Elevated (1996)

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

A woman is taking an elevator to her parking garage. A burly workman joins her, and shortly thereafter a second man enters the elevator, only this guy is covered in blood and in a state of panic. He claims monsters or possibly aliens have invaded the building and they must remain in the elevator to stay alive. Pretty soon, it becomes a battle of wits among the trio. David Hewlett, a familiar face from British and American movies and TV, plays the bloodied man. This short horror film is tense and scary, and a model for no-budget flicks. From the man who brought us CUBE. Warning: this is not a film for the squeamish. I haven't seen this much blood since I worked in a hospital emergency room on Saturday nights.

This film shows, in a crystal clear sense of purity, that you don't need a lot of money to make a good film. The talent behind the acting, directing and writing are the valuable keys in making a good film. "Elevated" has an excellent execution of that talent which, in some scenes and visuals, remind me of a couple of my films- "Blue Window" and "One Named Clarence". Suspense and chaos run amok in this film as we have the actors fight against the odds in an elevator that is up to no good. Paranoid thoughts ring true to this movie which gets the viewer wondering as to what is going on. The editing on top of the directing is well done. The lighting is well executed and the acting is visceral and well played. Like some of my films, it has unpredictable twists and turns including one bizarre ending. I thought the one scene near the end, which contained all of these silhouetted figures run towards the elevator in slow motion was quite an interesting scene- a cool scene and again quite similar to my style of film making. I saw this film in 1998 on Showcase with my room mate. This film was on a series that documented short films. He, a writer, thought that this movie was a good view as well.

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

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