From Zombos Closet

My Halloween: Creeping Bride

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Halloween 1971 Five questions asked over a glowing Jack o’Lantern, under an Autumn moon obscured by passing clouds…in between mouthfuls of candy corn…the Creeping Bride has just begun a SHOCK! and Son of SHOCK! viewing project this October, covering the 72 Universal and Columbia movies released to television in 1957 and 1958…

 

Why is Halloween important to you?

I love how subversive Halloween is. Halloween is a rupture in the day-to-day miseries of quotidian existence—it’s like Mardi Gras but with less drunken idiots in the street and fewer puddles of vomit everywhere.

First of all, people dress up in crazy outfits and stroll the streets and it’s never an issue (have you ever wondered what would happen to you if you tried to wear a werewolf mask in public on the Fourth of July or Memorial Day?). Secondly, you give away fun stuff to total strangers (cheap candy, mostly, but I also sometimes give out DVD-Rs that I’ve made of public domain horror and sci fi flicks). So you’ve got this complete undermining of normal, respectable decorum and the dull mechanics of capitalist exchange.

Halloween also undermines the edifices of Christianity that tower over daily life in the U.S. It is, after all, a vestigial reminder of the distant pre-Christian and pre-industrial agricultural past: a polytheistic pagan harvest ceremony and festival of the dead. In Europe, the Church tried in vain to eliminate festivals like Samhain among the Celtic people by creating All Saints and All Souls holidays, but the stubborn persistence of Halloween suggests that this effort to Christianize the pagans has failed. In fact, I would argue that the evangelical “hell houses”—those haunted attractions put on by fundamentalist Christian groups in late October that substitute drug addicts, porn-addicted chronic masturbators, Muslim terrorists, ob-gyn doctors who perform abortions, and gay men for ghosts, vampires, and other monsters—illustrate how harvest-time pagan festivals of the dead have had a profound influence on Christianity. If you can’t beat the pagan ideas that underlie Halloween, then join ‘em, I guess.

Finally, I like that Halloween is so geared towards children. Kids have a very loose grasp on what is real—they are not bound by the confines of language, instrumental rationality, or career-mindedness, so theirs is much more like a world of imagination and instinct and emotion. Celebrating Halloween is giving them a time when they have the run of the roost of the Real World, and this makes the day all the more subversive. I know a lot of people like New Year’s Eve and Fat Tuesday as holidays, where the world is turned upside down, but for me, there’s only ever Halloween. (At least until we figure out a way to get folks to celebrate Walpurgis Night, too…)

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Graphic Book Review: American Vampire Vol 1

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Pearl Zombos Says: Very Good

Here's what vampires shouldn't be: pallid detectives who drink Bloody Marys and only work at night; lovelorn southern gentlemen; anorexic teenage girls; boy-toys with big dewy eyes.

What should they be?

Killers, honey…(from the introduction by Stephen King)

There are bloodthirsty killers and blood-drained dead aplenty in the hardcover edition of American Vampire from Vertigo. It collects the first 5 issues of vibrantly colored panel-stretching art from Rafael Albuquerque and colorist Dave McCaig, detailing the two side by side stories that tell the death and times of the American-made vampire, Skinner Sweet. Cover art, sample script pages, and a foreward by King and afterword by Snyder are also included.

I was surprised to see how concise Scott Snyder and Stephen King's script pages are. Comprised mostly of dialog, they leave ample room for Alburquerque's interpretive embellishments with visual characterization to imbue emotional energy into each panel.  Snyder's story begins in 1925 Los Angeles where Pearl and Hattie, two yearning-for-stardom actors in Hollywood, become intimately acquainted with the blood-thirsty–thirstier than usual, anyway–movie moguls running the studio. Stephen King's story begins in the 1800s to tell how Sweet's taste for sweet candy turns to the sour-sweet taste for warm blood.

