The Shaft

Rating:
Summary: Horror! This Elevator Kills! Naomi Watts in Campy Horror
Review: "The Shaft" (aka "Down" in some countries) is virtually a remake of the Dutch cult film "The Lift" which was made in 1983 by the same Dutch director Dick Maas ("Do Not Disturb"). The original film about an elevator that kills people was a big hit in Europe, and he revamped the idea with newer technology and English-speaking cast now.

Probably you expect to see Naomi Watts as the lead, but the fact is James Marshall as elevator repairman (and ex-marine ... how convenient!) is the protagonist of the film. This guy Mark Newman and Naomi Watts's Jennifer Evans, a journalist for NYC paper, suspect something strange behind the repeated accidents of the express elevators in "The Millenium Building" of the city. But what is it?

The idea of killing elavator is interesting (which is later to be found in "Final Destination 2"), and some parts of the film are really good and even scary. You should see how the machine kills for yourself if you are intrigued by the idea at all, but remember, Dick Maas' films are doing all these things with quite tongue-in-cheek attitudes. You cannot take the film seriously, so let's forget the totally silly logics about this demonic machine or awfully corny dialogues.

This film is shot just before Naomi Watts went for bigger things like "Mulholand Drive" "The Ring" and "28 grams." No one thought she was going to be Oscar nominee at that time (me neither) and the names of the supports reflect that condition. Michael Ironside ("Starship Troopers") is as hammy as ever, and Ron Perlman and Dan Hedaya (both in the fourth "Alien" series) also show up, plus Edward Herrman ("The Cat's Meow").

Again I say, "The Shaft" is silly, and only occasionally good. It is certain that Dick Maas has considerable visual flair (see the opening floating shot), but his whimsical comic sense prevents the film from running smooth with suspence and horror. It's a real pity

Rating:
Summary: Horror! This Elevator Kills! Naomi Watts in Campy Horror
Review: "The Shaft" (aka "Down" in some countries) is virtually a remake of the Dutch cult film "The Lift" which was made in 1983 by the same Dutch director Dick Maas ("Do Not Disturb"). The original film about an elevator that kills people was a big hit in Europe, and he revamped the idea with newer technology and English-speaking cast now.

Probably you expect to see Naomi Watts as the lead, but the fact is James Marshall as elevator repairman (and ex-marine ... how convenient!) is the protagonist of the film. This guy Mark Newman and Naomi Watts's Jennifer Evans, a journalist for NYC paper, suspect something strange behind the repeated accidents of the express elevators in "The Millenium Building" of the city. But what is it?

The idea of killing elavator is interesting (which is later to be found in "Final Destination 2"), and some parts of the film are really good and even scary. You should see how the machine kills for yourself if you are intrigued by the idea at all, but remember, Dick Maas' films are doing all these things with quite tongue-in-cheek attitudes. You cannot take the film seriously, so let's forget the totally silly logics about this demonic machine or awfully corny dialogues.

This film is shot just before Naomi Watts went for bigger things like "Mulholand Drive" "The Ring" and "28 grams." No one thought she was going to be Oscar nominee at that time (me neither) and the names of the supports reflect that condition. Michael Ironside ("Starship Troopers") is as hammy as ever, and Ron Perlman and Dan Hedaya (both in the fourth "Alien" series) also show up, plus Edward Herrman ("The Cat's Meow").

Again I say, "The Shaft" is silly, and only occasionally good. It is certain that Dick Maas has considerable visual flair (see the opening floating shot), but his whimsical comic sense prevents the film from running smooth with suspence and horror. It's a real pity

Rating:
Summary: A potentially good premise shot to hell
Review: A number of years ago there was a film "The Lift" which was also about a demonic elevator.It was much better than this one.This, I think, could have been a decent film but it fails completely.

Rating:
Summary: A potentially good premise shot to hell
Review: A number of years ago there was a film "The Lift" which was also about a demonic elevator.It was much better than this one.This, I think, could have been a decent film but it fails completely.

Rating:
Summary: Waste of money
Review: At least I rented this and didn't buy it so it wasn't that much out of my wallet, but still. How do the writers stay awake to write this junk? How did they find investors to make it?? I guess it's just a cheap horror flick so I couldn't expect much. BAAAAD acting, unbelievable dialogue. All the actors had sort of "coached" voices, so it didn't sound real.

I turned this boring movie off 15 minutes through. The final straw was this one scene in a restaraunt where this snotty RUDE customer complains, swears, and shoots his mouth off to the waitress, then punches the guy who gets in the middle. And nothing happens to him- he just walks out! I won't watch something when people can behave that way and not get their dues. That character should have had his face punched in!

