Weirdhouse Cinema: The Lift

But I think this may well be our first, our first film more in the in the zone of consumer or or domestic appliances that go hay wire and seek blood. I think you're probably right. The only other film that we've looked at on Weird How Cinema that comes close would be Ghost in the Machine, which wasn't about like the appliances or the or the or any kind of AI going going hey wire. It was about like a spirit uh, an entity of mind possessing all of these things.

And and that is the thing that causes say, a microwave to malfunction and microwave an entire room. Oh yeah, it's a serial killer whose brain gets sucked into the telephone wires and then it can inhabit any machine. But but but oh yeah, yeah, okay, so that's a good point. That is kind of a killer appliance movie. But I think you have to break killer appliance horror movies down

into two very distinct camps. There is one in which multiple appliances can be commondered by an evil spirit, or multiple appliances are attacking, so goes to the machine would be one. Maximum overdrive is another one. I think there's some alien force in that that turns I think maximum overdrive should be our terminology for a full blown all appliances attack, all human scenario, right exactly. Yes, So so that's like all your soda machines, all your hair dryers,

they're they're all on the attack. But the other camp is the movie in which there is a single appliance or machine or an animate object that seeks human blood. And there are your examples would be something like Deathbed, the bed that eats people, or or the movie we're gonna be talking about today, the Lift from nineteen eighty three,

a Dutch killer elevator movie. And based on what I've been able to determine, I think this may be the first real killer elevator movie that that either inspired other elevate killer elevator movies or at least beat them to the punch. Are there really other killer elevator movies? I feel like I looked up a list of elevator horror movies, but they're just like they just take place in an elevator or feature an elevator. Um. I mean, I don't know.

I guess some of these would would would require getting to the like the spoiler point to find out is this an elevator or is there is there like an evil psychopath controlling the elevator. I don't know what the you know, the particular twist is going to be, but this is definitely a killer elevator movie. Uh, absolutely to its core. Oh wait, I just remembered something. I don't know if you did. You ever see Speed, you know, the nineties Kiana Reeves Sandra, Yeah, that begins with a

and it's sort of a killer elevator scenario. The elevator has been hijacked by Dennis Hopper and it smashes An Esteves right before he waited. An Estevez does no, no, no, you're there. You're confusing it with the nineteen nineties Mission Impossible movie. And there that's an elevator that I don't know if, I don't know if there's a psychopath behind it, but that John goes haywire and it smashes an Estevez.

Are you telling me an Estevez is not smashed in Speed? Uh? No, I think someone is killed, but it's no. The problem in Speed is that Dennis Hopper commandeers an elevator. Okay, anyway, he it's his it's his trial run of the bus plan. Basically, he puts a bunch of bombs on an elevator and he okay, and it does not kill. No, I don't think there is an Esteves in Bead. Okay. There's Jeff Daniels in Speed? Is there? Yeah? Okay? Man, it's Keanu and Jeff Daniels or the cops um and and Sandra

Bullock is the bus passenger who ends up driving. Okay, it's been a while since I've seen I've clearly fused it together with at least two other films. Well, we're off to a great start here. But okay, let's just name some other movies you can think of that have elevator scenes. And well, I mean that's That's one of the things about elevators. I think they're an interesting subject for a film like like this because there's something about elevators,

uh that resonate with us. You think of all the various elevator scenes in various films, and sometimes it's an action centerpiece, other times it's just a situation. Very often was just a place for two characters to have a conversation between scenes, but they're often very memorable. Like just I was thinking, like, off the top of my head, what are some of the key elevator scenes I think of. I think of Big Trouble and Little China. Uh, they're

not they're basically just standing around in there. But it's a great scene. Um, I'm kind of feeling good. Yeah, it's a wonderful, wonderful scene, even though they're just they're just using it like normal people us an elevator as a way. Well. Actually, there are multiple elevator scenes in that movie that are great because there's a flooding elevator they have to escape. Yeah, but then you have you have some real action centerpieces, uh, particularly in two different

James Cameron films. You've got aliens and you've got Terminator to both of which involved people flinging into an elevator and then a superpowered uh enemy prying the elevator open, only to be blasted with a shotgun. What do you know? You're right? Yes, so in one case it's Robert Patrick as the liquid metal and then the other case is just an alien warrior. Yeah. And I don't think until today, I'd ever put it together that those two scenes are

essentially the same scene. Uh, but they're both great. Other key elevator scenes that come to mind. I mean, you've got like the shining with the blood flowing out of it. You've got that wonderful switchero that takes place in the Silence the Lambs. Uh, there's a really bloody reveal in the Untouchables from Brian to Palma. Uh. So those are just some of the ones that come to mind. Like, there's something about the elevator that just works great for theater.

It has its own curtains that open and close. Um, it goes up and down, it smashes that you can climb on top of it. Their cables up there, Like we're just obsessed with the elevator. Oh yeah, yeah, Well, I mean the fact that the elevator doors open in

the same way that curtains open. Like you say, I think that has a natural revelatory quality that that calls to mind sort of an unveiling, because there are a lot of scenes in movies, even beyond what you mentioned, where elevator doors peel back to reveal a scene that shocks someone who's there waiting for the elevator to arrive.

So like and die Hard too, you know, there's a there's a scene like that, and The Lift, of the movie we're gonna talk about today, I would say has at least five scenes where we don't immediately see what's in the elevator, but we see the doors open, and then someone is there waiting for the elevator and they react with horror to whatever they see inside. You know, they react like they're looking at the security footage from event Horizon. Yeah, and uh, you know what is we'll

get into. I think, you know, you you might well go into a movie like The Lift and think, all right, um, elevators work well, like a small dose here and there, maybe a couple of elevator scenes in the film, But if you build an entire movie based on the elevator. Are you going to be able to maintain that level of interest in the elevator? You can be able to define all these interesting ways to use it. And I

think the answer is yes. I think this movie pulls it off well yeah, and I think it partially does so by having a sense of humor. I mean, one thing I was kind of surprised by was the trailer made me think that this movie would be uh dryer, and that more of the absurdity of it would just kind of flow out of an understated realization of its absurd core premise. But in fact, this is a fairly juicy camp e move v. It's it's more along the

lines of chopping Mall or something like that. I can only suspect that this is even more the case if one is um he's watching it in the original language, because I watched it dubbed into English and this was the only option available to me, and the dub is very good. But the dub is also like, I feel like I've heard these same dub voices before in some cases, you know, it feels like the same sort of American dub you'd get on any number of Italian films from

the same time period. Oh, but I absolutely loved the dub because some of the casting, or at least I don't know if it was like that they just cast people who sound this way, or if they made conscious choices to deliver their lines in this hilarious manner. But for example, the detective in The Who, his English dubbed voice sounds like somebody doing audio book tracks for an Encyclopedia Britannica. So there's like a when we first meet him,

he's talking about why he doesn't like elevators. He says, I prefer the stairs suffer from claustrophobia. That's why I became a leaseman. Would much rather put others in cells than wind up myself in prison. Yeah, yeah, it's the dub is very enjoyable. But I think that dubbing in general, uh, it kind of it lends itself to a sort of