0031_001King's writing stands out for its cussing, brutal killings as Sweet takes revenge on lawman Jim Book, and for narrator Will Bunting, a newsman who was there at the time. Bunting wrote a dime novel about it called Bad Blood. We meet him when he's promoting the reprinting of his book at the Sagebrush Bookstore. Three people are in attendance–two are awake–as he recounts the truth behind his "fictional" tale.

Old World European vampires running the rails, tired of Sweet's train robberies, run afoul of Sweet's ill-temperament and newly- acquired abilities, which include walking in sunlight, long razor sharp claws with the strength to wield them,  and an expanding jaw with pointy fangs. Compared to the Euro-vamps, Sweet is a wolf to their sheep.

And he knows it.

Between the Wild West and the Roaring Twenties, Sweet does turn sweeter. Or so it seems. He helps Pearl deal with the Old World European vampires running the studio and then mosy's on his way. Hints to his main weakness and unfinished business he's hankering to tidy up are left with us to roll our own on until we meet up with him again along Snyder and King's revitalizing vampire series trail.

I've got dibs on Brad Pitt playing Sweet in the big screen version.

 A courtesy copy of American Vampire: Volume 1 was received for this review.

Haunt Attraction: Nightmare: Superstitions in New York City

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ScreenHunter_01 Oct. 04 13.34
Zombos Says: Excellent (and don’t go alone)

Now celebrating its seventh year, NIGHTMARE is a unique, fully immersive haunted house experience. Set in an insane asylum, NIGHTMARE: SUPERSTITIONS forces you to break a superstition in one room and suffer the terrible consequences in the next. AOL Cityguide’s No. 1 rated haunted attraction in New York City, it delves deep into the psychology of fear. Now featuring a second attraction, FUN HOUSE.

I’ll second the “fully immersive” aspect of Nightmare: Superstitions‘ haunted attraction in New York City, but what is it with haunt attraction’s fondness for huge, leather-aproned guys drenched in blood, holding meat cleavers and cuddling their kill in a meat-locker room filled with icky meaty things? Of course he singled me out–the short guy cowering in the corner–to kiss his pet rabbit carcass, the one drenched in icky red stuff saturating its fur. I tried blowing a love kiss, but no, that wasn’t good enough. I had to actually kiss the damned thing. Gross barely describes the experience, and immersive just doesn’t quite do it justice. Had I a bar of soap right then and there I’d be bubbling up a foamy cleanse to rinse that disgusting kiss from my lips. I thought getting in on a press ticket would have spared me the ignominy. Fat chance.

I can’t really spill the beans about the chills and potential bodily spills–yours–that you’ll encounter in Nightmare: Supersitions, but the actors, those poor lost souls doing their best to creep you big time throughout the various rooms of the Funhouse and the Asylum, are more than good at their tasks of involving you, uncomfortably, through your growing uncertainty and fear as you stumble warily through the dark and across each tableau. Along your journey you will meet Bloody Mary, become disoriented from strobing lights and unexpected movements, be irritated by incessant screams and jabberings from the damned (or the group ahead of you),  and blinded by utter darkness. The makeup effects are nauseatingly realistic and enhance the bedevilment.

I’ve become a bit jaded being a horror and haunt maven, but there is one effect this year I almost avoided by using the emergency exit (there are immediate exits in each room, just in case you’re squemish).  It involves plunging yourself into the unknown, into pitch blackness, into something that completely envelopes you. The sensations I experienced in this stifling situation ranged from claustrophobic to really frightening.

I loved it.

My Halloween: Polka Haunt Us

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HellgaGoofy Five questions asked over a glowing Jack o’Lantern, under an Autumn moon obscured by passing clouds…in between mouthfuls of candy corn…Veronique Chevalier of Polka Haunt Us, haunts us with her Halloween…

 

Why is Halloween important to you?

Besides the opportunity to masquerade as a different character than the person I am in daily life, I love Halloween because it’s a socially-acceptable way to celebrate our “Shadow Selves”- those dark portions of the collective consciousness that we try to keep at bay most of the time.

