Elevated

Canadian director Vincenzo Natali is an expert at getting more out of less. The short film Elevated is a prime example. It manages to do more with its 25 minutes than many films can do in 2 hours. The story follows three people confined in an elevator avoiding the monsters in the building that are stalking them. The only problem is that only one of them believes in the monsters, the other two just want off. The tension grows until it finally explodes and only one is left standing. The entire short is filmed using only a single set piece, yeah one, thats right. Rumor has it that when Natali filmed Cube he also used only a single set. And if you've seen the film you can see how it could be done. So if you have the chance to see this short don't waste any time, because if you do it'll probably be over. Check IFC it plays on there from time to time. 10/10 My highest praise!

this is still one of my favorite short films.... it's so weird. you can watch it over and over and it's entertaining every time!! i don't know if was supposed to be funny, but these actors do such a great job of tearing into each other! check out 'cube' as well... done by the same director.

This short tells the exact same story as Cube. I liked Cube for the cute trick of having one set for the whole movie. But after seeing this I wonder if Natali actually has anything to say.

People seem to be OK with being left to imagine a lot, but here you really have to imagine everything. There is virtually no plot apart from the movements of the actors. The dialogs are pointless and repetitive and the acting is not really convincing (like in Cube) but this is a small budget short.

We are left with nothing as for the reality of the "aliens", the motives of the guy in the suit and of Ben's. Only the woman seems to be like some sort of office clerk who may well be a normal person trying to go home. Apart from the killing of Ben we don't have a clue as for what is going on, just people stuck in an elevator.

Leave it to our imagination? I wonder after seeing Elevated and Cube if Natali will ever have more than one idea.

I'll have to see Cypher...

After watching the excellent movie, Cube, I decided to research about the director, Vincenzo Natali. I found out about the short film "Elevated." I watched it on the Independent Film Channel late one night and found many similarities to Cube. It starts out with two people in an elevator. They're interrupted by a blood-covered man entering the elevator claiming that there is an "Alien-like" monster outside of the elevator and he insists that they should go up, to the top floor. It has the same creepiness and originality as Cube, which makes it an excellent 25 minutes. I do wish that the director would have made it into a long movie, making the 25 minutes the beginning and then the rest of the movie about the monster and the other people in the building. But then again, having it stay a short film leaves a lot to the imagination, which I cannot say is true about a lot of other movies these days. I give it ***1/2 out of ****

Actually I have no idea how much this cost, but in terms of location economy you can't beat a lift, a corridor and a car park! This short has distinctive characters, humour, paranoia, gore and a double-barrel twist, plus it comes in at under 20 minutes - very restrained. It also underlines (or foreshadows, I suppose) why David Hewlett has gone on to make a well deserved niche for himself. He gets far and away the best line, one to be only truly appreciated by real cult horror/sci-fi fans no doubt - the specifics went over my head even if the meaning and delivery didn't. Elevated found its way onto a French (or at least French-language) DVD release of CUBE, along with a nice variety of Cube extras incidentally, and was well worth the price alone. Go on, seek it out...