And one of the last reviews was correct, they DO over-use the F-word, and it sounds so unbelievable, like they are swearing just to appeal to the younger viewers. Stay away!

Rating:
Summary: Do yourself a favor...take the stairs.
Review: Don't look down, the first step's a doozy - aka - Do yourself a favor...take the stairs.

The elevators in one of New York city's most popular business and tourist attraction skyscrapers begin to kill people. It takes a "goof off but great in a crisis" (is there any other kind of goof off in movies?) elevator repair man (James Marshall) and a spunky female reporter (again, is there any other kind?) (Naomi Watts) to prove that the cause is something other than faulty circuits or sabotage and more along the lines of thinking, man made evil.

This is a slow moving film with stock characters, average performances from the leads, and some good actors (Edward Herman, Michael Ironside, Ron Perlman, the reasons this gets two stars and not none) in small roles. It's a B- TV quality movie. Don't mind mindless horror movies and home sick from work? That's the kind of time to watch this film. The spookiest thing about this movie is that it mentions terrorism, Osama Bin Laden, the 1993 attack on the Towers, and came out just before 9/11. That kind of creepy can't be written.

Rating:
Summary: Or one star, depending on how you look at it
Review: If you take this film as a "serious horror film," you will be probably be angry at the end (or before) of this movie. But if you are looking for a movie to point and laugh at Mystery Science Theater 3000 style, then this one is quite good.

Let's start with the title: The Shaft. This movie already knows its bad. They wanted people to pick this thing up either looking for the classic blaxploitation film or a porno. Either way, they will be terribly disappointed. Fortunately, for the rest of us, the title alone (combined with the requisite picture of the glowing elevator) shows how very cheesy this movie is.

Then there are the characters. There's little to no characterization here, not surprisingly. The two main characters - an elevator repairman ex-Marine and a nosy reporter - are equally obnoxious. And the reporter's clothes are truly horrendous. I thought she deserved to die by the hand (or would it be cord?) of the elevator because of her fashion sense alone. (I can't describe a full outfit, as it's level of ugliness is just so high I've blocked it out of my mind. Either way, hot pink snakeskin jackets should not be legal). There are a bunch of random character actors in here as well, but they just add their name to the credits, if anything. I can't imagine why they chose to make this movie - they must have needed cash, quick.

Now, moving right along to the plot. For movies like this one, you would be likely to say, "What plot?" However, like the best of this genre, this film (ahem - I hesitate to call this a film, but nonetheless), attempts to have a plot, but falls miserably on its face instead. After all, this is a movie about a haunted elevator. As one of my friends commented while in the video store, "How does the elevator kill people? Wouldn't you just take the stairs?" But despite this obvious issue, this movie actually manages to have too much plot. The group of people I was with was very tempted to just fast-forward, but we just chose to talk over those bits instead. As a result of this excess of plot, the movie is just a bit too long for a really quality flick to make fun of. Thankfully, as we discovered, the parts with the most plot build up to the most spectacular and ridiculous deaths.

And spectacular and ridiculous those are. I won't describe the best for fear of ruining the surprise, but let's just say it ends with an obnoxious rollerblader very, very much squashed. Unfortunately, most of the deaths are not as good as that one (and could possibly be the result of a mechanical failure and not the elevator being haunted), but The Shaft is worth watching just for that one scene. Combined with possibly the worst transition in movie history (we had to go back and watch it twice, it was so horrifically, disturbingly bad), this movie is a minor classic in terms of laughability. But for a real horror movie, go rent Silence of the Lambs.

Rating:
Summary: A lot of pre-9/11 puns
Review: Not only is the scipt cheesy and the acting bad, there are a lot of Bin Laden, terrorist, Afghan puns which in post-9/11 America are hard to tolerate. Naomi Watts lacks any talent in this movie and it seems she must have spent a lot of time with an acting coach between this movie and Mulholland Drive or The Ring. The other actors are no-name, bit part actors and aren't worth mention. Complete waste of time/money.

Rating:
Summary: Waiting for a follow up called "The Escalator"
Review: Now this is just getting ridiculous. I followed a review for the Troma schlockfest "Killer Condom" with a few comments about "Inseminoid." Now I am writing a review for a film called "The Shaft." What's even funnier is the next movie I have on my list, a little number named "Contamination." I absolutely swear to you that I had no impure thoughts in mind when I assembled my list of products to review. I have my own system about what to review, one that I sometimes deviate from when the mood strikes me, but I have to wonder if some sort of subliminal thoughts were percolating under my mental radar after looking at the order of these risqué sounding movies. Really, though, if I was seeking some sinister pattern, I would probably have arranged the titles thus: "The Shaft," "Killer Condom," "Contamination," and "Inseminoid." At least that ordering seems to resemble the reproductive route to some extent (excepting contamination, of course, although that sadly happens to more than a few unfortunate souls). Perhaps this whole thing is the reviewer's equivalent of a Freudian slip. Sorry about that.