Because our society is so “Darkness Phobic” for want of a better term, Halloween is a welcome safety valve for many people to poke fun at, and with, the things that most folks would rather not have to address directly. And of course, it gives humans a ritual focal point for harvest season. Even though we are no longer an agrarian-based culture, we still seem to have a collective need to celebrate the change of seasons.

Describe your ideal Halloween.

I love performing at Halloween time as my “Hellga The Devil’s Beer Maid” character, because it’s one of the rare occasions when I get a chance to interact with people of all ages, be it private parties, Harvest Festivals, Halloween Carnivals, etc. Last year I performed at an all-ages punk show, and the kids accepted me as one of their own!

As someone who didn’t replicate, I am saddened that our society is so compartmentalized- families with kids interact only with other families and their offspring; and the singles mingle with others in similar situations, and the old folks are all warehoused together, off to the side. Dressing up in costume removes some of the barriers that separate us during the rest of the year.

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My Halloween: Too Much Horror Fiction

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Sleestak


Five questions asked over a glowing Jack o’Lantern, under an Autumn moon obscured by passing clouds…in between mouthfuls of candy corn…

Will Errickson of Too Much Horror Fiction will never say there’s too much of Halloween.

 

Why is Halloween important to you?

I’ve loved monsters and the macabre and summer turning into autumn since I was a kid. And candy! Most people will say their favorite season is fall. I have lots of good memories associated with those things. It’s a time when I can really indulge my love of horror, although truthfully I do that all year long. Still, it’s fun to take an entire month and watch and read nothing but. And over the years Halloween has really become a huge money-making industry with decorations and costumes being more and more prominent, which I dig. I think it’s the mainstreaming of the early 1980s Goth-punk subculture, melding that with the kid-friendly environment of Halloween. Thank Tim Burton, I guess.

Describe your ideal Halloween.

Throwing a big Halloween party! My girlfriend and I did this a couple years ago, but we had it a week before, so it didn’t conflict with other parties—that’s always a problem. We also didn’t insist that people dress up because honestly, some people don’t like to do that. We made tons of food, got lots of booze, and decorated her apartment like crazy. It took us nearly a week to get it all ready! We had three or four TVs going with horror movies on—Hammer Draculas, Universals, Fulci, Price/Poe—and mix CDs filled with horror movie soundtracks and artists like the Misfits, the Cramps, Roky Erickson, Alice Cooper, Blue Oyster Cult, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Black Sabbath, etc. It was a huge success but we haven’t been able to recreate it since.

Candy-scaryskeletonsWhat Halloween collectibles do you cherish, or hate, or both?

I love monsters toys and whatnot and decorating with Halloween tchochkes all year ’round. I’m amazed at what a place like Target has for Halloween, so much fun monstrous stuff you can use anytime. Recently on eBay I found some kids’ monster books that I had when I was young; those bring back fun memories for me. And I love those skeleton candies that come in a little plastic coffin.

  When was your very first Halloween, the one where you really knew it was Halloween, and how was it?

My elementary school would have a Halloween fair in the gymnasium, complete with a haunted house and bobbing for apples and all that stuff. I can remember the cool fall night, walking over to the school in a costume—I believe a Ben Cooper Sleestak—and then winning some kind of Halloween toy. Probably came home and watched the Charlie Brown Halloween special afterwards! I was around 6 or 7 and knew about Halloween of course, but I think that was what made me a lifelong fan.

Monster1 What’s the one Halloween question you want to be asked and what’s your answer?

Q: Do you know what Mischief Night is?

A: Yes, yes I do. Google it if you don’t know!

Twice the Terror: The Horror Zine
Book Review

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Twicetheterror 

Lately I've been waking up
Where I am, I cannot tell
It seldom looks like paradise
And it usually feels like hell
(from Lately by John Frazee)

Zombos Says: Very Good

I've been mostly disappointed with the spate of small press and digital press horror books and comics pouring out of late, especially those solicited to me. Either the writing is mediocre or structurally bad, or the comic art is so attrocious it soils the story–you know, like spilling a bowl of soggy bran flakes and milk on a table: a mess that not only looks terrible but becomes worse the more you look at it as you wipe it up.

