The Elevator

This is a very underrated film which was surprisingly good.

Given that this is a low budget film (the title is a give away. 90%+ of the scenes happen inside the elevator, which can feel monotonous but the director/script/actors did a good job to keep my attention throughout.) You are made to choose which of the two characters is the foe and which is the protagonist. The movie does a good job in changing your pick through out the movie. And then there's a twist in the end (or a couple). The final shot is also an excellent touch. It gives some sort of relief that everything worked out as intended. Though some can miss it as it wasn't as pronounced.

A very strong film, and more than I was expecting for such a super low-budget production.

Jack (James Parks) is an obnoxious gameshow host who lives a fancy lifestyle. One night, he finds himself held hostage in his building's elevator by a strange woman (Caroline Goodall). She ties him up and forces him to play a "gameshow" of her own, with torture porn results.

Considering the majority of the film is set inside the elevator, it manages to sustain this as a suspenseful setting for its 85-minute runtime. The highlight of the film are the two lead performances; as sick and twisted as this woman's game is, just who is in the right and who is the wrong is left ambiguous, and our opinions on the two characters fluctuate throughout. And that's a credit to both actors.

Burt Young also has a minor appearance in the film, though sadly he doesn't appear much until the last third.

THE ELEVATOR takes a very basic thriller concept, but elevates it with good acting and a nice twist ending. It's a chance definitely worth taking.

So this is low budget but it is a good find. I'd rather give it a 6.5 rating because it is better than 6 but not quite a 7. This has a limited cast and it is shot mostly in an elevator. I like watching films like this just to see if people can come up with some interesting scenarios for such a tight set. It really isn't too bad. The acting is decent for the most part. It was filmed well and I liked the story. I was a little unsatisfied with the ending but only because I wanted to know more. This worked out just right for my rainy day and nothing to do.

As a critic I indulge myself by scoffing at loopholes in thrillers that could not exist without them. I guess I'm seeking the ideal of a thriller existing entirely in a world of physical and psychological plausibility. "The elevator" is about as close as I'm likely to get. Yes, there are moments when I want to shout advice at the screen, but just as often the characters are ahead of me. They also ask the same questions I'm asking, of which the most heartfelt, in a thriller, is "why didn't we do that?" The movie, directed by Massimo Coglitore and written by Mauro Graiani and Riccardo Irrera, embraces realism almost as a challenge. The movie resembles a chess game; the board and all of the pieces are in full view, both sides know the rules, and the winner will simply be the better strategist. Once we sense "The elevator" isn't going to cheat, it gathers in tension, because the characters are operating out of their own resources, and that makes them the players, not the pawns. The shot combines physical and virtual camera moves, a reminder that Coglitore is a visual virtuoso. He's also a master of psychological gamesmanship.

I assumed this was a low-budget student-made film, based on the number of ratings and reviews, so I was not expecting anything good to come out of it. There were certainly moments that broke my suspension of disbelief; moments in plot that made no sense, ADR that sounded off, and brief moments of unbelievable acting, but overall, it was better than I expected.

In contrast, the main cast was phenomenal, both in performance, and in recognition. Imagine my surprise to see that an international director doing his very first feature-length film roped in three world-class actors.

In all honesty, it was the acting that held the entire thing together - as you may expect from a film set almost entirely in an elevator.

It was definitely slow to get going, though. It wasn't until the half-way mark that the plot actually got interesting. Occasionally things would happen that offered no value to the story line, and until the forty minute mark, a lot of it felt like filler, like the movie wasn't going to be long enough, so more scenes were added.

Nothing was more annoying than thinking something interesting was going to happen, only to realise that nothing was happening at all. I began to get bored after the opening sequence.

That being said, if you can endure the first act, you may be pleasantly surprised by the second, as things begin to pick up the pace, and the characters really begin to develop and take on their own stories.

In the end, I wasn't impressed by the actual plot, and its conclusion. It was an interesting idea, to be sure, but it made for a rather dull conclusion, when it was revealed what it's all about.

Basically, I was pleasantly surprised by the film, but only because I expected a no-budget indie film.