Elevated

After watching the excellent movie, Cube, I decided to research about the director, Vincenzo Natali. I found out about the short film "Elevated." I watched it on the Independent Film Channel late one night and found many similarities to Cube. It starts out with two people in an elevator. They're interrupted by a blood-covered man entering the elevator claiming that there is an "Alien-like" monster outside of the elevator and he insists that they should go up, to the top floor. It has the same creepiness and originality as Cube, which makes it an excellent 25 minutes. I do wish that the director would have made it into a long movie, making the 25 minutes the beginning and then the rest of the movie about the monster and the other people in the building. But then again, having it stay a short film leaves a lot to the imagination, which I cannot say is true about a lot of other movies these days. I give it ***1/2 out of ****

this is still one of my favorite short films.... it's so weird. you can watch it over and over and it's entertaining every time!! i don't know if was supposed to be funny, but these actors do such a great job of tearing into each other! check out 'cube' as well... done by the same director.

I saw this film on the IFC at two thirty in the morning, and I didn't see any introduction for it, just the opening shot. The entire film was quite excellent and very suspenseful, with a killer climax. I doubt this is available commercially, but if you see it on tv, be sure to check it out. When I checked the other user comments I noticed it's by Cube's director - knowing that makes the similarities between the two quite obvious (set of people in one room with no clear directive).

This short tells the exact same story as Cube. I liked Cube for the cute trick of having one set for the whole movie. But after seeing this I wonder if Natali actually has anything to say.

People seem to be OK with being left to imagine a lot, but here you really have to imagine everything. There is virtually no plot apart from the movements of the actors. The dialogs are pointless and repetitive and the acting is not really convincing (like in Cube) but this is a small budget short.

We are left with nothing as for the reality of the "aliens", the motives of the guy in the suit and of Ben's. Only the woman seems to be like some sort of office clerk who may well be a normal person trying to go home. Apart from the killing of Ben we don't have a clue as for what is going on, just people stuck in an elevator.

Leave it to our imagination? I wonder after seeing Elevated and Cube if Natali will ever have more than one idea.

I'll have to see Cypher...

I saw Elevated and was immediately reminded of a movie I had recently enjoyed, Cube. After a check on IMDB, I was pleasantly surprised to find out they both had the same director. Like Cube, Elevated is a movie that bears thinking about in the days after the viewing. I'd recommend it to anyone who liked Cube, as well as movies like Dead Calm, and Death and the Maiden, which have a small cast and limited set changes.