La trampa del mal

Película de terror de clase B con actores más baratos y varias bofetada lógicas. Pero técnicamente profesional, con excelentes créditos iniciales, una ambientación sólida y un remate bastante funcional. Si no hubiera mejores películas de terror antiguas de clase B como Cube o Saw que me noquearon y les di «solo» cuatro estrellas, probablemente también daría cuatro a La trampa del mal. (27.11.2010)

Un emocionante thriller ambientado en un entorno claustrofóbico de un ascensor no muy amplio. La trama avanza rápidamente hacia un final esperado, adiviné o no el punto. Lo que Shyamalan representa, en su mayoría, entretiene al espectador y no defrauda. Nota: ¡No he visto El último maestro del aire :-) (15.01.2011)

It takes seventy minutes carefully building a disconcerting atmosphere, relationships and tension between characters, only for all this to fizzle out, instead of reaching a climax and hitting hard with a message. Too bad, because it’s the ending/punchline of these genre snacks that separates the wheat from the chaff; leaving just the bold deeds of those who we can remember. (08.05.2011)

A sympathetic genre film that doesn't quite utilize its idea right, but it works a treat in a darkened movie theater with excellent sound. The question of "Who could it be...?" will probably end up being the right guess for a lot of people, but given the runtime, it works quite well, although the camera spends a lot of time flying around the building rather than in the incriminating elevator. The ending is questionable, but it's still based on a simple story... and Shyamalan's head. Regardless, Dowdle has talent. (17.11.2010)

I feel sorry for John Erick Dowdle, nobody knows the excellent The Poughkeepsie Tapes, Quarantine is the most pointless film of the decade and Devil is killed by Shyamalan’s creative crisis, but he knows the craft and one day he’ll make a proper genre gem, at least I hope. But well, let’s talk about Devil. The opening upside down flight over a city with some great music is perfect to whet the appetite, but the rest of the film is a five out of ten. Technically it’s fine, but the five victims, the detective, the security guards – everyone, basically – are incredibly unlikeable, behave in an unexplained fashion and sometimes utter words that I was unable to understand. If we add to this the fact that the performances are rather poor, the conclusion we reach is that this film simply cannot work. And that’s exactly the case, with the exception of the moments when nobody speaks. The twist does answer the question of who’s the devil, but why the devil did what he did remains a mystery. I’d rather ignore the moral of the closing scene, otherwise I would have to rate it even lower, which I don’t want to do because of the premise, the technical quality, a couple of chilling moments, and the music. 6/10 (14.11.2010)