Great overall movie, except in the horror department.

Rating: 7/10 (26 July 2000)

A prime example of how a bigger budget doesn't necessarily means a scarier horrorfilm. As a matter of fact, it's very hard to be scared of the devil when he's played by Al Pacino. Although he's one of the greatest actors of all time, i just never stopped seeing him as Al Pacino, when i should have seen him as the devil. That's what you get when you cast a megastar in this kind of part. He smirks, smiles, an surely talks a lot. There are wisecracks, dialogues filled with philosophy and intelligence. There's nudity and beauty, and some degree of hard violence. But if this is THE devil, Satan himself, then he sure doesn't scare me.
The scenes where the girlfriend, played by Charlize Theron, gradually goes out of her mind are the most effective in the movie, including the scene where she ends her own psychological suffering. But for the rest, it's a great movie, with fantastic acting performances (even by Keanu Reeves), great dialogue, good special effects, a great climax, and a damn good score. Too bad it's supposed to be a horrorfilm, because where it fails is the most important part, it's just not scary.