O Elevador da Morte

Dutch director Dick Maas has essentially remade his own 1983 film De Lift with 2001's The Shaft (originally entitled Down), about an evil elevator system that suddenly begins killing people in a fancy-schmancy skyscraper. Artisan has shamelessly redesigned the cover art to resemble The Ring, and to highlight the presence of star Naomi Watts, though who that kid on the cover is supposed to be is really anyone's guess, because he is certainly not in the movie I watched.

In between the dull investigative drivel, Maas delivers a few fun horror moments, including a spectacular elevator door decapitation and a fun bird's-eye P.O.V. of a character's leap off the observation deck. Maas even subjects an elevator full of very pregnant women to a terrifying ride.

With the exception of a few establishing shots, it appears that much of The Shaft was shot in Europe, and the unconvincing "New Yawk" accents of most of the extras is definitely giggle-worthy. To Maas's credit, he has somehow managed to fill the film with a decent blend of familiar faces in supporting roles, including Edward Herrmann (the building manager), Dan Hedaya (a police lieutenant), Ron Perlman (the elevator repair company boss) and venerable bad guy Michael Ironside.

There are brief moments of great fun in the murderous elevator flick, The Shaft, but too much time is spent talking and the dramatic payoff is a real eye-roller, even in B-movie horror terms. Artisan has supplied a solid 5.1 surround track, but the horribly cropped 1.33:1 fullframe transfer almost negates that.

Yep, The Shaft has its ups and downs.

6*(10* Rating System)

Before Naomi Watts became a big star from her excellent performances in excellent films like "Huckabees", "Mulholland Drive", and "21 Grams"; she was delivering excellent performances in a lot of garbage movies like "The Shaft" aka "Down". And while her performance here does not save the movie, it does elevate (bad pun intended) it to a viewable level.

The only other reason to watch this thing is to see yet another example of the film-making phenomenon that big is not only not better, but much worse. Which is probably related to the human interest angle in journalism, where a large disaster cannot sustain interest as long as the same story on a smaller more human scale.

For those who don't already know it, "The Shaft" or "Down" is Dutch Director/Writer Dick Mass's remake of his 1983 classic "De Lift". One posted comment about the original says: "…. looks technically proficient, with fine color texture, smooth cinematography ( by Marc Felperlaan ) and tight editing ( by Hans van Dongen ), elements that help to maintain a high level of suspense. The story clearly echoes Jaws, with its obsessed hero and corrupted authority figures, who would rather disguise the truth than face it. Despite this movie being his debut, many of Maas's personal trademarks are also already in place: quick pacing, sadistic gore effects modified by edgy humor, mild satire on bourgeois preoccupations, and broadly etched supporting characters".

Apparently the title "Elevator" was already taken and "Lift" was too European for the remake he was left with two very stupid titles with which the distributors have been experimenting since 2001.

In the 1983 version, the elevator of an Amsterdam flat (another European term) misbehaves badly. The elevator begins trying to crush, suffocate and decapitate passengers. Fearless mechanic Felix does battle with the seemingly haunted machine. But the anti-technology twist is that the elevator has developed a mind of its own due to an experimental 'biochip'. Felix is assisted by a magazine reporter named Mieke de Beer ( wasn't that the name of Scotty's German pen pal in "Eurotrip"?).

The original was shot in just 30 days with a very limited budget, this constrained the production resulting in an intimate story, viewers identified with the characters and this greatly enhanced the suspense level. This time someone gave Maas a lot of money and he pumped up the production; moving it to New York, adding tons of unnecessary effects, making the elevator absurdly powerful, and geometrically increasing the size of the cast. The Amsterdam elevator was deadly but in ways that a malfunctioning elevator could be deadly. The new elevator is like a cross between a James Bond story and a poor 1950's science fiction film.

Not surprisingly the human interest wheels fall off immediately. If you ignore your strong impulse to bail and just keep watching you will see decent performances from Watts and the from various character actors who populate the cast.

Unfortunately for Mass, he choose New York City for this 2001 movie and deviated from the original by throwing in some misdirection about terrorists being behind the elevator accidents. There is even a line about the first bombing of the World Trade Center. Apparently this was embarrassing enough to insure that there was no theatrical release.

After being completely disappointed with The Ool, my friends and I stuck in The Shaft only to be completely delighted (ouch, bad one). The Shaft (or Down,as it was apparently called at one point) follows the exploited elevator industry as the poor machines have to fight off babies and blind men and roller bladers.

The Shaft is a perfect fit for anyone who wants some fun. I mean, look at that cast! It's B-movie heaven. Watching Ron Perlman's impassioned defense of the elevator industry is golden, and Naomi Watt's 'acting' is once again fun to watch.

The pacing is the real villain in this flick, as it drags on with useless characters and stupid tangents when elevators killing people really should have been the sole focus of the movie.

The climactic battle between the evil elevator which includes, yes, a rocket launcher that shoots invisible rockets, is golden. I will admit with little uncertainty, that this is simply the best Hedaya/Herrmann/Perlman/Ironside/Watts v. possessed elevator movie out there, and, for my money, was worth the fifty cent rental.

Rating: 2/10

It amazes me how often deliberately cheesy, tongue-in-cheek horror films are misconstrued as poorly made garbage. Down (AKA The Shaft), director Dick Maas' 2001 remake of his own 1983 Dutch horror De Lift, opens with the camera gliding gracefully over the NY skyline to eventually come to rest on 'The Millennium Building' where two night watchmen use an observation telescope to spy on big-breasted hookers at work in a neighbouring skyscraper; it's a superbly executed and wonderfully trashy opening that should make it crystal clear that Maas knows exactly what he is doing—making a highly entertaining, campy schlock/horror that shouldn't be taken seriously—and yet there are still those who seem to have missed the joke.

Oh well, it's their loss, because when viewed as intended, Down proves to be a lot of fun, packed as it is with outrageously silly deaths, delightfully daft dialogue, and knowingly clichéd characters—precisely the kind of stuff I would expect to see in a horror film about a murderous 'living' elevator controlled by a malevolent state-of-the-art computer chip enhanced by living brain tissue.

An excellent cast clearly have a blast in their two-dimensional stock roles, with a gorgeous pre-A-list Naomi Watts as a feisty newspaper reporter, James Marshall as a cocky elevator engineer, Ron 'Hellboy' Perlman as the shady owner of the elevator company, Dan Hedaya as a grizzled NY detective, and Michael 'Scanners' Ironside as a loathsome scientist hellbent on perfecting his pet project, whatever the cost. Maas keeps the action moving along at a brisk pace, handling the special effects set-pieces, wry humour, and gruesome shocks with confidence, even going so far as to kill off women, children, and animals along the way.

And if all that isn't enough to pique your interest, let's not forget about the eerily prophetic scene in which characters discuss the possible use of a plane in a terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre; with 9/11 just around the corner, it stands out as a genuinely chilling moment in an otherwise intentionally ridiculous and wonderfully OTT piece of nonsense.

7.5 out of 10, rounded up to 8 for IMDb.

Down (2001) AKA "The Shaft", based on a previous Shaft movie.

"What goes up must come down."

I saw this critter as "Down" like a Stephen King ditty. It starts very plausible, then turns strange, then downright spooky.

You can pretty much tell what the movie will be about and how it will end. So, the fun comes from watching the different characters go through their experiences as they try to figure out what's going on with the elevators. Is it just poor maintenance and imagination? Is it a cabal of Luddites? The movie was made too close to 9-11.

At least it is not the disaster formula with a scientist being kicked out for rocking the boat. Then again? I did not mind when the elevator consumed this one and that one, but did he have to take the little dog too?