Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Rebekah McKendry
Starring: Gino Anania, Verity Marks, Alec Carlos, Madison MacIsaac, Liam
Stewart-Kanigan, Nazariy Demkowicz, Megan Best
Director Rebekah McKendry's Elevator Game is
inspired by a Korean urban legend of the same name. Players of the
"Elevator Game" are required to enter a supposedly haunted elevator at
3am and punch in a specific pattern of floor selections. On the fifth
floor you must close your eyes and avoid making contact with "The Fifth
Floor Woman," a spook who enters the lift at that point. Finally, you
press the first floor. Most players will simply be taken to the first
floor, but an unlucky few are said to be brought to another
dimension.
Sounds like a pretty good starting point for some Asian horror
influenced thrills, right? McKendry's film does start off promisingly as
we watch one unfortunate player of the Elevator Game, a teen named Becki
(Megan Best), fall foul of The Fifth Floor Woman in a prologue
whose tension the movie sadly never replicates.
Desperate for answers to her disappearance, Becky's older brother Ryan
(Gino Anania) joins a crew of young YouTubers whose channel is
dedicated to debunking urban legends and paranormal lore. This thinly
sketched lot are your classic bunch of bad horror movie protagonists and
are basically a b-grade Mystery Inc. There's a brainy Velma type in
Chloe (Verity Marks); Kris (Alec Carlos), a Fred-esque
jock; a Shaggy type cameraman in Matty (Nazariy Demkowicz); and a
dizzy blonde Velma in Izzy (Madison MacIsaac).
Ryan's suggestion that the Elevator Game become the subject of their
next episode is quickly shot down until the crew's sponsor threatens to
pull out if they don’t get something online in the next couple of days.
Sneaking into the office block where Becki disappeared, they begin to
document their experience of the Elevator Game.
At one point a dismissive Kris suggests that there's no way to make
riding an elevator visually interesting. Despite McKendry's best
efforts, he's ultimately proven right. Much of the film features various
characters playing the game, leaving us to watch as the elevator goes
up, goes down, goes back up…it's not exactly riveting horror
filmmaking.
The kills are uninspired and hindered by some second rate CG, and it
doesn't help that none of the characters are three dimensional enough
for us to become invested in their fates. They're simply fodder for the
Fifth Floor Woman, who is revealed to be yet another lank-haired
brunette from the J-horror template (are none of these spooks
blonde?).
Perhaps the biggest issue with Elevator Game is that it
can't quite pin down its own mythology. There seems to be no rhyme or
reason regarding the outcome of the titular game. Why do some survive it
but not others?
A closing jump scare is shoehorned for the sake of setting up a
potential sequel, but it's a case of the movie completely ignoring its
own poorly conveyed rules. I doubt too many will be clamouring for a
followup, as despite its theme, this first entry is far from elevated
horror.
