After several weaker movies, Shyamalan begin to work on a new trilogy about the presence of supernatural evil in big cities. He concentrated on the script and preferred to let other people direct the movie and so you might expect that this first part of Shyamalan's renaissance must be a well elaborated and twisted masterpiece. Well, this is absolutely not the case, there are no major twists or surprises in the story. But that doesn't mean that this movie is without the glimpse of a doubt a very well done psycho thriller.
Let me mention the negative points first. The movie isn't really long. There are only two minor twists and the first one is not that much surprising while the second one is an interesting turning point of the story but also a little bit predictable towards the end of the movie. The story is not really innovating and this time, Shyamalan really delivers what he announces in the previews. Because of the short running time, not every character is extremely well developed and profound. The critical and philosophic influence that many movies of Shyamalan had is not very present in this movie.
But there are more positive points about this movie. There is a high tension present throughout the whole length of the movie and this is what makes the watching experience breathless and intense, you don't see time pass at all. The movie spares out the unnecessary and goes straight in your face which isn't that usual for Shyamalan's earlier works. That is something new, fresh and innovative coming from him and a little positive surprise for many but maybe also a little deception for some of his more purist fans. The interactions between the characters in the elevator are intense and very interesting. Every character has a very unique and special behaviour and something interesting to hide even if the characters could have been more developed if the movie had maybe twenty minutes more running time. The actions in the movie become more and more intense towards the finish and end up in a well done finale that leaves you with no open questions.
All in all, this is surely not the best of Shyamalan's movies but way better than the last stuff he has done before this movie. It is not a very surprising and philosophical movie, but rather a short and intense psycho thriller. It is a very good movie but far away from being the best movie of the year. It is worth watching it at the cinema or at home, but i wouldn't recommend buying this movie at the full price without having seen it before.