After watching the film "The Shaft," I was surprised I had not heard of it before. The movie deals with the disastrous consequences of an elevator possessed by some malevolent force. One of the biggest buildings in what could only be New York City is the scene of an increasingly bizarre series of mutilations and murders centering around one of the building's primary elevator shafts. The building's management moves quickly to cover things up after a car full of pregnant ladies experiences a strange incident in the elevator that causes all of them to suddenly give birth. Further nightmares occur when a several passengers die horribly when the bottom falls out of the elevator car in question, a skater is expelled from the elevator like a ball shot out of a cannon (on the top floor, no less, meaning it is a long way down through that pane of glass!), and a security guard undergoes a horrendous decapitation. What is going on here? Who knows and who cares! Well, the local police seem to care a great deal about the gory antics in the building, as do the people who frequent the establishment. The local elevator repair dudes care the most since they are always heading out to the building to check for malfunctions after the latest disaster.

The movie centers on these two repair techs, especially Mark Newman (James Marshall). He's the sort of guy who slums his way through life, spending his nights drinking himself into a stupor and dealing with his mercurial girlfriend. Newman only took the job with the elevator company because it seemed like a relatively easy way to make a living. As the disturbing incidents in the building begin to build to a fever pitch, Mark starts asking a lot of questions that make everyone around him nervous. When a catty reporter named Jennifer Evans (Naomi Watts) starts digging up dirt on the gruesome accidents, she quickly drags the repairman into the fray when she prints several smart aleck statements he made about the dangers of using elevators. After a sound cussing out from his boss about this unwanted publicity, Newman resolves to keep his nose clean and just do his job. He can't, though, because the nightmarish elevator and Jennifer continue to cause problems for him. Moreover, an enigmatic character named Gunter Steinberg (Michael Ironsides with German accent in tow) draws suspicion when Jennifer and Mark discover he worked on some top-secret military project to turn computers into living creatures. And the very same Gunter Steinberg just happens to work at the elevator research facility at Newman's company (there is actually research attempting to advance elevator technology? Goodness!). Could Steinberg have something to do with recent events?

Hammy. Cheesy. Goofy. These words, and several similar ones, come to mind when watching "The Shaft." The cast only adds to the general sense of ridiculousness. Dan Hedaya, Michael Ironsides, Edward Herrmann, and Ron Perlman all make appearances here. And all turn in over the top performances. One wonders why these actors appeared in "The Shaft." Are they this desperate to pick up a paycheck? Apparently so. At least Naomi Watts has an excuse for working in this mediocre horror movie. Still trying to make a name for herself in Hollywood when the film was made, Watts does an adequate job playing the yellow journalist looking to make her big break in the hard-hitting world of the New York newspaper industry. Her character IS annoying, but she's supposed to be so it works out well. As for Marshall, he mostly smirks his way through his role as Mark Newman.

There are two scenes worth looking for during the course of the film. The skater rocketing out of the elevator and through a glass window on the top floor of the building is a definite winner, almost to the point of justifying a viewing of the film in and of itself. The second worthwhile scene occurs when the bottom drops out of a packed elevator car, a scene that adds to the general sense of hilarity found throughout "The Shaft." The DVD edition of the movie is notable only for a cover case that shamelessly rips off the DVD cover of Watts's other horror film, "The Ring." C'est la vie when it comes to "The Shaft," I guess. Not a great film, not even a particularly memorable one, it still provides a few chuckles and groan worthy moments during its nearly two hour run time. Good luck.

Rating:
Summary: Um, well, it's different.
Review: Okay the idea of an elevator killing people at its own free wil is stupid, but some of the death scenes have a plausable occurance. Like the elevator floor breaking off. Two deaths in this movie effected me, the first was the guy who was thrown from the 87 floor and is seen splatter on the ground, the other was when the elevator floor collapsed and we see kids that are like 5 years old fall to their death. Why did these effect me? Wel they brought back bad flashbacks of 9/11. You know people jumping from windows and stuff. So if were on the spot were 9/11 occured, I strongly recomend not seeing this. But for the rest of us, well the acting is terrible, so is the dialogue (I mean how many times do they really need to use the F word?), and the whole premise of a computer ship made from human cells being put into an elevator and coming to life is just plain stupid. So for a cheeze fest with some decent gore, this is the movie to see.