A twist is only as good as its coil: Or to define it in layman's terms-a plot twist is only as good as the story's emotional and suspenseful build-up to that moment. This was a lesson writer/producer/director M. Night Shyamalan once knew only too well but that he seems to have forgotten in his recent films. Beginning with such masterpieces as The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, Shyamalan seemed to be the true master of the horror/suspense genre, knowing how to craft an intense story that would leave audiences guessing right up until the end. Then came Signs, a good film, but one that did not measure up to the intrigue of its two predecessors. And it all went downhill from there, with such preachy films as The Village, Lady in the Water and The Happening serving no purpose other than to pump up Shyamalan's ego. Where The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable were original tales with meaningful twists, these later films were attempts to recapture the earlier films' originality, desperately throwing in plot twist after plot twist to create an emotive recognition of "Ah, yes, this is an M. Night Shyamalan film. The plot twist proves it!" But these coils were terribly unwound. Naturally, when I first saw that Shyamalan's name was attached to the trailer of the new film Devil, I feared the worst. But after watching the film, I can gratefully say that it is a pleasant departure from Shyamlan's recent efforts. While not on the same level as The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, it's a tight, suspenseful little tale, clocking in at a mere 80 minutes, keeping the intensity high and the preaching to a minimum. I think Shyamalan's distance from the film also helps since he serves only as producer and storywriter. He leaves the task of writing the screenplay to Brian Nelson and the directing to John Erick Dowdle, both of whom are up to the challenge of bringing Shyamalan's story to life in a way I doubt he himself could have matched.

The plot of Devil is fairly straightforward. A suicide at the beginning of the film marks the arrival of the Devil, who, according to legend, will then disguise himself as a human being and trap himself in a closed arena with a small group of sinful humans, killing them all one by one. This is exactly what comes to pass; the victims five hapless riders who become trapped in an elevator. The unfortunate victims are a security guard, an old woman, a young woman, a salesman and a mechanic. These five characters each have a dark secret that is revealed over the course of the film. These secrets serve the dual purpose of revealing both the reason why the devil chose them in particular and giving out clues as to which one of them is actually the Devil in disguise. The other half of the story is told from the outside, primarily through the security guards who are watching the elevator monitors throughout the film and the detective who initially comes to the building investigating the suicide. The detective soon gets caught up in the whole elevator affair and shares a few secrets of his own.

Nelson does a great job of keeping the audience guessing the Devil's identity, with each revelation bringing a particular suspect closer to accusation and the next one pinning the suspicion on a different character, keeping the audience in doubt at all times. The actors give top-notch performances, and though they are all relative unknowns, this element serves to heighten the anonymity of each character. The five victims play off one another very well, demonstrating naturally building tensions in the claustrophobic atmosphere. Chris Messina (Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Julie & Julia) takes the semi-lead role as Detective Bowden, and he too does a good job playing a man who's lost his family and his reason for being a detective but who finds new motivation in delving into this supernatural elevator murder mystery. The primary device used to reveal the Devil's story is narration by one of the security guards, Ramirez, played by Jacob Vargas, who is familiar with religious lore and is the catalyst who brings the Devil's attention to everybody. At first he is the only one who believes that the Devil is among the trapped riders, but as the murders increase and the events grow more and more mysterious, the suspicions of every character outside the elevator begin to increase.

Dowdle does an impressive job as director keeping the mystery and suspense intact and his usage of claustrophobic camera angles adds to the disconcerting nature of the events. Most interesting is his opening of the film, which presents the Philadelphia cityscape upside down through a traveling camera lens, starting the movie right off the bat with the sense that something is decidedly off. Also cleverly done are the murder scenes in the elevator: Each murder is marked by the lights shutting off completely and sounds of struggling and screaming piercing the darkness. As the lights turn back on, we are shown a variety of angles of the now-dead victims, sometimes through the elevator's camera. Each victim killed in a uniquely grotesque fashion. Also of note is the film's score, which suits the mood perfectly, adding pounding drums and stirring string rhythms to the film's building intensity.

As clever a film as Devil is, it still has a few problems. Namely, the whole movie's premise needs to be taken with a grain of salt. It often teeters on the verge of B movie territory, with many moments coming off as cheesy, especially during the film's last 15 minutes. That being said, if the viewer suspends his or her disbelief, then enjoying the movie shouldn't be a problem. And for an M. Night Shyamalan-crafted story, I find it nearly miraculous that the film is this good. Devil is the first of three films in Shyamalan's The Night Chronicles series, and if the first one is any indication of quality, then the next two films are something to look forward to. I hope Shyamalan can take a leaf out of this movie's success and bring the same quality back into his next directorial venture. As far as twists are concerned, Devil has a few great ones near the end of the film, and they certainly remind me of Shyamalan's glory days. If a twist is only as good as its coil, then this coil was tightly wound and neatly sprung. Hopefully his next films will be just as well -coiled.