Elevator Game

From the jump you can tell this is going to be your quintessential, un-self-aware indie horror with questionable acting, script and plot.

For the first 45 minutes it is exactly that, but in an unoffending way. You have your expected token characters with their quippy banter that isn't as clever as they think it is and some community theater like acting... and it's fine for the most part. It then hits a climax scene and it is... jarring to say the least. I don't know why literally anyone on set didn't tell the actor playing Kris that he was not in an off broadway production of The Shining, but I was literally sitting on my couch actively cringing throughout that entire scene... and honestly at that point I blame direction. From then on it pretty steadily goes down hill. I would say it was riddled with plot holes but Swiss cheese is just made that way so we will let it go...

On a positive note, I will say when the creep factor hit, it was pretty solid at times. A lot of the kills and the gore were pretty cool and I was surprisingly impressed with the sfx/cgi. I will say however, the makeup for the ghost/demon was unsuccessful and was serving up Party City body paint unfortunately. The movie also looked quite nice in general. Good picture quality and solid shots/editing. As far as acting went, the folks who played Chloe and Matty had some potential, but everything just felt so stilted and unintentionally campy that there wasn't much room for success regardless. It felt like maybe this was a first go around for the majority of the cast and in the least patronizing way possible, everything is a learning experience and not everything is always going to be your best work and that's okay.

At large, while still retaining some positive attributes, this movie didn't hit the way they wanted it to. I wouldn't say it was unsuccessful per se, but there were many variables that added up to a very amateurish fruition. I think that the cast and crew should still be proud of what they accomplished but as far as recommendation goes, I would probably have to say to pass on this one.

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.

Elevator Game is a film whose story is based on an internet creepypasta legend that originated in Japan and South Korea.

The legend states that if you use an elevator to travel to a series of floors, in a specific order...upon reaching the fifth floor...a mysterious woman will enter.

You can neither look at, nor speak to this woman...less she pull you into her realm.

After reaching the fifth floor...you hit the button for the first floor...and if you go up...towards the tenth floor...upon reaching said floor...you open a portal to her realm.

One much like our own, though where there is no electricity...and a red cross can be seen in the sky.

Hence it being called "The Red World" in the film.

To get back...you must go to the same elevator, and repeat the process...though...upon heading toward the tenth floor, you must interrupt the process by hitting a button for a floor between the one you are on, and the tenth floor.

This should, in theory, return you to your own dimension.

If the process is interrupted by someone else entering the elevator, prior to reaching the tenth floor...you must immediately return to the first floor...and not look back.

Such are the rules of The Elevator Game.

For the most part, the film remains true to these rules.

However they take some artistic liberties of their own.

By having the "Fifth Floor Woman" rip you apart if you break the rules, for example.

Going into this, I fully expected it to be stupid.

And it is.

But I actually kind of enjoyed it.

It's definitely the type of horror that is tailored towards adolescents, and the youtube generation.

I think, ideally, it would have worked better as a short film.

But, for what it is...it actually kind of works.

Which is substantially more than I expected from it.

So colour me pleasantly surprised.

4 out of 10.

Again with this tacky social media challenge/investigator horror movie formula. Shudder wiffed on this one. The setup in the first few minutes was probably the best part, and that's not saying much. The next 30-45 minutes of a bunch of social media hucksters banter back and forth is quite dull. I was not interested in anything they had to say, and no interest watching them stumble through their pitiful plight on their devices. Sometime after that we get a frightening scene, more pointless dialogue, and then we get to watch someone sift through web pages for a while.. and then I think I dozed off. I gave it a star for some ok-but-sparse tense scenes, but I couldnt come up with anything else worth mentioning. Bottom of the barrel stuff for Shudder flicks.

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!