Then I go and succumb to another request. Perhaps, deep down, I'm hoping to find a diamond in the coal pile. My stone wall of decisiveness cracks and I agree to review another book or comic, dreading having to say it's not what it should or could be in case it turns out to be not what it could or should have been–in my opinion–so don't bum-rush me with invectives about that: all reviewers have critical opinions.

Twice the Terror: The Horror Zine is not quite a diamond, but it shines almost as much with its stories, poems, and art. It's edited by Jeani Rector and anthologizes submissions to her Horror Zine website. Her impressive selection of stories, finely printed by Bear Manor Media, are what I hope for when reading an anthology, and provide a variety of lengths and styles and glimpses into the ether between terror and the unknown. Paragraphs, poems, and graphics read shoulder to shoulder instead of poking you in the eyes with shoddy typesetting or a high school sense of layout. I'll just mention a few of my favorites, but this anthology is full of high caliber work.

Terrence Faherty's Uncanny hints at an older style of foreboding, one akin to an Arthur Machen story where spirits best left unseen refuse to hide. Or is it the main character's unhappiness about being forced to take an Alaskan holiday that's causing some fellow passengers on the cruise to vanish? Mean spiritedness or a mean spirit at play? Faherty does his best to leave you guessing.

Were I forced to confess to my absolute favorite story in the anthology, it would have to be Christopher Fowler's The Threads, in which an unhappy couple, the Markhams, taking holiday in Africa, hope to keep their marriage from completely unraveling–she hopes, anyway. Unfortunately for Mrs. Markham, Mr. Markham begins to unravel after he insists on stealing a small carpet from an odd little shop. The desperation from being in dire need in a foreign land, where aid is not forthcoming, creates a level of tension in this story that energizes the macabre situation the couple finds themselves even more.

 A Bad Day is had by Melanie and the robber who shot her in Larry Green's quick and tidy story of a deadly convenience store robbery, but it turns out to be very convenient for Melanie in the end. In the same vein, Soul Money by Terry Grimwood is a quick journey into and out of evil, only the lucky wallet Nick finds turns out to have a really big and nasty owner who insists on being paid every last cent. It's a stretch that, nearly ludicrous in it's idea, still manages a wicked-wild sense of comeuppance scariness, the kind often seen in anthology television shows like Tales From the Darkside.

The poems, including those from Joe R. Lansdale, Peter Steele, and Alexandra Seidel, to name a few contributors, either ryhme or don't, and set the odd tone, the out of place, and a conjuration of lightness and heaviness in lines describing twisted thoughts, weird imagery, and unhealthy situations. The artists are just as disturbing (or is it disturbed?): I'll leave you with this happy couple photographed by Beth Robinson. She must have taken this right after they read Twice the Terror.

  Beth_robinson

A courtesy  copy of Twice the Terror: The Horror Zine was provided for this review by Jeani Rector.

My Halloween: Scared Silly

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Horror_comedy

Five questions asked over a glowing Jack o’Lantern, under an Autumn moon obscured by passing clouds…in between mouthfuls of candy corn…with Paul Castiglia of Scared Silly: Classic Hollywood Horror-Comedies …

 

Why is Halloween important to you?

“Important” is too strong a word for me to use in this case. My relationship with Halloween is one of “pure fun.” Specifically for me it’s become a time to revisit some old-school horror flicks (the more black & white the better). I’m not a big costume guy – used to do that more when I was younger. And I’m on a diet so I’m trying to limit my candy consumption!

But there is one thing that has become a Halloween tradition for me: I hold an annual Halloween movie night at my office. I try to keep things on the light side with classic horror films and horror-comedies, or films that fall into the PG realm without graphic content (whether it’s classic TV movies like “The Night Stalker” or recent animated hits like “Monsters vs. Aliens”).

Describe your ideal Halloween.

