Five strangers trapped in an elevator, each harboring a dark and secret past.
In short: In the 2010 supernatural thriller Devil, a group of people becomes stranded in a skyscraper elevator. As they die one by one, the survivors realize the Devil may be hiding among them. Produced by M. Night Shyamalan, the film explores the chilling concept of a Devil's Meeting on Earth.
Directed by John Erick Dowdle and written by Brian Nelson, Devil serves as a modern urban horror story. The premise centers on five individuals—a security guard, a mechanic, a mattress salesman, a young woman, and an elderly woman—who find themselves confined in a malfunctioning elevator. As the lights flicker and mysterious deaths occur, the characters descend into paranoia, each suspecting the others of being the killer. The film draws inspiration from Agatha Christie’s 1939 novel, And Then There Were None, utilizing the classic trope of a group with guilty pasts trapped in an isolated location.
The narrative is framed by the folklore of a security guard named Ramirez, who recounts his mother’s stories about the Devil roaming the Earth to claim the souls of the unrepentant. Detective Bowden, investigating the scene, is haunted by a personal tragedy involving a hit-and-run accident that killed his family five years prior. As the elevator passengers are picked off, the film reveals that the Devil has manifested in the form of the elderly woman, Jane Kowski, to torment those with dark secrets. The tension culminates when the mechanic, Anthony Janekowski, confesses to the hit-and-run, leading to a surprising moment of forgiveness from the detective.
Released on September 17, 2010, the film was intended to be the inaugural entry in The Night Chronicles, a planned trilogy of supernatural horror films produced by Shyamalan. Despite a modest $10 million budget, it grossed $63.4 million worldwide. While critics offered mixed reviews, noting its brisk pace and low-budget thrills, the project remains a unique experiment in urban supernatural storytelling. Although the planned sequels were never produced, the creative process behind the film highlights the influence of classic mystery structures on contemporary horror cinema.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: Devil (2010 film)
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