dry humor at times. You know, yes, um, so I can only imagine what the original language of this would have would have felt like if if one is a you know, an actual Dutch viewer of the film, and yeah, I should I should drive that home. This is uh, I think our first Dutch movie that we've looked at on Weird House Cinema. Though we have discussed films with

that have involved Dutch directors. We've also of course discussed Dutch actors Rugger Howard as of course probably the most famous Dutch actor of of of the twentieth century and beyond. And then also I'm pretty sure that Hawaiian Werewolf movie we watched had Dutch subtitles, because that's where we got work beast. Yes, that the version that we found on YouTube had Dutch titles. Um though it was itself not a Dutch film, but that but that was another foray

into the Dutch world on this this podcast. I apologize I interrupted your flow though what was What was the other thing you were going to say? Oh? I was just gonna reiterate that their first true killer appliance movie. Oh okay, Yeah, absolutely. I would say that chopping Mall does not count. Ghost in the Machine does not count because ghost in the Machine is more in the maximum overdrive vein chopping Mall. Those are killer robots anyway, they

just started attacking the wrong people. Now, sometimes killer appliance movies And when I say appliance, I'm going to use that very broadly to apply to everything from a bad to an elevator. Um. But a lot of times it is something like a bad something that you don't think

of is being dangerous at all. But I think the elevator is a very interesting pick because for it's an amazing technological advancement um and one that you know, it's like all in like all technological inventions, you know, you had maybe rocky or start at times, but you know, for the most part, I don't think I really hesitate when I board an elevator, or at least that wasn't the case in pre pandemic times. I might think about that more now, like how many people are going to

be on this, are they masked? Etcetera. But generally I have a lot of compidence in the technology and the regulation surrounding that technology. And yet at the same time I know that I have these on and off dreams about boarding strange elevators that are in varying stages of disrepair. So I feel like underneath the surface of of my consciousness, uh, there are a lot of more complicated thoughts about the

elevator and what the elevator is capable of. Oh, it sounds like you're a kindred Soul with the Inspector in this film. Well, but that's the thing I'm not I'm

not afraid of elevators at all. I'm perfectly comfortable getting on and I just have the dreams where you inhabit his frame of mind, right, which makes me me think that you know, with all of us, and part of it probably comes from movies, right, I mean, we we ride of elevators, and for the most part, I think we're you know, most of us out there probably don't

encounter much in the way of mishaps involving elevators. Um though I could see where that would that would certainly impact your appreciation of the technology if if it happened that way. But otherwise, we're watching all these movies, and in movies, elevators very often get stuck and people have to climb through them and on top of them, or they plummet, etcetera. And in this movie, elevators will do

all of those things. Yes, yes, and well, But another thing is that I can't tell how much of the weirdness of the way elevators are treated in this movie is due to this being a movie from the early eighties. In the Netherlands, or if it's just like weird about elevators, because the characters in this movie talk about elevators like they are a kind of new and dangerous thing, and I don't think they were particularly new or dangerous in in the Netherlands in the nineteen eighties. Is I don't know?

It could be wrong. Yeah, I didn't. I didn't get a chance to really research that. But there there's at least a time or two where a character makes a seemingly outrageous claim about elevator safety at the time. Um, I mean, I'm happy to be corrected on the matter. But we'll discuss that in a bit. There's some scene we're like, they're like, did you know that seven million people are decapitated by elevators? Everyone? Yeah, it's it's almost that ridiculous. I have it in the notes, So goog.

We'll get to that stat But first, Joe, would you would would you go ahead and give us an elevator pitch for this elevator movie. Oh, I think here's one where we were obligated to say pun not intended. But when an elevator in a Dutch tower building starts attacking and killing random people, it is up to intrepid elevator repairman Felix Adler to debug the death lift. All right, well, let's go ahead and listen to that trailer. Inside this vertical city, a machine has come to life, a machine

with a terrible secret wash. Modern technology gave burn to the lift, but the lip has made itself smarter, stronger, and deadly. Earn, take the stairs, Take the stairs, for God's sake, Take the stairs now. I don't know if the audio we just featured included the tagline, but if not, it is take the stairs, Take the stairs, for God's say, Take the stairs. Excellent classic heart you know is it's

very don't awesome? Yeah? I have to admit I usually watched the trailer for a film before I view it, but in this case, I just, uh, you know, you you you were you were convinced that this was a movie to watch. I looked at the IMDb listing for it. I said, let's do it. But I went ahead and skipped watching the trailer completely so I could go into it, uh you know, rather fresh. Well, sometimes it's good to go into fresh, but in this case, I just say, you know what, watch the trailer now. I guess to

talk about the real creative forces behind the lift. Uh. Number one has got to be Old Dick Moss. That's right, Dick Moss. Uh the last name spelled m A A S director, writer and also compose the music on this film, uh, which which I have to say is I thought was rather pleasant. It's a nice atmospheric electronic score. Um, you know, nothing that I need to seek out on vinyl necessarily, but but but I thought it was solid and did its job well. Uh. No acoustic instruments to get your

hackles up right right, No, no stirring piano pieces. Uh. So I say, good, good job. Dick Moss. Now Dick Moss, Uh yeah, Dutch film director, screenwriter, film producer and film composer who has produced quite a filmography of TV and screen credits between nine and two thousand sixteen. His first feature was a comedy called Rigor Mortis in one, and this film from eight three was the follow up, and it was apparently something of a hit, at least in the long run, earning sort of a B movie following

over time. It's it's listed in the Psychotronic Video Guide and allegedly Dick Moss was offered the chance to direct both a Nightmare on Elm Street movie after this, as well as a Gean Claude van Dam film. One assumes that these are two separate films and not the same film, but any rate, he declined and instead went on to make the Dutch action flick Amster Damned instead, a film that I haven't seen but was already familiar with due to it's um it's following. And of course that's just

ridiculous title that was so well chosen. Having seen the lift, I would love to see what his Nightmare on Elm Street movie would have been like, Yeah, I mean I can, I can, I can see it, I can see it. Where would you have if you could, you could put him in there, put him in the mix? Where which which director would you take out? And uh and slot Dick mosson. Oh, that's a good question. I don't know. I might replace part five the dream Child. That one's

not a lot of fun, okay. And do you think you could also fit Jean Claud van Damm in there as well? Yes, Jean Claude Vandam would play let's see, he would play Freddie Krueger's twin brother. Uh No, no explanation on that will just you know, put him in another sweater. It'll work. Okay, sounds go alright. Dick Moss also had a lot of success with the Flatterer comedy series, which I'm to understand is kind of a politically incorrect satire series that was controversial at the time but also

generated a big following. And while his comedy seem more aimed at a Dutch audience, his action in horror films seemed to have a broader aim in mind, and he eventually made a few films with more American star power, which includes Do Not Disturb starring William Hurt, Jennifer Tilley,

Michael Chiklis, and Dennis Leary. Weird okay, and he of course also helmed an American remake of this movie, The Lift in two thousand and one, a film titled either Down or The Shaft, depending on where you're acquiring it where where you might have seen it? Um it is.

