There’s an unusually low volume of new Blu-rays out this week, but there are two underdog titles that should command your immediate attention. The first is Devil, a wholly satisfying thriller that most people wrote off weeks before anyone had even seen the thing. The second is Easy A, a high school comedy that got a decent share of critical love upon release, but that failed to sustain much of an audience. Hopefully both films can find more adequate reception at home than they received in theaters.
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Top Shelf
The Movie: Devil got a raw deal. It unfortunately arrived in the aftermath of M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender, so his name plastered all over the trailer and posters didn’t do the film’s marketing any favors. It didn’t matter that he neither wrote or directed the film, the most recognizable thing about the film was his name, and his name was a laughing stock at the time.
And that’s a shame, because Devil is actually a good movie. It’s got a strong cast who each fit their characters to a T, but what really makes it a worthwhile film is Brian Nelson’s screenplay. It embraces a campfire-style vibe that really brings out the “Devil’s gonna get you” story hook, which is creepy enough to keep things on edge throughout. Sure, it’s rated PG-13, but the rating really doesn’t matter since Devil is more about good storytelling than it is shock and awe.
The Features: There’s not a lot here, unfortunately. There are handful of featurettes, but they’re incredibly short and purely promotional materials created to sell the film.
Who Should Buy It: A blind buy may be a bit too much of a leap for most people, but genre fans who appreciate a good horror yarn should consider it.
