cinematic roots of: ‘The Night Chronicles: Devil’

No movie springs from a vacuum. There are always influences from past examples of the genre, from the previous work of the filmmakers and stars, even from similar films that don’t quite work. If you want to understand where a movie is coming from, take a look at where it’s coming from.

In The Night Chronicles: Devil, a group of hapless folks are trapped in an elevator with Satan. This flick sprang from (among other films):

• [Rec] (2007), in which a group of hapless Spanish folks trapped in a Barcelona apartment building with a rage virus.

• Panic Room (2002), in which hapless Jodie Foster and Kristen Stewart are trapped in a secure vault in their home without the medication the girl needs to survive.

• Speed (1994), in which hapless Los Angelinos are trapped on a bus with Sandra Bullock.

• Cube (1997), in which hapless Canadians are trapped in a series of interconnected boobytrapped cubes.