So it's not a film that I've watched in its entirety, but I I signed up for the full Moon Channel to watch The Lift, and uh, the remake is also on the full Moon Channel, so I I watched a little of it and skipped around, and it's not a it's not in an it's not in its entirety a shot for shot remake, but sections of it are definitely seemed to be a shot for shot remake with say c g I assisted effects instead of practical effects. Oh bummer. Though I'm sure that is safer, there's there so I Uh.

The main reading about the production I did was on IMDb, which has, you know, some users submitted content. You can't always be sure about that, but it does sound like some of the some of the effects may have had people a little bit worried while they were shooting them, like at least at some point. It is alleged that they filmed the scene where a guy gets decapitated by an elevator by actually sort of putting a guy's head

under an elevator, but they did in reverse. Uh So I don't know that is a that is a legitimately horrifying scene, and I and I will say it is horrifying in BO the remake UM and the original. Even though I'm going to lean towards the practical effects versus the c G I, I still have to have to say it's it's pretty hard fine to watch in both cases. Well, I guess I'd say my preferences. Yes, I always prefer

practical effects pretty much. They look better. But you can do you can build like a fake elevator that has no weight, you know, right, But I think that probably wasn't within the budget of what right. I definitely like knowing that nobody almost got actually decapitated in a film that I'm watching. UM now that that update. That two thou one Uh remake also had a pretty great cast. It had Naomi Watts. This is Naomi Watts pre Mulholland Drive. By the way, UM featured a villainous role played by

Michael Ironside, who is of course always tremendous. You have Ron Pearlman in there, Edward Herman and Dan hideya oh. And also this is funny. The main character in the remake, by the way, I did not know that that this guy remade the Lift for American audiences when I picked this movie. But the main character in the remake is James Marshall, who was the biker boy in Twin Peaks and he he was also one of the kids in what's it called A Few Good Men. He's the kind

of not too bright of the two accused. Well, um, yeah, I barely remember that that film, but I'll tell you this, Uh, it's not really weird. How cinema material? Yeah yeah, I love a good sanctimonious courtroom drama. Uh at any rate. Um, it looks like the remake is is enjoyable on its own terms as well. Um, but but it it is definitely you definitely get that American eye sense, like from the get go. There are more curse words. Uh, there's there's more nudity. Uh. And and there's also a bazooka

and an Aerosmith song in there. An Aerosmith song? Which song? Oh you know which song? It's an elevator movie, which which one? Are they going to put it? Oh? Of course? Okay, I was thinking maybe don't want to miss a thing. No, this is playing as the guy gets decapitated by an elevator. I think it's the club. I think it's the credit song. Actually all right, well, Moss was He was not done there. Dick Moss also went on to direct the two thousand

ten film scent Or. I think it's sometimes released as The Saint, and this was his return to the horror genre. It is a film about a killer Satanic uh center clause figure a um like a like an evil punishing Dutch Santa Clause, which was something of a hit at the time. Apparently it was kind of controversial but had been garnered an audience like I think I've been noticing the box for this film at video Drome for many years,

but I just haven't seen it. Mass's most recent film was two thousand Sixteens Prey, and this was about a killer c G I lion rampaging through Amsterdam star English actor Mark Frost. And while this was his last film to date, uh, Dick Moss was the subject of the documentary did Dick Moss Method, which I was looking around. I don't know that this is available um to us yet, but I'm I'm kind of interested to see it. What

is the Dick Moss method. I'm not sure, but it's it seems to be have been a successful method because he was, by by all accounts, a pretty successful filmmaker, especially uh, you know, with within the Netherlands, uh you know, and uh and clearly was able to to reach beyond it. I mean, we're talking about him here today, okay, But it is at least a method. The method is a method of filmmaking. I was trying to imagine, is this like an alternative to the Heimlich maneuver? Like, no, I

assume I'm I'm assuming it's about his his approach to filmmaking. Okay, alright, so that is the creative force behind the scenes. We should get into the cast a little bit though. This is definitely only one of those cases where a lot of people were involved in this and just about everybody in it is is great in their own way. But how many Dutch actors, you know, can we really mentioned on the show if there aren't a lot of real connections to be made, especially for a largely uh, you know,

English speaking audience. Apologies in in advance on our attempts to pronounce these Dutch names, But we should talk about the guy who plays the protagonist hub Stopple Staple. Yeah, he plays what Felix Adlar and yeah and so yeah. Otolar is our elevator technician hero uh. He was born n four Dutch actor who has popped up in a

number of Dick Moss pictures, often in the lead. So he's in Flatterer, He's also in He's the lead in Amsterdamned and he's also the evil Nicholas in the Scent movie, so he plays the evil Santa Claus figure in that. This would explain. So in in the Lift, he's got very boyish good looks, so I kept comparing. Actually he looks a lot like Paul McCartney in a way. He does. Yeah, I mean he's he's got a great look um. And

and he's and he's a solid actor. Yeah yeah, yeah he so, yeah, he's he's got a good kind of stoic screen presence. He's good looking. He looks kind of like a Paul McCartney with a little dash of Oscar Isaac in there as well. Yeah yeah, I could see that. Yeah. But but but the thing about the same, this would

explain why we found this hilarious. When we first looked him up, the picture that came up was a picture of him dressed as Father Christmas with like scary looking shadows around him, right, and an inverted cross on the big Santa Paul pat. Yeah, the Bishop's hat very good. So uh. Staple has been in a number of Dutch films, so it's you know, very active. Um. So I'm not going to mention everything, but I have to miss mention this one. Uh, he was in the t V movie

about Anne Frank, starring Mary Steinbergen, Paul Scofield, and Tom Wilkinson. Actually, I think Tom Wilkinson had a smaller role, but he's in it. I don't think I ever saw this. I didn't either. But the interesting thing about it, it's it's again. It's titled The Attic The Idea, The Hiding of Anne Frank, and I'm not sure that's, you know, good or bad. I have no information about the quality of the picture, but it featured the cinematography talents of one Peter Jackson.

And it launched on the Craft Golden Showcase Network, Yes, a television network that was created by Craft Foods, and I think ultimately lasted in one form or another almost a decade with the dramatization about Anne Frank. Yeah, that is a weird venue for I was not able to find any other information about this TV network that perhaps comes from another dimension, but I I'm very interested, like, how did what else was on there? I think there were like two different movies that I saw credited as

having been a Craft Golden Showcase Network production. But clearly you gotta have more than that, especially if you're on the air in some form or another for for many years. Wow. Well, as far as I know, I've never heard of that. Okay, let's move on to our next. Our next actor. Um, this is the the actor Villa Cave van amil Roy who plays Mickey de Beer. She is this character is essentially our scrappy news reporter. You know, you've gotta have a scrappy news reporter in a picture like this is

all about getting in there finding the answers. Yeah. She. In fact, I would say that this movie sort of has two protagonists that that uh huge staple as as the elevator repairman is one, and she sort of comes in later to become the the other lead, and she's pursuing forbidden knowledge and sort of spurs our our young Paul McCartney hero to to to to dive deeper. Right. Yeah.