I think I just did – as long as I can watch some fun spooky movies I’m set!

What Halloween collectibles do you cherish, or hate, or both?

I love movie posters and lobby cards, old movie magazines, trading cards, comic books, books about old movies and the films themselves (when I was a kid in the 1970s that meant Super 8 digest versions of the classics; as an adult it’s the entire films on DVD). Not that I actively collect any of the above with the exception of the movies and books about them. But from time-to-time if I run across an interesting item I pick it up.

When was your very first Halloween, the one whereyou really knew it was Halloween, and how was it?

I can’t recall the year but it had to the early 1970s. I had a Batman costume, but it wasn’t one of the cheesy vinyl costumes with the plastic masks – this was a cloth costume with a cloth cape and I believe it may have had a cloth pull-over cowl as well. I’m guessing this was from Sears or some other department store. Within a year or two of that Halloween, my sister and I made a Spider-Man Costume – she sewed it and I used permanent marker to draw all the webbing onto it! It was cool because it had a pull-over mask that fully covered my head and I insisted that we use gauze for the eyes so they could be white (enabling me to still see-through the mask).

What’s the one Halloween question you want to be asked and what’s your answer?

Q: If you could go back in time and watch any movie you wanted in a theater for Halloween, what would it be?

A: My answer would have to be the classic William Castle-directed Vincent Price starrer “The Tingler” – complete with the rigged seats!

My Halloween: Blog of a Dead Dreamer

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Five questions asked over a glowing Jack o’Lantern, under an Autumn moon obscured by passing clouds…in between mouthfuls of candy corn…with Musing the Trauma of Blog of a Dead Dreamer shares a blast of October dreams…

 

Why is Halloween important to you?

Halloween is the greatest time of the year, by far. You can have your Christmas and all the others. Sure, they are nice, but for me, Halloween is my Christmas. It has been for a very long time. Each year friends can look forward to my patented ‘trick or treat’ bags full of all kinds of goodies and/or gifts. They may or may not get anything for Christmas, but at Halloween, it’s a guarantee that I will do my best to get everyone into the spirit.

Halloween is a great time where everyone just let’s go and becomes more relaxed. It doesn’t contain the formalities and etiquette of other holidays so there is a more relaxed air and no one has to put on any pretenses or be on their best behavior. It’s a time for people to gather and just have some fun and it doesn’t even have to cost you a dime. It’s a time of year that everyone, at least for one night, is especially friendly and fun, and what can be better than that?

Describe your ideal Halloween.

My ideal Halloween would certainly be spending that particular night in a documented haunted site. Something along the lines of heading to a spot with Zack and Aaron and the crew of ‘Ghost Adventures’. Maybe somewhere like Savannah Georgia or a scary little spot in England. Something definitely reported to be haunted, though, and with a team that has the equipment to do readings and video etc. That would be awesome. It used to be seeing Gwar live on Halloween but that got to happen. Gwar, Halloween, and being covered in fake blood from the band is a pretty good way to go on that night,too.

 

What Halloween collectibles do you cherish, or hate, or both?

As far as Halloween collectibles, I am in love with Spooky Town. I absolutely love everything about them. The artwork, the detail, the painting, the themes, the figures and sheer mass of variety. I could not believe that someone had finally taken the old, ceramic, classic Christmas Village theme decorations and turned it up a notch for Halloween. They are awesome and every year I look forward to adding to Spooky Town and putting it out. This is also the time of year I put out my collection of Todd Mcfarlane’s Twisted X-mas.Those never cease to get a comment by anyone who has never seen them before.

When was your very first Halloween, the one where you really knew it was Halloween, and how was it?

I don’t recall how old I was, maybe 6 or 7. this was the first time that I knew something special was going on for this holiday, so it must have been about 1977/78 or so. My brother and his wife went through a great deal of trouble to get together one very scary costume for me. It was a hand sewn Creature From the Black Lagoon costume and it was pretty cool. It probably could have been sold in any store for quite a bit, his wife was quite the seamstress. they knew loved monster because while most kids lugged around a teddy bear, I never went anywhere without my Godzilla.

