Elevator Game

I enjoyed this from well enough so would certainly suggest it's worth 90 minutes of your time. It's well put together and the cast are pretty committed. There's some decent effects and a few moments of real tension and creepiness, though I think the solid premise could have been exploited better.

What let's the film down a little, for me, is seemingly rushed characterisation and pretty tame finale. I'd have been tempted to lean further into the gore in this one too.

Overall, it's a good slice of fun with some good laughs and a couple of creepy moments, but one that could have been much better given its decent collection of parts.

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.

I think this movies biggest problem is its opening 10 minutes., and if I was reviewing based on that only, it would have got 1 star. There are too many obnoxious characters, over acting in the featured, fictional, online show, and I agree, was poorly acted for the most part. However, the two main characters are not to bad, and carry the story through. And I do think the acting in general improves as the film progresses. This obviously wasn't a big budget movie, so don't go expecting big budget CGI, but I liked the plot and the suspense, the effects had an almost eighties kind of vibe to them. While I understand this not appealing to all tastes, I enjoyed iot for what it was. Just get past the opening sequence and enjoy the ride.

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.

The Elevator Game is a simple premise of a film: horror video blog just out of high schoolers need a quick and spooky idea for their channel to keep a sponsor. Thus, the decide on the Elevator Game that evokes the Fifth Floor Woman and her Red World.

The simple premise does lower the overall film as there isn't much more to the plot than this. (There is one minor twist about halfway through that is ultimately worthless for any deviation from the plotting.) Characters aren't bad for 2 dimensional, and acting is decent inside of these characters.

There is enough creepiness in the moments that do occur that I kind of liked this film. Ending is tired retread of other films, and most likely a sad attempt of the producers to allow for a sequel. Really? We need a sequel for a simple film?

Not saying it's great by far, but I gave a 6 as it did keep me watching without any yawns or sassy back talk to the film.