really did, there was a promising start I agree but got a bit silly I think...
Right with fear of sounding dull, what does CUs mean? If you look at the photo of the film at the top of this blog, that is how i feel the lift scenes should have been shot, exactly from that angle to show the limited space the people have to endure. As for the detective not sure if the mills character would have been right as I dont feel that the character of Mills potrays a tortured man either, Mills is just a cocky young detective thats out to prove he can do the job. The detective in the film needed to be portrayed as somebody with the weight of the world on his shoulders, run down, haggered, more weathered from life rather than a fresh faced action star wannabe. I would rather a cop like Harvey Kietel in the original Bad Leiutenant, somebody that wants to help but is so messed up by his own personal demons, I wanted to see the detective in this film on edge and losing the plot a little, maybe hitting the bottle or snorting a line when he is unable to focus on the job in hand if that makes sense.
I like what you are saying Brian...I thought maybe more of a broken Mills character. I like your suggestions...the detective character could have done with much more developing. Cheers Cerys - re - CUs! Brian you'll get used to the terminology - we'll be using it every lesson :-)
Cheers John...I must say...I agree! :-) All relevent points...I didn't really care about the characters. They were definitely forgetable...same as the film!
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTTT'SSSSSSSSSS TROLLING TIME!!! I kid. I'm gonna take this seriously. This is what I thought of Devil.
ReplyDeleteI first saw the trailer for this when watching The Expendables, and even then, tbh, I wasn't particularly interested in this film as generally I'm not a horror movie fan. From watching the trailer it felt like it was just gonna be another run-of-the-mill horror film that would just end in predicatable circumstances.
The intro to Devil was different, by using an upside down helicopter panning of Toronto (like used in the intro to Inception, watch it if you haven't already)
The beginning of Devil started interesting enough, with the suicide scene at the beginning, the crime scene, the establishing of the characters but, that's where the interest dies for me. It's where the usual horror cliches kick in, such as the fate of the elevator repairman, the 'everything's gonna be ok' when you know it's not, a paranormal force used as an excuse for the murders, and, the most forced subject I felt of the movie, the over-use of religion as if it's stone-written fact (the devil's killing people because of their past deeds etc). Besides the 'twist' right at the end of the film, as well as the unfulfilled ending, everything else is cliched; the tight spaces, the screen going blank before reappearing with another corpse, the elevator man, the god-fearer...needless to say, in terms of film quality, it's gone downhill. He should have retired after 6th Sense. It's ok at best, but would never watch it again. 4/10. Oh, and this will grind your gears too. You know the guy who plays the conning salesman? Look who he's married too. The jammy bastard :O Christina Hendricks
Right, as ive never studied films before and yet to learn what to look for, I can only say that i found it an enjoyable film.
ReplyDeleteThe Opening titles to me was a different way from others to open but im still trying to understand what the point of it was, (maybe by turning the world upside down, suggesting that we are closer to hell than we may think?).
Also the opening scene of the detective seemed pointless chatting about his drinking.
Lets face it the day he has to endure, the suicide then the murders and being helpless to prevent it would have had any sane person reaching for a drink & I feel it would have made for a better film to have shown him fighting his own inner demons as well as the one in the lift, for a guy that hurt he seemed pretty calm throughout the film.
next it seems to hurry everybody into the lift then boom, boredom follows, woman gets bitten yet you would'nt believe it from her reaction, you would immeadiatly lash out and use all the profanities known to man.
As for the camera work I cannot really comment to me the lift felt like the big brother house with the amount of different angles and i lost the claustraphobic feeling of being in a confined space.
as with the previous comment, I doubt id watch it again but i did find it enjoyable, I suppose the more I learn about film the less it will appeal to me though.
I also thought the film was just OK.
ReplyDeleteAs Brian already commented I also interpretted the upside down opening titles to be a Heaven/Hell connotation. Especially since so much of the film was surrounded in religious beliefs.
I found it too predictable (maybe that was indeed just the "curse of the media student"). But what I found odd was that the narrator told the audience what was going to happen before it did I.e "The story always began with a suicide" *cue a shot of a man committing suicide.
Considering it was supposed to have been a "whodunit" and a horror movie that aspect made it lose its tension and indeed did follow a lot of horror cliches (then again i suppose that can't be helped since genres follow certain iconic conventions that audiences identify with the genre).
I also agree with Brian commenting on the claustrophobic lift conditions being lost very early on. Ironically if i remember correctly the Security guard stopped feeling claustrophobic quite quickly as pointed out by another character. You'd think that if anything it would get MORE claustrophobic as the film developed because of the people dying there's less room for them to move around.
As a media student and horror movie watcher i find that it's easy enough for me to figure out what will happen without the narrator telling me. So my interest, and for me the tension, was lost because it wouldn't let me figure anything out for myself like a normal "whodunit" would've.
Thanks you three. Your comments are great. I love what you have said about the film. I liked the opening credits...but it was too obvious at the end when everything was turned back the right way around. At times the camerawork in the lift with the CUs worked...what I didn't like though was the dialogue...I think that the whole film could have been a lot better with a different director. Nathan - I agree about retiring after 6th Sense- I can't believe the same director did both films! There was subtlety and intrigue with that film...Cerys you are right about following the horror conventions...
ReplyDeleteBrian - some great observations...interesting about the detective character, yeah I wasn't convinved completely by him, again it was all too obvious. It could have been better with someone like Mills from Se7en.
It had potential this film it really did, there was a promising start I agree but got a bit silly I think...
Right with fear of sounding dull, what does CUs mean?
ReplyDeleteIf you look at the photo of the film at the top of this blog, that is how i feel the lift scenes should have been shot, exactly from that angle to show the limited space the people have to endure.
As for the detective not sure if the mills character would have been right as I dont feel that the character of Mills potrays a tortured man either, Mills is just a cocky young detective thats out to prove he can do the job. The detective in the film needed to be portrayed as somebody with the weight of the world on his shoulders, run down, haggered, more weathered from life rather than a fresh faced action star wannabe.
I would rather a cop like Harvey Kietel in the original Bad Leiutenant, somebody that wants to help but is so messed up by his own personal demons, I wanted to see the detective in this film on edge and losing the plot a little, maybe hitting the bottle or snorting a line when he is unable to focus on the job in hand if that makes sense.
Brian - CUs is short hand for close ups :) and it doesn't make you sound dull, I wouldn't have known that either before i did film studies :)
ReplyDeleteI like what you are saying Brian...I thought maybe more of a broken Mills character. I like your suggestions...the detective character could have done with much more developing.
ReplyDeleteCheers Cerys - re - CUs! Brian you'll get used to the terminology - we'll be using it every lesson :-)
Thank you Cerys ;-) cheers Sian
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteCheers John...I must say...I agree! :-) All relevent points...I didn't really care about the characters. They were definitely forgetable...same as the film!
ReplyDelete