1st Personal Film Review

Film title: Devil

Year of production: 2010

Director: John Erick Dawdle

Genre/Genres: Horror/Mystery/Thriller

A group of people who have done bad things in their lives and are all trapped in an elevator/lift. The twist is the devil is mysteriously among them and they have to find out which one it is before it is too late.

The opening scene/ the ending scene showing the city upside down and then up right again- the cinematography is connoting that the world is upside down when the devil is around. And another scene which impressed me was any of the blackout sequences as it’s about who dies next as well it gives you a clue in to who the devil is. The blackout scenes use restricted narration so we don’t see who the killer is however more impact than showing us has.

The film has helped me understand the genre of film making by helping me but using slowness and the use of restricted narration creates an eerie atmosphere which actually scares you, this is proven by the waiting until the black outs come or even when they are sitting quietly together- not saying a word. The film uses contrapuntal music with the use of the lift music as well as this the use of body horror which has a big impact of a horror film. The character description is used by adding character stereotypes which a simple horror film uses. Throughout the film quick shots and sequences used in montage are used to create tension and emotion (for the audience to be scared) 

I would love to add the amount of body horror as this is what I’m mainly interested in, or include the high quality effects, as they use a lot in Devil to create tension. The mystery aspect of the film is also what I would like to include as it keeps the audience guessing. This also gives a dark eeriness which I would love to use in my trailer.

The aspects I would avoid for my trailer would be the use of the supernatural aspect, as to me it makes the film less realistic and then less enjoyable. So things like murders are much scarier than the “Devil.” I think I would also avoid is the stereotypical characters in the film as it gets predictable over time and time again.

I think the best aspect of the film is the mystery part to it, I love the whole guessing who was going to die first which made it slightly more enjoyable. I would like to create this aspect as it keeps the audience interested- I can do this in my trailer by showing lots of murders randomly in quick shots and then at the end show the killer which could be a jump scare at the end- this will create tension and will include a lot of body horror.

Trailer for Devil (2010)