So the interesting thing here is that Villik is a major Dutch actor and director who appeared in films during the nineteen seventies opposite such actors as Rugger hower Uh in the films The Year of the Cancer and a film by the name of H. Gritstra and d gere Uh. And then she's also worked with with other major actors of of Dutch cinema and international cinema, such as Rick de Gour and Telly Savalis that uh in the film Killer The Killer is on the Phone from two. That's

the one with Telly Seplas in it. She also appeared in the one atte de young film A Flight of rain Birds starring Jerome Crabby. Uh. Aute DeJong of course directed Highway to Hell. Oh that's funny. Yeah, but this is just just working up to our Probably her most famous film credit, she appeared in um uh because this one was a major hit. She has the lead role in the Marlene Gorris film Antonia's Line, which is about a Dutch matron. This is a movie that won an

Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. And if you're not familiar with Marlene Gorris, she was a noted Dutch feminist and LGBT director and writer. Um ye uh yeah it was a it was a huge hit and it's supposed to be just a great film. Well I've never seen any of her good movies, but she's great in this B movie. She she's got a great sense of human like. I think she gets what this movie is about. She gets the tone, She gets the vibe um and has the right kind of sense of mischief about about pursuing

the plot. Yeah, yeah, totally, she nails it and she's I think still active. Um Uh. A film that some viewers slash listeners may be familiar with UH is that Villiki was in the two thousand six film The Lake House that started Kano Reeves, Sandra Bullock and Christopher Plummer never saw that either. Now, once again, they're various other

actors in this who are all all great. A number of them seem to have been Dick Moss regular players, uh, and and any number of them have connections to you know, to folks like Rudger Howard and Rick de gour Um and and and into each other of course. But I think that'll that'll that'll have to do it. But if you're if you were more familiar with Dutch cinema than we are, definitely take a look at the listing for the Lift on IMDb and you may find some amusing connections. Well,

are you ready to talk about the plot. Let's get into the plot. You know, this movie lets you know what it's about at the very beginning, because it begins with a pan over a passing elevator that mimics the Star Destroyer at the beginning of Star Wars. Yes, so

that comes along with the credits. But when we first meet some humans and and uh and have some rama, we get into something that is a regular feature of killer appliance movies, in fact, not just killer appliance movies, because killer appliance movies have something in common with creature features, slasher movies, uh, a lot of monster movies, and other horror subgenres, which is that the film must begin with an attack by the antagonist, whether that's human, animal, monster,

or even an inanimate object on a random person or group of random people before we meet our protagonist. Absolutely. I mean you see this rule and play probably most famously in Jaws, but you can you can probably pinpoint it in just about anything. Um. Like, one prime example that comes to mind is u is the Game of Thrones franchise. I think both the first novel and the Sea It series begin with just a little prologue in

which people are slaughtered by whitewalkers. Oh yeah, that's right, what's a I can almost remember one of their names, like Waymar Royce I think is one of them. And they are up north of the wall or something, and yeah, I remember get them. I remember reading it for the first time, and I was doing that thing that you sometimes do with books, were like, all right, this is my guy. All right, I got his name down. Yep, I'm picturing what he looks like. And then George R.

Martin like kills him in one chapter. Oh did yeah? All of them? Oh no, one of them survives the pro lingue to be beheaded in the following chapter. Okay, okay, but anyway, anyway, the lift adheres to form on the on this matter. So we begin the movie in a restaurant on the top floor of an office slash apartment building. I guess this would technically be a mixed use development to use. I don't know if they use that term

back then, but that's what it is. It's this tower building, it's got apartments, it's got offices, and it's got a restaurant on the top floor. And there are four rowdy, drunk people who are overstaying their welcome after clothes at a restaurant on the top floor that we later find out it's called restaurant Chorus, which is interesting choice. I did not notice that in my viewing of the film

this morning. So that's that's wonderful, wonderfully. On the notes, it's like, if we try to earn a Michelin star, we will we will soar too high and then crash into the waves outbreaks of listeria. Oh and by the way, regarding this scene, get up on my my as someone with restaurant experienced soapbox. Uh, Folks, please don't overstay your welcome at a restaurant after close. If you come in late, you know, that's fine, But people are trying to close up.

Just just try to get done with what you're doing as quickly as possible and get out of there. People got things to do when they're closing up a restaurant. You gotta bus dishes, you gotta clean the dining room. A lot of times people can't do that until you're gone. So just don't don't hang around if it's after clothes. I remember a pizza hut that I went to when I was a kid. What they would do is they would flip the lights on and off. I don't know

if that's standard operating procedure at restaurants. I like that. That's a good assertive manager. Trying to get you out of there. Well, that flies at pizza, but this is restaurant acres, so there, I can't do that. This is a fancy place though. So this is a fancy place with like a matre d in a in a you know, fancy little outfit. I think, uh, the matre d here might be the guy we saw in the credits whose

name was Johann Hobo. It is it is definitely okay, um but so but but but despite this being a fancy place, these diners are I don't know, they're up to no good. I'm not sure exactly what's going on with them, but they're clearly u drunk and getting into trouble. They are cavorting around with sloppy jokes that very much reminded me of the guy in the five Hundred Little Wigs sketch, and I think you should leave. You remember the he's comfortable in his skin because he can go

bald gracefully. I know I do not remember that one specifically, but I totally get you on the the general Tim Tim Robinson vibe here, because yeah, they're just ridiculously outrageous a drunk, these four we're embarrassed for them. We're embarrassed for the people who have to watch them and are waiting for them to leave. Right. So, anyway, they get showed out of the restaurant and they're taking the elevator

down to meet their cab. But while they're in the elevator, lightning strikes and the power goes out, and then they they're fooling around in the elevator doing all kinds of stuff, and then something starts happening and it is as if they are being ambient lee attacked by like the air in the elevator. I really did not understand what was going on here. They react almost as if they are being attacked with some kind of sonic weapon or psychic

pain ray. Yeah, we're too, I guess we're to understand that that something goes seems to go wrong with both the the movement of the elevator and also the air circulation, like and and also and also suddenly they're heating up, so it's like, yeah, it's like they're being microwaved in the elevator somehow, yes, like raise or hitting them and using agonizing pain. Uh. And also but there's like a kind of grating noise which made me think sonic weapons.

Somebody's aiming, so I'm kind of like, do you do you kind of thing at them? But no, it turns out. Oh and also I was sure they were dead when the power came. Yeah, I thought so too, because you see, like you have a p o V shot from one of the women in there, as like everybody else falls out, and then her vision blurs and goes dark exactly. And so then the doors open to reveal a gaggle of dumbfounded waiters and they look inside the elevator in horror.

