Blackout

Much better than I expected it to be. There are a few movies about being trapped in an elevator and this is one that managed to keep me interested. Glad I watched it.

This was another movie that Neflix had listed under Horror films so I figured I would watch it. This is one of those movies that feels like it is longer than it actually is and is actually somewhat difficult to sit though. It isn't that it wasn't good at all it's that I didn't really care for the characters. As in I didn't care who died and who lived. Also this movie was quite predictable and I didn't really get shocked from anything in it which is never good in a Horror movie in my honest opinion. Although I didn't give this a high rating I still liked some parts. I give "Blackout" a 5 out of 10

~Joe

This is one of those movies you find by accident and are happy you decided to watch it despite it's low rating - proving once again that IMDb ratings are not very enlightening :)

Great acting all round, very well directed with a tight and tense plot that keeps you on the edge of your seat. It doesn't try to be too clever or delve into silly red herrings/plot twists (tho it does successfully muddy the waters for a while - but that is integral to the plot). I liked the camera work and the fact that it wasn't all shot in the dark so you could see the characters expressions etc. The darkness kicked in when the plot became darker. Nice effect. I also liked the score as it added depth to the tense moments and the director used the setting expertly to develop a sense of claustrophobia.

Ignore the bad reviews (and the cheapish titles sequence which almost stopped me watching any further - luckily I decided to give it a bit more time). This is worth watching.

BLACKOUT is another low budget B-movie thriller with bags of potential but little thought process gone into the execution. Thus this is a film that looks cheap throughout, and which becomes boring not long after you start watching. This is because the whole movie is padded out with flashbacks to explore the characters of the three people trapped in the lift, flashbacks which add little except to increase the running time.

Cast-wise, the film is in firm hands with the presence of Aidan Gillen (GAME OF THRONES), but sadly the actors can't do a lot with what are relatively one dimensional characters. There's violence here but very little suspense, and the dark cinematography fails to make much of the setting or indeed to bring out the claustrophobia inherent in the situation. For a better trapped-in-a-lift movie, check out ELEVATOR.

'Blackout' is one of those obscure little multinational affairs that can either be jaw-droppingly bad or a rare unearthed gem - happily, it's the latter. Three characters are trapped overnight in a stalled elevator, bickering and bitching as they try and find a way out while thinking back to the sequence of events that led them there. These 'Lost'-style flashbacks eventually reveal that one of their number is a vicious sociopath.

It's clear that Mexican director Castaneda is influenced more by the character driven horror of the sixties and seventies than by vapid eighties slashers, but his interest in people shouldn't be mistaken for squeamishness when it comes to ugly sexual violence - it's been a long time since I wanted to see a bad guy get what he deserves as much as I did watching 'Blackout'. Castaneda uses more than a few moves from the David Fincher play-book, with the camera squeezing through keyholes and cracks and plummeting down elevator shafts, and the whole thing is beautifully photographed, belying what was in truth a meager budget of only $4 million. A great psychological thriller from a director who deserves success.