Thoughts on ‘Devil’ Trailer

Scheduled for a September 17 release, “Devil” is M. Night Shyamalan’s newest thriller.

So, as the case with every one of his films, what’s the twist here?

After a near three-minute trailer, one’s guess is as good as anyone’s. Five people get in an elevator, super-natural junk of some magnitude occurs, people die and that seems to be it. The tag line “Bad Things Happen For A Reason,” makes you think that the plot of this movie will be tightly constructed, a film that you’ll have to watch more than once to get the complete gist of. That’s got to be a good sign, especially since Shyamalan’s recent stretch of films haven’t had the same staying power as the first few he put under his belt in the mid-90s.

Unlike his big successes however, the cast of this flick are relative unknowns, consisting of Chris Messina [“Julia and Julia,” “Monogomy”], Geoffrey Arend [“(500) Days of Summer”], Caroline Dhavernas [“The Cry of the Owl”], Jacob Vargas [“Jarhead”] and Joshua Peace [“Survival of the Dead”]. How they perform in this one could dictate not only their future success, but obviously the overall quality of the movie itself.

After a few stinkers the past few years, Shyamalan definitely needs a slam dunk here.

From the look of the trailer, all the suspense and thriller elements are there, but who knows what else is going on here. With a name like “Devil,” you’re expecting something pretty damn scary. In all honesty, five unknown actors trapped in an elevator of a skyscraper doesn’t seem all that scary, it seems a tad boorish.

Shyamalan has proven us wrong before though.

Overall, this film may find a niche in theaters this fall, as long as the trees don’t come alive again.

mm
About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*