But then the next scene lets us onto the facts that they were not killed. They were nearly killed, and the problem was that the air conditioning failed, which just does not I don't know, it doesn't really comport with what we were seeing. But okay, but that's our prologue, that's our our attack before we meet the protagonist. So the next thing you gotta do is meet the protagonist. We meet him with his family, and again this is a Hube Stopple or Hube Staple who plays this character

named Felix ad Or, our stoic elevator repair man. Again, he looks kind of like Paul McCartney, um, and we get some foreshadowing of some family dynamics that are going to go on later in the movie, because when we first meet him, he is nursing a black eye that he received apparently because he smiled at some lady and her husband punched him in the face. Yeah, and this is like the first kind of red flag with this character. Um, we end up spending a lot of time with the family.

And I think one of the things that I'm I've been thinking about with this movie is that generally in a film like this, the film of this caliber, you know, essentially a B film that's a horror film, you're gonna go by just widely in one direction or another with a character like this, like either he's a great family man, you know, put in a um an unnatural situation, or he's a complete dog put in an unnatural situation. He's

not really either here. No, And in fact, there's a fair amount of ambiguity regarding like what what's really wrong in this relationship with his wife. Uh, they've where we find out later they've been together like ten years or nearly ten years, and um, you know, there's not I don't know, it's it's almost like within this killer Elevator movie. Um, Dick Moss was also making this kind of more subtle family meditation, you know, and a sort of a look

at like what happens with relationships over time. I don't know. So we get more information about this as we move on. But but we begin with this breakfast scene, family breakfast scene, and UM, I think it's actually a really admirable sequence because there's a lot going on in this scene. We're establishing the characters that, you know, getting a hint of this family dynamic we've been discussing, we're you know, entering into the plot. Uh, and there's still time for some

family humor in there. There's some like legitimately kind of like you know, some funny stuff that's discussed. And then in the background at the end, there's a cat scratching at the sliding glass door trying to get in. Um. So, I don't know, I just felt like it was a very competent scene for for a horror movie. Plus you

also have a toy ambulance gag that's really great. Like after that whole business happened with the with the elevator and the four drunks, we cut slat you know, just a flash cut to an ambulance seemingly going down the road, and then you're watching it and you're like, oh, I think that's a toy. And then you're like, no, no, I don't think it's a toy at all, and it's it's a real ambulance and then it runs into somebody's foot and your, guys, it is a toy. It is

the Sun's toy. Yeah, that one got me too. I I thought that was a really good visual gag. And then one of the funny things is that immediately, uh, the mom is like, couldn't you get our son a quieter toy, like a book? And and he's like, no, you know, loud toys are good. That doesn't seem like a very common parental opinion. But right, they have very very different opinions on this, and and there doesn't seem to be a lot of room to compromise. So another

another problem signed for this relationship. Well, anyway, feel Lix gets a call to go check out the lift and so begins the investigation that will define the rest of the film. But he he gets a call, you know, he owe some people nearly suffocated and in an elevator last night. You gotta go figure out what's wrong with it. So we see him drive to the office tower and he gets into a consultation with Uh is this with the building superintendent or with a different guy. It's with

the guy named Bush, the really tall, chatty guy. Yes. Uh. And so he he meets with Bush and starts trying to figure out what's going on with the elevator. And I thought one of the first things that was funny was he goes he goes in there and he just kind of fiddles with one button or switch real quick, and then he's like, looks like nothing's wrong to me. Yeah, They're able to tell so much from just that one

little switch, which isn't it. I don't know, maybe there was something in the dub on this, because I feel like, for the most part, this is a movie that seems to take elevators very seriously. Uh, Like we're using a lot of like legitimate elevator show uh you know, uh locations. They at one point we're in a we're in an elevator factory or repair shop or something, so like it really got in there and wanted to learn about elevators.

And there's a lot of talk about how elevators work, so uh it feels a little weird that we have this sequence where they're just flipping a switch and making very broad statements about the functionality of this particular lift. Now on the flip side of what you say, UM, you know, I I feel like you and I are usually pretty careful not to uh conclude things are really simple. You know, you always assume that things might be more

complicated than they look at first. But I don't know if elevators are really as electronically complicated as this movie ultimately makes them. Soon because the next thing that happens is he's like, well, okay, I gotta go up and look at the control panel. And when they reach the you know, the roof, I guess the I don't know, the machine room at the top of the building where

the control panel is. They start talking about how there's this other box, this blue box containing the micro processors that guide the lift, and it's full of all these chips and it's all this complicated computer stuff that's way over his head. Again, I want to be fair, but I don't know if elevators are really all that computationally complicated. Well, they mentioned that you don't want all three elevators opening on the same floor at the same time, and you've

got to have microprocess. You've gotta have chips to take care of that. Joe, all right, Maybe I'm wrong here, Maybe I'm wrong. There used to be a guy in there controlling the elevator. Now it right by the way, we're gonna get this is not the last we've heard of chips in this movie. There's gonna be so much about chips, and it's one of my favorite things about

the film. But while he's up there fiddling around with the control panel trying to see if that gives any indication of what went wrong the night before, uh, there's some idle chit chat about the last guy, the last elevator repair man, whose name was Brooker, and they're like, oh, too bad. He went totally insane. He spent a really long time on the last maintenance visit. But they said he was great. They said this was why he was like so competent he spent I'll spent a lot of

time on the last visit to this elevator, right. Uh. So, Felix is not able to identify the problem. He says, well, maybe it's just a short circuit, but ultimately he doesn't know, so he goes back home and then we get some more scenes at the home with the family discussing things. Uh. Felix and his wife discuss how she is saving the caps to some kind of brand of beverage bottle. I think it might be just Seltzer or something. Um. And she's saving the caps because if she collects a hundred

of them, she could win a trip to Hawaii. Right, Yeah, And he's just kind of like, didn't we go to an island last year? So the huge disconnect here where like she wants to go to Hawaii. He's like, I've been to an island. What could Hawaii possibly offer me? Yes? Uh? And then all sides, I've done it. They have some great exchange I don't remember exactly. It's something she's like, you're not romantic anymore and he goes, I'm still that way. I am still that thing he said. I will not

say it, but I am that thing. Uh. And then so okay, from here, the movie continues according to the Killer X movie format. So you've got your initial attack, check, meet your protagonist, check, initial investigation turns up nothing. Check. So now you're twenty minutes in, guess what, it's time for one to three more Killer X attacks. In this case it is the killer elevator and what do you know, I think we get two of them in this case.

