Are you afraid of Stairs?
Do Elevators act as your Sanctuary for those large, jagged objects?
If so, don't watch this Dutch Horror Film...
What could go wrong?
Oh right- the Elevator is killing people.
Just sometimes though.
What- like you don't take a break between your murders?
An Elevator Inspector is killed in as the incidents occur, but nobody seems to put into thought into what is happening besides him.
It's basically one of those Guy Gets Too Close to a Story Arcs...but with a killer Elevator.
A Reporter is also on the case, leading to a Dramatic Subplot where the Wife thinks that he's having an affair.
He tells her that she's wrong...but never tries explaining it in depth.
Oh well- enjoy that divorce.
Eventually (after a few more deaths), he finally breaks into the Building, avoids the danger of being in the Elevator (making everyone else look kind of dumb) and discovers the secret of it.
It's...
Alive.
Kind of.
A random friend of the Reporter tells a bizarre story about microchips made from living tissue that began to self-replicate.
So, naturally, that's literally what was going on.
How convenient!
He seemingly-defeats it when the guy behind it shows up.
The Elevator has One Last Gasp and kills him...so our Heroes just kind of leave.
If you want to know how they explain this, too bad- the Film is over.
A silly-sounding Film that treats things very seriously. Does it work? I mean, I'm still joking about the whole Killer Elevator things, so 'no.'
The idea that an innocuous device like an Elevator can kill you is a plausible one. They don't have it make evil faces or talk. I guess you can argue that it could happen. That said, the explanation of why all of the kills happening is just plain silly. Living microchips- why not question it? The way we get the explanation- a guy in the 3rd Act just exposition dumping the idea- is also kind of silly.
On top of that, they just randomly show us the 2 guys behind it all going 'I feel bad about this' and then one of them just showing up (to be killed). Why do it organically and let people solve the mystery when we can just say it at the end like everyone should have known it? Ugh. The Elevator kill Scenes (and the tease bits) are pretty good.
Sadly, they don't make up nearly enough of the Film to make things work.
I can only hope that Mr. Maas did a better job with the 2001 Remake (which apparently exists). Just remember that THIS is not that Remake...
Next week, another Film on the Service that was added at some point in the last year. I don't even remember adding half of these, so it's a fun surprise for both of us!
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