You know that split-second stomach lurch when your elevator abruptly halts between floors? As the moments tick by with no signs of movement, even the calmest people will find their palms getting sweaty. Will you have to jab the emergency button? Yell for help? What if it’s futile? And if you’re crammed in with other people, then good luck —your anxiety levels are now tied to how frantic they get.
M. Night Shyamalan reworked this terror into a story meant to be the first part of his proposed Night Chronicles trilogy, a horror series based on his ideas but helmed by other directors. Fifteen years later, Devil remains the only instalment. 30 Days Of Night (2007) co-writer Brian Nelson fleshed out the story into a screenplay, while John Erick Dowdle was hired to direct, having impressed Shyamalan with his 2007 serial murderer mockumentary The Poughkeepsie Tapes. The result is a brisk 80-minute thriller in which five strangers are trapped inside a skyscraper elevator, paranoia mounts, suspicion turns to bloodshed, and they begin dying.