So in the first attack the elevator, the elevator murders a blind man by opening the doors without a car present and tricking him into and it tricks him into walking into the shaft and falling to his death. And this one felt especially awful. Yeah, this is one they also did in the remake, so so fans of the

first film don't worry they did it again. But yeah, I I did particularly like this one because I mean, it felt kind of mean spirited, but also it runs contrary to everything I've I've seen regarding um uh blind or side challenge people navigating public spaces. Uh, you know, like generally it seems like uh like like like people like using a cane in these cases are more aware of their physical around surroundings than sighted people who were

distracted by their phones and so forth. So I didn't really buy for a minute that that he would have just walked into that empty elevator shaft without like tapping the floor of the elevator or in this case, the the the the yawning absence in front of him. But then the second attack feels more more sort of on brand for a movie of this type. It is where

the elevator attacks a couple of night security guards. So there are two guards who were there, I don't know, you know, it's two in the more ing in in the place the place should be deserted. Uh. And you've got your two guards. You've got a young guard who's very well behaved, he's an eagle scout type. You find out he is engaged to be married, and he does not drink on the job. And then there's an older

guard who very much advocates drinking on the job. Oh yeah, yeah, not not only does he advocate drinking on the job, he advocates just all matter of hell raising and brags about the fact that he apparently caught so many STDs when he was younger that he is now immune to penicillin. That is what he says, yes, um, And then he wouldn't you know it? You know that they start noticing the elevators are acting weird, so that they've run up and down the stairs, chasing the elevators that appeared to

be going up and down by themselves. And then eventually the the jin guzzling guard goes up to an elevator shaft and then the door slam shut on his head and then the elevator just slides on down and decapitates him like a square guillotine. It is a horrifying scene. This the scene we were talking about earlier. Uh, there's a version of it in both the original and the remake. And like again it's this one where it's virtually shot for shot remake with a c G I instead of practical.

But yeah, in this movie, you know, absolutely horrifying, uh fake head falling down the elevator shaft and landing virtually in the dead blind man's lap. I would say this scene in particular is a is a strangely powerful combination of actually horrifying and comedic at the same time. Yeah. Yeah, And and like you've pointed out before on the show, like having that that that that comedic element perhaps intensifies what you're willing to buy, you know, in the sequence,

so it helps the helps make it work better. So anyway, after this, we meet the bumbling detective who comes in to explain that he doesn't like elevators prefers the stairs, um and uh, and starts spitting like elevator elevator tragedy facts that people. But this is also the guy I mentioned earlier who sounds like he's he's doing the the

audiobook track for an encyclopedia. You know what. I realized this may be way too niche, but for anybody who's ever played the Mass Effect video games, he sounds like the voiceover who reads all of the like encyclopedia entries in that game for the aliens and stuff. Okay, now this is the character that that has some some wonderful

sort of anti elevator facts and propaganda on hand. The one that he he belts out that really astounded me is is the idea that two hundred and fifty thousand people per year get stuck in elevators in the Netherlands alone. So this is three. I didn't research this, but that just sounds like a very high number. Two hundred and fifty thousand people per year in the Netherlands stuck in elevators.

Where are they getting their elevators? I don't know, I mean, I would, I mean it just I want to see a full breakdown on that like, how many elevators were there in the Netherlands? How many people were getting stuck on each one? Who's collecting? Yeah? How are they? How are they getting this number? Do they have a government task force that has to collect a report anytime somebody gets stuck in an elevator? Yeah? So I don't know.

It felt it felt really high. Maybe it's accurate. Maybe you know I'm the fool here, but I don't know. Well anyway, So the police are investigating these elevator attacks, and then Felix of course gets called back to the building again because he's got to take another crack at figuring out what went wrong. And while he's there, he meets up with our secondary protagonist, Mickey de beer Uh,

the journalist who rights for the New Review. When she mentions this to him, I don't know if this is a real magazine or or paper, or if it's made up for the film, But Felix reacts by saying, Oh, the New Review, Huh. I see it sometimes in my neighbor's bird cage. That was a good line. So that makes me wonder, Oh, is the New Review supposed to be something of tabloid? It's like the weekly World News for maybe so for for the Netherlands. I don't know.

But she is there because she's got up. She's got a hunch. She's investigating this company called Rising Sun that makes the microprocessors we mentioned that are in that blue box that supposedly controls the elevator that guides it. And uh and of course Bush, the guy from the office, he's trying to get rid of her. He doesn't want her sniffing around, so he throws them out. Felix still can't find a problem with the lift, though, though it seems to Beer has sort of caught his attention with

her weird hunches. Oh but from here we go onto a tremendous bowling sequence at a place that I want to go to called Klaus party House. Yeah. I mean, in general, this film just does a great job with with locations, like I'm interested in every minor location like that that the house that the family lives in is very interesting. And this is, you know, clearly a a Dutch bowling alley from the nineteen the early eighties, and uh, it's I'm instantly just all into the background here. Uh

there's a banner that says Closs party House. Um, so, which I'm assuming is the name of the bowling alley. And then as they go to the bar and they're they're ordering a drink that the characters and they're talking, I'm not really listening to them all that much because I'm noticing that the score panels above each of the

bowling lanes. Um, you know, we're used to sing the score up there, uh, in a bowling alley, but here it seems to be some sort of projection method because you see scorecards up there, but then the silhouettes of hands manually altering the scorecard. Oh, they're like those projectors,

like classroom projectors, being right on the transparency. But here you're writing the scores, which I I just had no idea that this was ever a thing like I've I've mostly been to bowling alleys that have the you know, the electronic scoring system and it scores it for you. And I've also been to at least unbowling alley where there we had to do everything by hand on paper,

but it wasn't in any way projected for you. Well, I did love that, and I also love other things about the scene, which are the central premise the character drama in the scene is that Felix is too preoccupied with the lift and he can't focus on bowling because it's a it's a it's a family affair. He's out about bowling with this a double day. He's out bowling with his wife and a couple of friends in theirs and the friends who like the guy. He wants a beer,

but his wife's like, no, you'll have Tonic. Tonic is pretty good. I'm I've become a fan of Tonic. Yeah, you gotta get your coin on you. Uh. And then from here the middle section of the movie, we might skip over a little more lightly. It's sort of transitions into more investigation investigation mode. He and also um family drama mode. But but Felix and UH and Mickey de Beer, they start figuring out something strange is going on to

this elevator. Could it have something to do with this company with this ominous name of Rising Sun. You know that sounds like it could be sinister in some way. And so one of the leads that they get into is that Felix is at his office and he has some uh banter with like weird crass co workers, and then he finds out the guy they referenced earlier the former maintenance man at this tower who had worked on

the elevator before, who is now committed to a sanitarium. Uh. Felix is wondering could it be that he sabotaged the elevator, But everybody talks to is like, no, that doesn't seem right. Elevators, he would never do this elevator um. And so eventually Felix goes to visit Brooker at the sanitarium, where Brooker appears near catatonic. Apparently he badly lacerated his hands when he uh when he previous attack to television after seeing

something on it he didn't like. And the question is what did he see on the TV that that made him smash the screen in But you know, he can't get an answer. Um. And then meanwhile there's another elevator

attack or a nearer elevator attack. Unfortunately, this movie would not pass the Gene Ciscle test for does this movie depict a child in peril because it's manipulates you by suggesting that the elevator might kill a child, who, by the way, is she's like hanging out in the lobby of the office building because her mom is having an affair with the building superintendent. But fortunately the child is unharmed. Uh,

the elevator does injure her doll. So first of all, yeah, this is this is ultimately a good sequence, one that they again recreated almost shot for shot in the remake. But I'm not as familiar with Gene Siskel's rule here. Did was this something where like if if you depict a child in peril, it's like an automatically a thumbs down for him, or automatically ah, you know, lose the star.