What made it stand out, though, was that people were out in full force. It seemed to me at such a young age, that it was thousands of people and kids in costumes in my neighborhood. It was a neighborhood of row houses so it was an excellent spot for trick or treating. This was my first scare by someone in a costume, a very elaborate Dracula costume. I was frozen in my tracks with fear but couldn’t take my eyes off of him. This is when I knew what Halloween was about.

What’s the one Halloween question you want to be asked and what’s your answer?

A Halloween question I would like to be asked, hmmm?

I’m not sure about that one, but one thing I would love to know from others around the country is if Halloween is still going strong in their part of the world?

It seemed to me not as many kids were out and about, so I was stunned to learn that Halloween is actually the 2nd biggest holiday of the year. Maybe people just do more for the holiday in a controlled environment these days, such as parties, etc., and not so much with the trick or treating outdoors.

I guess my question would be, would you be upset if Halloween went the way of the dinosaur? My answer would be absolutely, yes. I would probably stop celebrating any holiday at all if that happened.

 

Here’s a little something I made just for fun about a year ago, and thanks again!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IaGbTSoRzM

The Last Exorcism (2010)
The Devil Is One Busy Soul

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Lastexorcism Zombos Says: Very Good

I once wanted a TV ministry. Now all I want is health insurance. (Cotton Marcus in The Last Exorcism)

Religious motifs in horror movies have been explored as far back as the 1920 movie, The Golem, the story of a rabbi using sorcery to bring a giant clay man to life. Usually what’s involved are questions of faith (either too much or too little), questions of spiritual morality (again, either too much or not enough), and nasty demons chewing on souls and scenery with equal zeal (you can never have too much of that).

Often there are also important tests of faith when vampires–remember Fright Night‘s vampire and cross confrontation?–Satan, assorted minions of Satan, and especially Uwe Boll are involved. Strong characters–or at least heavily stereotypical ones–are essential for selling all that flashy Hell and licking flames of damnation mumbo-jumbo convincingly enough to seal the deal, too.

Minister Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian) does the mumbo-jumbo in The Last Exorcism “like nobody’s business” as his wife would say, only he doesn’t have faith in what he does. Coming from a family lineage of exorcists–they even have an old Latin guidebook with illustrations to identify those pesky minions of Hell–he’s the last exorcist, but only in showmanship, not spirit. He knows it’s simple quackery, on a par with snake oil, sold with hidden string pulling and MP3 recording playing. He explains his showy casting out of demons “gets all the press because they got the movie” and okay, maybe it does help those who believe in the devil’s Hellfire of possession; but for him it’s another payday after an easy salvation sale is made.

We know how he feels about this because he’s doing a documentary to reveal the truth and, like the 2-person film crew in tow, we follow him as he does his knee-slapping sermons, illustrates the Prince of Lies’ trickery with card tricks, and takes on a dare by preaching a Banana Bread sermon. He can summon a sparkle of brimstone between his fingertips with a snap and an Amen as easily as he dons his linen suit to reveal how he fakes an exorcism at the Sweetzer farm in Baton Rouge. After cattle killings have convinced Mr. Sweetzer the Devil’s on the hoof and soul-snatching his daughter, Marcus answers the call for Nell’s salvation. It’s really another dare because to Marcus it’s all so easy to do.

Nell (Ashley Bell) is all milk and honey and innocence. She draws beautiful pictures and hangs them on her wall. Mr. Sweetzer (Louis Herthem) is a devout, devil-fearing father who home-schools his daughter and fears for her immortal soul because she’s possessed and butchering the cattle. Nell’s exorcism is conducted in-between Marcus’ revelations of the gimmicks he employs. The father is satisfied the demon has been expulsed and Marcus collects his pay.

