Well Deserved Praise

Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

I tend to avoid anything even remotely associated with Shyamalame, and did the same to this after seeing his writing credit. I'm happy to say I took the plunge on this one.The premise is simple. A random group of people get stuck in a lift. The tag lines give away the supernatural element, as does the title of the film. I can understand why they did that, but it would have worked better being left unknown.It doesn't ruin it though. The mystery of who the devil is works well, and the daft plot is made to work by some great performances. This is a very watchable film with elements of horror and suspense, held together by solid characters.

I remember going to see this in the cinema when it was released in the UK. For me, at the time I wasn't really a big fan of horror/thriller movies as they just didn't have me on the edge of my seat and wondering what's going on. The story kept me on edge trying to guess which one was the devil with the story from the opening monologue about the suicide and then those becoming trapped.This playing in with the multiple deaths over the timing of the film had you guessing who it was going to be and then when you found out you were in shock as it wasn't who you thought. All of it tied together for all the characters too played a brilliant story out on the screen and M Night Shyamalan can be proud of the film he created.

Cinematography is very well done. The movie starts of pretty good and I got hooked instantly and enjoyed it until the climax. Even though most of the movie takes place inside an elevator it never gets stale, it keeps you guessing and you never will predict most of the time whats gonna happen next. Climax is where I felt this movie got bad. Other than that this movie is a worthy watch for thriller fans.

Going from George Lucas lines to bad acting, this movie's only real plus is the cinematography.Negative #1: When the only survivor's fiancé slips into the building, you're seriously telling me that NOBODY saw her? Someone had to have seen her slip into the hotel after knowing nobody can go in or out, other than policeman. Negative #2: It is obvious that they all have bad backgrounds, because it is a cheesy horror movie. Negative#3: Why does everyone have the sudden vision of everyone dead on the floor? Are they witnessing the future?Negative #4: How does telling the police that he killed people redeem his soul? Negative #5: Obviously the black guy is the thug. Negative #6: How did the skunk get in the basement? These and more. Do not watch this movie.