PopHorror Let's Get Scared
It’s truly hard to believe that horror filmmakers were running out of ideas in the mid 1980’s, but haunted elevators? On the surface, that’s what director Dick Maas’ 1983 film The Lift appears to be about. But, in a strange amalgamation of genres, it touches on some themes that were explored (and exploited) by the likes of James Cameron later. Don’t believe me? Give Blue Underground’s new Blu-ray release a spin!
Synopsis
A lift technician finds himself drawn into a web of mystery and peril as he investigates the perplexing deadly accidents occurring in the elevators of a new office building.
Much like his notable, later entry, 1988’s Amsterdamned, Dutch director Dick Maas, with The Lift, crafts a not-quite-a-giallo film that crosses genre boundaries with each scene. Opening with a group of high society couples trapped in an elevator after a sumptuous dinner (inexplicably, one very impatient couple decides to pass the time by having sex) where they eventually die from suffocation. The high-rise building’s staff, naturally, hires someone to investigate.
Career driven Felix (Huub Stapel; Amsterdamned) an elevator repair man with a young family, and a suspicious wife (Josine Van Dalsum; Mata Hari) answers the call, and along with the beautiful reporter Mieke (Willeke Van Ammelrooy; The Lake House), becomes an amateur sleuth, who’s investigation of the elevator’s increasing body count leads him to The Rising Sun (throwing some shade to the Japanese??) a company on the cutting edge of technology, literally!
The Lift, while entertaining, at times suffers from some identity crisis moments. Veering from straight horror, to sci-fi, to dark humor and to scathing social commentary, the film struggles to find focus in spots. It works best when it leans into the “evils of technology” tropes, explored by Cameron in The Terminator a short year later (there’s even shades of Halloween 3: Season of the Witch), that make the “evil elevator” scenario a lot more plausible.
That being said, while not particularly gory, The Lift does have some great horror elements! I mean, a horror movie centered on an elevator has to have a decapitation or two, right? There’s also some genuine suspense, lively action sequences, a “child in peril” scene, and some solid performances that all combine to make The Lift a satisfying watch, schizophrenic script be damned! It’s just as effective as Chopping Mall as a “technology run amok” shocker, without the camp.
Clocking in at a brisk 99 minutes, The Lift looks as good as a VHS era film should in hi-def. The sound is even and level. I watched using English 2.0 mix and while there were some (probably unintentional) giggle inducing double entendres (“I should examine the entire shaft”) in the translation, none of the voices were too over the top. Packaging is standard, with a commentary track, a gallery, trailers, a Stapel interview, and a 2003 short film by Maas rounding out the extras.
Fun Fact: Maas directed an Americanized re-make, titled Down, with Naomi Watts starring in 2001.
The Lift is a genre blender of a film that works best when it commits to the possible evils of micro-processors and chips angle and it’s subtle as a ball peen hammer to the temple corporate greed message. Eclectic and, at times, uneven, it is, nonetheless, a fun “popcorn” film and a precursor to even deeper dives into the tech horror sub genre.
An elevator with a self-programming brain and an actual heart? Why doesn’t anyone ever think to unplug the damned thing…
Blue Underground’s Blu-ray release of The Lift is available now from fine retailers.