Well he I don't think he actually had a formalized rule, but I recall from a number of his reviews this was often something he would pick out that he didn't like about a movie was that it had a scene where children were in peril. I don't it seems it seems to me like he thought that maybe that was in bad taste, or that it was manipulative or something. Well, I'll let everybody know that no dogs or cats are killed by elevators in this movie, though it apparently loves

to kill rats. So yeah, yeah, and no children are actually harmed either. There is just there's just the implication. Yeah, though, oh god, the but the Stanard to this. The scene though, is that it like mangles her doll. Like basically, the thing with the Killer Elevator is that it has to be very patient, and it has to it doesn't have that very it doesn't have very many ways to influence the outside world, so it's not always gonna gonna actually score a hit. In this case, it was probably trying

to kill a child. It just had to mangle a doll. And then when her mom comes out of the from the affair situation and finds out what's happened, she slaps the child across the face. Oh god, yeah that was weird. Yeah, yeah, I've forgotten about that. We were like what Yeah, and then she leaves and we never see those characters again. Yeah,

very weird warning on that. Well, anyway, after this attack, we get back into the investigation, and so we've got we've got Felix into beer and there they're they're trying to figure out what's going on. And oh and there's

a breakthrough I think when they're sitting around talking. Well, first of all, there's a funny I don't remember exactly where this happened, but there was one exchange that had Rachel and me laughing really hard, which was when Felix says something like, uh, this lift does things it shouldn't and Beer says, I've done things I shouldn't all right, good point. Yeah, yeah, yeah, So she's like taking out

for the elevator. It's like, come on people, um but but but the thing they get to is that they start talking about Rising Sun, that manufacturer of computer chips, and de Beer fills Felix in on the fact that actually this company was featured on a science program on television last week. So I think we're supposed to recall, oh that maybe when Brooker the previous elevator and punched the TV tap to television. Yeah. So from at this point in the film we get into like full blown

investigation mode, research and also some family drama sprinkled in there. Um, this makes sense, right, you can't just have constant elevator attacks. You've gotta pad things out just just right. I feel like in a lesser film this would have been a really boring slog you know. But the performances in this are all really good. Uh, the locations are great. All

that helps to pull it along. Yes, And I another thing is my single favorite scene in the entire movie is in this section, which is the scene where Felix and de Beer go to a professor in his like college classroom who explains what chips are to them and the microchips, but he just keeps He says the word chips like four hundred times and starts telling all these bizarre anecdotes. They're all things like once there was a

chip that went insane and acquired a soul. They had to launch the chip into space, and that is the story of chips. And then you know, once there was a chip that rewrote its own program and it became evil and they were forced to incinerate it in a nuclear bomb, and that is how chips work. Now, he does say something about like there's a they went there was this computer they went badman, he just bury in

the ground. They had like seal it away, right, yes, yeah, yeah, it's this is a scene that I liked it as well, because it kind of felt like a like a scene from a David Cronenberg film of the time period where characters go to a professor or scientist who then proceeds to say crazy things that you don't really buy um and then ultimately I guess in the context of the film, like our protagonist, our our main character, the elevator repairman.

He's like, like, are you sure that guy knew what he was talking about, and and she's like, yeah, yeah, he's an expert, you know, Yeah, he's brilliant. Yeah, he knows all about chips. He's one of the world's leading authorities on chips. Uh oh, and also one of the Oh. But the crucial fact we learned in the scene that will come into play later is that, according to this professor, sometimes chips are made out of living tissue and like

their proteins and organic cells to create chips. But they stopped making chips out of things that are alive because the chips started growing too fast or something and could be influenced by radiation or magnets, and that became too dangerous. Yeah. And I mean this is where we're kind of getting into Cronenbergie territory here, where suddenly this film is beginning to feel like it's not entire really in the real world, that it is in a slightly science fiction version of

the early nineteen eighties, which which I like very much. No, No, Rob, I think you're wrong. I mean, lest you forget that that uh episode from Real History where Bell Labs made a computer chip out of a ferret's brain and then it had to be sent into the core of the Earth or else it would have taken over all of

the telephone lines. Alright, fair enough anyway, So we mentioned earlier that there was some some foreshadowing of like uh family strife and relationship drama between Felix and his wife and and h fears about adultery that that comes up later where there is I don't know. I was talking

to Rachel about this. She she felt that this subplot was sort of unnecessary, and I can see why you would go there, because so what happens is Felix and de Beer while they're investigating everything, or like sitting at a cafe talking about their investigation, and some friends see them and then tell his wife and they convince his wife that he is having an affair. And you can file this under a thing that happens in a lot of movies and I always find really annoying, and it

is it is this. It's plot conflicts that are the result of a misunderstanding, which the protagonist could easily fix if they would just explain things but for some reason they don't explain it right. So Felix's wife is like, you're you are committing adultery, you are cheating on me, And he could say, no, I'm not. I'm trying to figure out when elevator keeps killing people, But for some reason, he just doesn't explain himself and and she leaves him.

I find this a very annoying writing tick, and it's in a lot of movies, and I don't know exactly why that is so common. It might just be a a problem where like, I don't know, like the writer realizes that it would be tedious to have a scene where the character explains themselves, so you just skip over it. But like it doesn't really make sense that a character

would not bother to explain themselves. I don't know, Yeah, yeah, I mean, I mean, obviously they're trying to get at the fact that these two have clearly have some communication problems, and uh, you know, but to this level where he's not going to just be like, no, no, there's like legit people dying at this building. Look, here's the newspaper clipping,

or yeah, or just explain the situation more. But instead things escalate to the next level of him of him, like walking in going to that little container where she keeps all the little uh pop tops and she's collecting for that to enter to win a trip to Hawaii, and low and behold it is. It is empty and his family is gone. Yes, they have gone to Hawaii without him. You collect the one soda pop and you and your and your loved ones uh and you can

choose if your husband goes as well. Are magically transported to Hawaii and there's no coming back, right, And he but he didn't want to go to Hawaii anyway, remember, because he'd been to an island. But he's been to an island, yes, he's he's familiar with it. He's like, maybe we could go to peninsula. I don't know, but I've done an island. I would like to go to

a butte. Well, anyway, the investigation continues, so uh de Beer and Felix go to the Rising Sun headquarters, the company that makes the chips, the chips that control the elevator. And a couple of things to point out about the Rising Sun headquarters actually more than a couple uh interesting location by the way, very barren. Yeah, this is another just a real coup of a location. Fine, because it feels like it's it was this is they filmed this

in the swamp lands of Mordor or something like. I don't know if this is like maybe an area of like reclaimed land in the Netherlands and this is like the first industrial building built out there something. But it looks just suitably desolate for a suspicious technology company to

have its headquarters. Like when you drive into the location today, your navigation apps which is its voice over to Andy Circus and starts just saying this way, precious and and so they're they're driving up on this barren swamp and there's a sign out front this. I know this is just regular Dutch, but to an English speech speaker, it looks amazing. It says verboden toe gang, which means no

no trespassing. But Rob, I don't know if you notice the other interesting thing about this building where they manufacture these chips, these chips, it's only two stories. Oh, they might not have an elevator in there at all. Yeah, no need for an elevator in this building. They go, they go wide and low. So they come here and they meet with a Mr. Crone, a head of research that they don't really turn up anything interesting. In fact, I don't even really recall much what they talked about

in this scene. Basically he's just trying to blow him off. He's like, I don't have time for you. Um. They're like, what's that is that? Because you go into you go into this this office and immediately to your left is the room where they're doing the top secret stuff. Um, but not tough so top secret that there's any security in place or anything. So uh, and he's just basically like, I don't have time for this. You've got to leave. And uh, this this room that's bathed in red light. Yeah. Yeah.

