Elevator Game

Another unimaginative, sub-mid shovel-ware movie. Nothing really stands out, the acting was lethargic and absolutely nothing stood. This is the kind of movie you throw out when you are vacuuming and folding laundry. That's probably the best thing I can say about it.

This movie feels like another low-effort offering for 12 to 14 year olds that want to get into Horror movies and this movie will gently hold their hand and ease them into things. The antagonist is simply called "The 5th Floor Woman", and that's fine. I didn't really care to invest enough brain cells thinking too hard about how this movie pandered to kids who think the Back Rooms or Slenderman are scary.

I call this kind of offering "Sesame Street Horror" because it basically spoon feeds you mild jump scares for an hour and a half.

It is becoming a trend, the self aware horror. Ever since the original Scream, can't believe I have to say "original Scream" but ok, counting down to movies like Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, Final Girls, Fear Street, Talk to me, and so on, movie characters don't act like movie characters anymore.

If they are in a zombie movie, they know what zombies are, and the same happen here: characters that quickly accept their situation and try to find a way out. How do they do it? Well exactly like you would see in a horror film, by going back to the beginning, seeing how it all started and finding the way to end it.

Elevator Game is somewhat fun and sort of smart but it doesn't reach the heights of an original masterpiece. Characters are overall bland and boring, the plot is easy to predict and sadly...they went with a lot of bone cracking. I think this technique is overused and it just doesn't impress anymore. Should have done something different with our main killer.

It's no Grudge, no The Ring, the villain has very little screen time and whenever it does appear, its presence has no impact.

For a one time view, I think you should definitely try it. It's out there with Countdown (2019), Come play (2020) or Megan (2022). Close to something great, but not quite there.

Cheers!

I think this movies biggest problem is its opening 10 minutes., and if I was reviewing based on that only, it would have got 1 star. There are too many obnoxious characters, over acting in the featured, fictional, online show, and I agree, was poorly acted for the most part. However, the two main characters are not to bad, and carry the story through. And I do think the acting in general improves as the film progresses. This obviously wasn't a big budget movie, so don't go expecting big budget CGI, but I liked the plot and the suspense, the effects had an almost eighties kind of vibe to them. While I understand this not appealing to all tastes, I enjoyed iot for what it was. Just get past the opening sequence and enjoy the ride.

This is not terrible by any means. I can imagine that with someone like Sam Raimi at the helm this might have become a decent, scary little horror film. However what we have is TikTok driven fan fiction.

There are one or two jump scares here and there but none of it makes any sense.

The major problem is the acting or rather the over acting, the over emoting, the actors and their total lack of talent. Everyone is absolutely awful. So bad that we end up rooting for the elevator demon type thingy.

There may be another one, who can say. It was obviously filmed on a small budget however it didn't crack a million at the box office.

So I was born in the early 80s and, as a result, I grew up in a time when video rentals were a thing. Back then, if you rented a horror movie, it could fall into one of three categories: Big-budget film that had had a major cinema release, small-budget indie that was made by creative people with limited resources, or small-budget cash grab, made by people who just viewed making films as a way to make some money, with no real creativity or imagination involved; make the box look interesting and someone will pay to watch it.

Movies are distributed differently nowadays but, had it been released back then, The Elevator Game would fall into the latter category.

The plot is formulaic and unimaginative, locking on to a particular idea that the filmmakers thought was current and popular (It's already out-dated). It tries to incorporate modern tropes, such as YouTube videos and influencers, but does it so ineptly that it just shows how little actual knowledge the people at the helm have of these things, resorting to exaggerated and inaccurate stereotypes.

The characters are all stereotypical horror archetypes with zero depth, and the casting of some characters defies belief (why does the "high-school intern" look older than his colleagues?)

The make-up and effects are about the level you'd expect from a mediocre Halloween party.

The acting is generally poor but, to be fair, I think there is some real talent here. The problem is the capable actors are stifled by awful scripting and direction. I won't single anyone out but there are actors in this film who I really can see - and hope I will see - going on to bigger and better things.

Ultimately, this just felt like an unimaginative, made-to-order movie that was created solely to pad out Shudder's library of original films and earn someone, somewhere a few extra bucks.