History Film / Devil

The story concerns a group of five people -- an ill-tempered salesman (Geoffrey Arend), a celebutante (Bojana Novakovic), a grumpy old woman (Creator/JennyOHara), a security guard (Creator/BokeemWoodbine), and a stressed-out ex-marine (Creator/LoganMarshallGreen) -- who, while stuck in an elevator, come face-to-face with demonic forces that want to torture and slaughter them one by one.

''Devil'' is a 2010 {{film}} {{inspired by}} the novel ''Literature/AndThenThereWereNone'' by Creator/AgathaChristie. It's the first part of ''The Night Chronicles'' trilogy, a series of films created and outlined (but neither written nor directed) by Creator/MNightShyamalan that deal with the supernatural in a modern-day urban setting. Advertisements for the film played up Shyamalan's involvement at first.

* BitchInSheepsClothing: The five strangers trapped in the elevator all committed serious crimes despite what their personalities seem otherwise.

* TooDumbToLive: One of the security guards sees a damaged and shorted wire in floodwater. He tries to move it with a piece of wood, but can't hang it up while standing on the dry part of the floor, so he steps into the wire to move the electrical wire to a metal nail. It goes about as well as you'd expect.

* FakingTheDead: [[spoiler: The old woman, actually the Devil, is the first to "die", presumably to further turn the passengers against each other. Once there's only one victim left, the old lady gets up sporting pitch black eyes...]]

** [[spoiler:Ben has a history of assault, [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown with his latest victim injured to the point of being in a coma.]]

* BitchInSheepsClothing: Sarah seems the most normal of the people trapped in the elevator, but she quickly begins to try to turn Ben against Tony early on and later deceives Tony into putting down their weapons (while she has a hidden one) so she can get an opening to kill him. She comes off as cowardly, manipulative, and self-serving with zero likable traits, and spends most of the film panicking and otherwise [[spoiler: playing right into the devil's hands.]]

* DisproportionateRetribution: Although some of them have done some pretty bad things, the Devil personally coming to collect their souls before they have a chance to redeem themselves while they're still alive does seem a bit harsh.

* InnocentBystander: The Devil will kill anyone who interferes with his plans.

** RedHerring: [[spoiler: The Old Woman being a purse thief would certainly seem like DisproportionateRetribution for the Devil to come to collect her personally. Then it's revealed she IS TheDevil.]]

* EldritchAbomination: Fittingly, the Devil is portrayed as such, being a malevolent monstrosity that can bend reality to its will, kill people in the blink of an eye and [[spoiler:take on seemingly innocent forms to lure its prey into a false sense of security]].

%% FakingTheDead: [[spoiler: The "old woman", presumably to further turn the passengers against each other.]]

* {{Forgiveness}}: A major theme of the movie, asking whether forgiveness both on an interpersonal and spiritual level is really possible.
** [[spoiler:Another possibility is that Tony was spared because he accepted responsibility for what he had done, and apologized for it.]]

* PoorlyDisguisedPilot: ''Devil'' was going to be the first of an anthology series of films. [[CreatorKiller It didn't survive this film.]]

* KillEmAll: According to Ramirez's grandmother, the story only ends when the Devil has killed everyone it came for. [[spoiler: Subverted when she is forced to spare Tony because he's genuinely remorseful for his crime.]]

* BlackEyesOfEvil: Devil again.