Monster-of-the-Week: …this week’s honoree is of Dutch origin: The title character in The Lift (De Lift, 1983), an elevator in a high-rise building that appears to be haunted or possessed. It’s malevolent, in any case, luring folks into the open shaft or baking them alive or snipping off their heads. It’s up to a canny elevator-tech (Huub Stapel) & a rather chic investigative reporter (Willeke van Ammelrooy) to probe the mystery behind this vertical violence.
Written & directed by Dick Maas (who also composed the music), this snappy, amusingly Luddite little horror picture—at one point a police detective notes that he prefers to take the stairs, because every year 250,000 people get stuck in elevators “…in our country alone!”—doesn’t appear to be available on DVD yet. I have it on (badly) English-dubbed VHS. But it’s worth seeing if you get the chance.
I hope this recognition gives the people of The Netherlands a…well, you know, a lift.
No comments:
Post a Comment