Customer Reviews

De Lift (The Lift) [VHS]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I give it five stars because it scared the hell out of me when I was a kid. To this day I can never look at an elevator the same way haha. My parents rented every horror flick under the sun and allowed me to watch these scary/strange films(lol!). Yes, this whole movie is about a killer elevator due to an experimental chip from a mad scientist haha! What's not to love!? I own this on dvdr along with it's cover sleeve as well as artwork on disk! This flick does have it's rememberable scenes!!! There is an american remake of this little horror gem called "The Shaft". It's not as good; sad to say. If your a fan of odd-ball horror than get this movie!!! It will go great along with the other cheezy 80's horror movies you own! This needs a proper dvd release PLEASE!!!

What a wonderful, little known gem. I heard this movie is a classic in Holland, which is where it was made. This movie involves an elevator company putting an experimental chip inside of an elevator in a new office building. But when a lightning strike messes up the chip, the elevator begins trying to kill the people who go up. The movie, was filmed in a real office building, which I found cool, and the death scenes are done very well,especially the part where the security guard is decapitated by the lift. Just be sure, that you don't buy this because you want to see a truly suspencful, horrific, and excellent movie, buy this for the fun of seeing a weird, kind of cool, relatively obscure sci-fi, horror film. 4/5

This is one of those almost movies. The lift has some positves going for it. Dark humor, clever script, and a few creepy moments. Unfortunatly the movie is just way to talky. I found myself getting impatient while wathing the lift and I am by no means an impatient veiwer. Its one scene after another of people having conversations. I almost forgot I was watching a thriller. This is unfortunate because there is a solid movie somwhere in the middle of all this.

This 1983 thriller/horror movie from the Netherlands has a nifty idea, playing on many people's slight discomfort with elevators ("It's a miracle Hitchcock didn't think of it first" was a promotional slogan used for this film in New York). In this story, an elevator programmed with novel 'intelligent' software turns evil and starts killing and maiming people in various creative ways, providing some very good sequences (if you like this sort of stuff, that is; for others it is just gory and stupid). The acting by main protagonist Huub Stapel and others is very good.
Unfortunately, this movie also has some serious weaknesses. At times it is very slow. The main plot wears thin after a while and some other ideas should have been added; it seems as though the script writers went on vacation a bit too soon. Some sequences don't seem to be going anywhere, as though they had been left in the movie by mistake. Perhaps most annoyingly, there is a supposedly climactic scene towards the end where the main hero is physically struggling with the elevator (don't ask) and this scene is shot so poorly that you don't have any idea what is going on, except in the end he survives (sorry, I just had to give that away).
Having said that, if you are into this kind of movie, if you don't mind the European way of movie making and some gratuitous sex, if you can handle watching a movie on VHS, and if you like the retro-feel of a 1980's movie, then please do go ahead and watch this movie and enjoy some great scenes (including one way at the end, so don't give up).

PS This movie is available in various languages (Dutch, dubbed in English, dubbed in French) but note it's VHS, so you only get the one you order!

My friend and I love cheesy horror movies, and if you are one of those people, this is a must have for your collection!! It is dubbed, but made in Germany I believe. Very well made!