We are told that most of the chips are made in Japan these days, but they apparently make some of them here and they're they're mostly doing maintenance. But but they're also like, yeah, we don't have anything to do with anything going wrong at a at a plant, Like we have our name on the line here, like we're we're a professional organization. We're not an evil corporation. Uh,

why don't you get out of here? Did you get the message that the chips that are made in Japan or just like those are the normal chips, those are the ones that aren't going to start killing people, but the ones they make here, and these might be a problem. I suspect because we're basically leading up to a big reveal here. But I suspect they're making not a normal type of chip here, They're making some sort of a uh it previously established dangerous cronin burgery bergee type of chip,

some sort of bio chip. That's right. So here we're going to get to our final showdown. I guess this is after after Felix's family has left him, you know, he has nothing left to live for really. Uh, he decides, Okay, I'm going to go in and I'm going to face the elevator. Yeah, and this is this is like the yeah, the last leg of the film. And I thought it

was tremendous that was very well done. I was legitimately concerned that Felix was going to be killed by this elevator at times, which of course is is what you're supposed to feel as a as a viewer. Uh, it really had me on edge, like crawling, you know, in and out of this thing as the elevator is, of course moving around with a will of its own, a

murderous will of its own. Uh you know. It's kind of like the Showdown in two thousand and one of Space Odyssey, except it's it's all elevator, but it never talks. The elevator never gets to tell Felix like stop, don't do that, It doesn't sing Daisy, It just tries to crush him in various ways. Yeah, and it's yeah, it's

it's a great sequence. It's it's well shot, um and then we we we lead up to the like the final part of the showdown essentially is oh, I don't know if we mentioned this earlier, but one of the first things he tries to do is to get into that blue box and cut off the ships. But it's empty.

There's nothing in it. It turns out the like the the the the computer center for this elevator system is somewhere else, and in this final sequence he finds it in the elevator shaft itself, in this um this compartment in the wall of the shaft that's leaking some sort of a glowing ectoplasm type substance. He has to crawl up there and he's opening it up and there is the bio chip, this kind of slimy ectoplasm, cronin burgery, mixture of circuitry, and I don't know, like brain fluid

or something. I was calling it command slime. There is command slime at the core and and he tries to disrupt the command slime with a wrench. He yeah, and it's really great because of course it also adds the lighting of the sequence. So yeah, he's trying to slam it with a wrench, and then the whole time the elevator is basically going up and down, I think something like hitting his body at times, trying to like rip him in half, and it's legitimately terrifying. Um. Yeah, great sequence.

In the remake they do the same thing, except the brain chip stuff is pink and bigger and kind of looks a little bit like crane. Does it have a face? No face, but but very crany Okay. Basically in the original it looks like Ghostbusters one slime, and in the remake it looks like Ghostbusters to slime, you know what I'm saying. Yeah, ohh And there's a great rescue scene actually where the elevator, the elevator is gonna crush him

and it looks like our our protagonist is doomed. But then uh, Mickey de Beer shows up at the last moment and pulls him out of the shaft just just in time. I thought it was yeah, yeah, I was like, that's it for Felix, Who's going to repair the kid's toy ambulance now and make it even louder than it was before. Mom's new boyfriend can't do that. Um. But but no, no, he's rescued and and uh and so together they it seems like maybe they've saved the day

and defeated the machine. But then we get then we get a twist. Uh, the guy from the lab that's bathed in red light comes back, the guy from Rising Sun. And so what does he explain at the end, He's like, well, this chip isn't working like it's supposed to. Yeah, he doesn't explain much, which I like, like, Basically, he shows up, he pulls a gun and you're like, oh, he's come to protect the chip and to silence these people. But instead he goes over to the shaft and shoots the

bio chip a few more times. That's are again already been like hit with a ranch or screwdriver or whatever. Um. And then he says something. The fact of it was sick. It was very sick. He was very sick. And he doesn't get much of a chance to explain anything else because then what happens h with his back turn to the elevator shaft. One of the elevator cables, which had snapped earlier, comes comes out like a tentacle, wraps itself around his his neck and pulls him into the elevator

shaft and strangles him to death. Now I think they're pushing it a little bit here, because I don't know how an elevator cable would do that, even if the command chip wanted it to do that, even if the command slide was like go go reach out and get that guy, there's no mechanism to do that. But you know what, right there at the end, our our disbelief is suspended. That got us that they can get away

with it. Yeah, I totally bought it. And then of course we have a wonderful credit sequence where what are they doing. They're taking the stairs. Uh, they're taking the stairs down from whatever floor this was on where we had the show down. I also like to imagine at the end that that the beer ends up writing about this incident in her tabloid. It's like right next to a story about bat Boy or whatever. Yeah, it turns out nobody actually takes this story seriously because she doesn't

represent reputable journalistic uh publication. And that's the Lift. Uh yeah, I have to say this one, This one is a lot of fun. Yeah. Now you you might be wondering, well, hey, I want to get in on this, uh this action. Where can I watch Three's the Lift? Well, you can do like I did. You can simply sign up for the full Moon channel. Uh. That way you have access to a number of B movies. But in my case, anyway, you got access to both The Lift and the remake.

So that's pretty good. But I believe there was also Yeah, there was a Blu ray that came out, um, and you can pick this up. This up, This one, uh is out from Blue Underground, who have excelled with putting out some some sort of you know, a cult following B movie type fair Apparently the the Blu ray for this has auto commentary from Dick Moss, so uh that sounds pretty good, along as some other extress. All right,

so check it out if you're interested. All right, if you'd like to listen to other episodes of Weird House Cinema. We put this out every Friday and the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast feed. We're primarily a science podcast, but on Friday's we put most of the serious matters aside and just discuss a weird film. And hey, if you if you dig Weird House Cinema, we now have uh an Instagram account for Weird House Cinema. It's just weird how cinema one word, no no brakes or anything.

You can go look that up. And also, uh I if you go there, you can find the links for this in the link tree. But I maintain a blog titled Some Mood of Music and I basically just use that as a place to put a little blog posts about the episodes as they come out. Uh So, if there's a trailer, I'll include it there. If there's some additional media that we've discussed that needs to go there, like I don't know the trailer for Hamster Damned, uh,

then I will put that in there as well. Huge things as always to our excellent audio producer Seth Nicholas Johnson. If you would like to get in touch with us with feedback on this episode or any other. To suggest a topic for the future, or just to say hello, you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your Mind is

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