When Nell shows up later at the hotel room where Marcus is staying, unresponsive and in her pajamas, the minister is unsure and no longer in control, two feelings he doesn’t have much experience with. Returning to the Sweetzer farm, the test of faith for Marcus, the unintended revelation of another truth for his documentary, and those creepy new pictures that Nell drew and hung on her bedroom wall–pictures of Marcus and the camera crew in pieces–call for more involvement beyond what he had in mind, and another exorcism: this time a real one.

Or so it would seem. The Prince of Lies is either dishing it out hot and heavy, or someone else is putting on a better show. Marcus is eager to dig deeper, but his film crew is getting the willies. And for good reason: The Last Exorcist plays unfair with its handheld camera point of view style made famous (or perhaps I should say infamous) with Blair Witch. Like the unexpected shift in point of view seen in The Last Broadcast, Daniel Stamm directs in pseudo-documentary style, then ignores it by using more refined setups and music, two things you normally don’t see in pseudo-documentary style because they confuse the effect. He even let’s Nell hold the camera for a while: a surprisingly effective twist of possession, about her possession. The ending is surprisingly audacious also, but if you pay close attention earlier in the movie, not completely unexpected.

The Last Exorcism is a clever, well-acted, oddly directed, and a I-can’t-believe-you-actually-did-that-ending scary movie. You won’t see copious pea-soup vomiting, bed levitations, or 360 degree head turns, but what you do see is damn good terror. I’ll stake my soul on that.

Devil (2010)

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Zombos Says: Good

John Erick Dowdle (Quarantine) locks us in a stranded elevator with five strangers and the Prince of Darkness in Devil, a tidy traditional horror movie that works well by balancing its terror with its Ten Little Indians‘ mystery: Who are these five people? Is one of them the Devil? Why are they being tormented?

It is a minimal premise delivered with a 1970s tempo and plotline, propelled less by gory acrobatics and more by the increasing antagonisms within the tight space as Ramirez (Jacob Vargus), a religious and superstitious security guard, whose mother told him stories of how the Devil would appear unexpectedly in odd places to claim souls, is the first one to recognize what’s happening.

Brian Nelson’s (30 Days of Night) screenplay, based on a story by M. Night Shyamalan, evenly mixes the interplay across the helpless people inside the elevator with the equally helpless rescuers outside, led by Detective Bowden (Chris Messina). Dowdle and Nelson underplay the drama to keep Devil from becoming pretentiously silly and preachy, dropping the pedantic sledgehammer Shyamalan has been pounding us with in his more recent efforts.

Ben (Bokeem Woodbine), Tony (Logan Marshall-Green), Sarah (Bojana Novakovic), Jane (Jenny O’Hara), and Vincent (Geoffrey Arend) are trapped between floors when Elevator 6 goes into inspection mode. The inocuous muzak warms tempers and attitudes as time passes while the engineer finds out why. Vince, the swarmy mattress salesman tries to convince Sarah she needs a good night’s sleep on a new mattress. Ben, the temporary security guard, doesn’t like to be confined: as kids, his brother locked him in a trunk for hours. Jane, the irritating woman with a can of mace from the 1980s, jangles nerves. Increasing everyone’s frustration is the one-way communication with the outside world: they can hear the security guards but the guards can only see them, and the camera in the elevator is not very good for reading lips.

Ramirez’s opening narration explains what to look for when the Devil comes calling, and when a suicide leads the police to 333 Locust Street, he’s the only one–he even makes sure he’s right by dropping a slice of toast with jelly to see how it lands–who knows it won’t end well. Detective Bowden, who shares an important connection, unknowingly, with one of the five stranded passengers, identifies each person, giving us clues as to why they’re in their current predicament, and alternate reasons for what’s happening; but the alternatives are for Bowden to investigate, not us: the Devil is in the details and remains so as he takes souls, one by one, when the lights go out.

I hope the heavy marketing campaign that pegged Devil as an M. Night Shyamalan movie does not deter its potential audience: given his recent movies, it might. Devil is a thoughtful, low-throttle horror that easily avoids inciting snide remarks about going-down in an elevator.