July 24th, 2005
The horror genre is crowded with inanimate objets that murder human beings. Whether it be killer houses, killer robots, killer animals, killer dolls, killer plants etc, there is no doubt that the world of horror has extended itself, turning just about anything it can from a benign everyday object into something that you should be afraid of. This extension has gone so far as to create the killer elevator movie, a sub sub sub genre that we here at The Video Graveyard would like to celebrate with our new grab-bag. Its horror... elevated. I decided to do this grab-bag out of curiousity, curiousity as to whether or not it was possible to make an effective movie based around an elevator that killed people. It was only after I had rented The Lift and The Shaft that I realized both movies were written and directed by the same person; Dick Maas. Why Maas felt the need to make not one, but two killer elevator movies remains a mystery to me, although, if I had to guess, I'd imagine the dude got stuck in an elevator at some point in his life.
A Dutch horror movie that follows the formula of Jaws, The Lift is a cheap but fun piece of imported cheese. The film has a goofy kind of charm, a charm that is boosted greatly by some highly comical dubbing. Its the kind of dubbing that has characters saying the kind of strange, off kilter things that one can only hear in the world of budget film-making. A police detective investigating the elevator accidents, while talking to someone about the grisly deaths, utters this choice bit of dialogue: "I used to work for Vice squad. You get numb, its a pity. One time one of these psychopaths picked up a girl on the street, took her to his place and gave her a sleeping pill so she'd keep quiet. Then he went to work with a drill, Black and Decker I think it was, he was actually able to cut her in half." The bizarre mechanics of someone cutting a person in half using a drill(!?) aside, why does the detective feel the need to throw out the brand name of the drill? Is he receiving checks from Black and Decker? As if that wasn't tasteless enough, the detective then adds; "I skipped lunch that day, you can understand why." Gee, no, I can't. Did you forget your lunch box? When the movie isn't showing us spooky transportation sequences or scenes where Felix and reporter Mieke talk to someone about elevator technology, we get to see an unpleasant sub-plot about Felix's deteriorating home-life. Felix is married, and when he starts spending long hours with the beautiful Mieke (who he appears to have an active interest in) his wife begins to get suspicious. These suspicions are confirmed when a friend of Felix's wife sees the two together in a restaurant. This leads to an ugly scene in which his wife confronts Felix at the dinner table, shouting at him and calling him a bastard, apparently not bothered by the fact that she is doing this in front of their two children. In the Dutch world of The Lift, people appear to have almost no appreciation of subtlety. The movie sports a surprisingly effective climax, during which we learn that evil elevators are manipulated by green slime. As funny as that idea may sound, it is odd enough to be almost creepy. Almost. Maas would go on to remake this, his own movie, with The Shaft. It is a small testament to this movie's strength that despite nearly 20 years of added experience, not to mention a significantly larger budget, that Maas would not only fail to produce a movie that surpassed this one, but actually produce something considerably worse.
Dick Maas tribute to his earlier movie The Lift, The Shaft is a veritable step by step retread of territory that Maas had already covered, and covered better, back in 1983. Maas was attempting to remake his movie into something grander but ended up destroying the little he had gotten right the first time. All the main parallels from the original are here; the repair-man and reporter in love who save the day, the elevator company's secret usage of bio technology, an ominous fate for the repair-man who previously worked on the elevator, a blind man who falls into the shaft, a security guard who is beheaded and so on. There are some differences, but they are mostly cosmetic. Rather than being a married man like Felix, Mark is a bachelor. Instead of bio chips that were engineered, the elevator is run by bio chips that were created from the genes of a murdered repairman. The sad thing about The Shaft is that it attempts to spice things up by adding sensational elements that make the movie seem ridiculous. In the original the blind man who falls down the shaft was buying real estate, in this movie hes receiving a hair cut, and after his cut he sexually harasses his stylist, who, unknown to him, has dyed his hair green. This tawdry subplot is completely unnecessary, and gives the movie a trashy, exploitation style feel. Unlike Felix, who was a simple repair-man, Mark is an ex-marine. When Felix goes to the office building at night to destroy the elevator he simply breaks into the building, when Mark goes he and Jennifer have to sneak in because its been seized by the military, who think terrorists have been causing the chaos. Felix's weapon against the elevator is a wrench, while Mark uses a rocket launcher. Part of the charm of the original was it was a simple, almost cute story about a killer elevator. This time, the movie has been padded and added to in ways that make it wear out its welcome rather quickly. There is tounge in cheek, and then there is stupidity. The Shaft opts for the latter. One of the best things about The Lift was its whimsical dubbing, something this movie doesn't have since its actors speak English. Probably the best thing this awful remake has going for it is a spirited performance by Naomi Watts, whos pushy, aggressive journalist comes close to being likable. While it looks like Watts is having fun with her character, it is unfortunate that none of this fun is shared with the audience. If you must see a killer elevator movie, you'd be better of choosing The Lift. This shaft only goes down... |
The Lift [1983]. Set in an office building in the Netherlands, The Lift opens when four people are nearly suffocated in one of the building's elevators. The elevators continue to malfunction despite the fact the equipment seems to be in working order. As the incidents worsen and people are killed, elevator repair-man Felix Adelaar, with the help of a female journalist, begins an investigation, an investigation that reveals that the elevators are driven by cutting edge computer chip technology, technology that has gotten out of control...
The Shaft [2001]. Malfunctioning elevators in New York city's Millenium building are involved in the deaths of some of the building's occupants, including a security guard who is beheaded by one of the elevators. Plucky tabloid reporter Jennifer Evans is assigned to the case, and with the help of an elevator repair-man named Mark, the two learn that the elevator system is being run by a biological entity that used to be a man, a vengeful guinea pig in a secret experiment gone wrong...