John Erick Dowdle, who directed “Quarantine,” tries to combine the thrills of small spaces with a superhuman force, the devil whose silly machinations cannot compare with the brain spittle of Hannibal Lecter.

When the elevator malfunctions, the five shady people inside experience some interactional conflict until the lights go out and the devil person starts getting rid of the others.

This pattern continues ad nauseam with the lights going out and the survivors reacting with louder screams, spastic conniption fits and a redundant voiceover essentially tweeting the narrative updates in case you don’t see them.

Remove the contrived element of the devil and that bromidic “Devil’s Meeting” fairy tale and it would force the movie to focus more on the primal instincts of human nature. The movie itself is fairly solid, more so than “Quarantine” and other horror films debuting on the big screen or video shelves right now and for that Dowdle should get credit.

It’s even more entertaining than you would expect. It’d be easier to enjoy and dismiss if it wasn’t associated with M. Night Shyamalan. With his earlier potential, you’d hope he could guide “Devil” into genre-changing territory.

But with its religious homilies and plummeting elevator, it doesn’t distinguish itself from any other mediocre horror film—that is, it retains the momentum and quality of an amusement park ride.