Sunday, October 9, 2016

#9 - Devil (2010)

One of the nicest parts of October is seeing all my old favorite horror movies.  I am sure some ladies out there have favorite Teddy Bears that they recall from their youth, maybe some guys have favorite toys, GI Joe or Star Wars action figures; familiar sights, sounds and smells that bring back the memories.  For me, it's always been monster and horror movies.  It started with Godzilla and King Kong, and continued through Halloween (the 1978 movie), and other classic horror flicks.  I just caught Darkness Falls (2003) and Return of the Living Dead (1985) yesterday, two of my Halloween horror favorites.  Every so often, a good horror movie comes out, and I add it to my list.

Devil (2010) is another of my favorites, and possibly the best movie that M. Night Shyamalan has ever made.  It starts out pretty simply, with a suicide (a jumper from a high office building), and an investigating cop who is 90 days sober.  While investigating the suicide, another crime occurs in the same tall building, and the detective begins to realize that something more is going on.  One of the security officers in the building's control room seems to go off on a religious rant, and you start to think "Okay, this guy is off his god-damn rocker," until you realize, it's actually the guy narrating the story.  At that point, maybe every character in the movie, as well as the viewer, seem to come to the same conclusion.  Yep.  All hell has broken loose.

You knew it was coming.  Pretty sure that's what every horror movie (ever) has been about.  "Hell breaking loose" seems to be a pretty standard fear for us humans.  Next to clowns, those white-faced, red-nosed, sneaky bastards.  HOW THE FUCK DO THEY SNEAK AROUND WITH THOSE GIANT GODDAMNED SHOES ON?  IT'S IMPOSSIBLE!  FUCKING CREEPY!

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly:  No nudity (and thankfully, no clowns) in this movie, but it doesn't really matter, because the entire thing is centered around an elevator with 5 people in it, and all the action takes place almost in real time.  No A-list actors, but a few veterans.  Bokeem Woodbine plays a temporary security guard, and Matt Craven (Meatballs, Assault on Precinct 13) plays the head control-room guy.  I've got to say, I did not expect one of the two major twists, and yet the two twists tied so well together, it was awesome.  I love a story with no loose ends, and this movie fit together like a big, beautiful, scary jigsaw puzzle.

I know I have reviewed Devil before (I don't think during previous octobers, though), and it's definitely re-watchable.  I only review it this Horror-movie-review-a-thon because it's one of my favorites, and though it's available on netflix, it's leaving the Netflix line-up in about a week.  So, if you want to watch it before Netflix loses it, better hurry!

In other news, I think there was another presidential debate tonight?  I'm not sure.  I try not to pay attention to politics, but I heard there was some leaked video of Trump doing yet another naughty thing, and everyone seems to be diving off the Trump bandwagon like rats fleeing the Titanic.  I'm just amazed that he could be racist, insane, deceitful and corrupt, but the minute he says something bad about women, his career is over.  Just the last straw, I guess, but I don't really get it.  If the fact that he wanted to actually use nuclear weapons didn't make the trump supporters change their minds about him, I'm not sure how being misogynistic did.  But meh, whatever.

Til next time, and the next review, tomorrow night!

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