Apr 14, 20222 min read

The Elevator Short Film Review

★★★★

This short delves into one of my favourite genres: psychological horror. The nail-biting tension and thrilling scenes which send shivers down your spine is something which really entices an audience and has them begging for more. The Elevator is simple yet effective, with no dialogue and just one location, director Toni V. Genov could fill the scene with an eerie and strange ambience. This was a great short horror which reveals the underground communities within the dark web and exposes the people that enjoy watching others in fear.

The Elevator shows a lot of promise, it can clearly be developed into a longer feature length film as the ending is left open to a lot of different pathways the director can choose to go down. Toni V. Genov has explained that he is planning to connect this short with one of his other pieces of work 2088, which would be great as there is a lot of potential to this piece. I think what is terrific about a good horror is that you do not always need to overcomplicate the plot or even provide a huge backstory. The audience are thrown into the midst of the drama and that is all we need to focus on. The main character enters a lift and is trapped inside for many hours, unable to communicate with anyone, no phone signal, water, food until a robotic voice explains that ‘supplies’ will be sent down to him. However, these ‘supplies’ will only lead him to a grisly end.

A huge phobia of being trapped in a confined space and an epic twist to really ramp up the tension is a simple yet extremely effective premise for a good horror. This is because it plays on our most basic fears, in this instance claustrophobia, and most people can picture themselves within this scenario and really empathise with the sweaty fear of our main character. The story ended on a climactic twist which was bittersweet in a way as it was great to have the twist revealed but also the audience are left wanting more and to find out the final fate for our protagonist. The ending was clever and fits in with a lot of the modern-day horrors. It plunges into this subculture of seedy and sadistic people who hide behind a computer and enjoy observing pain, violence and even death.

The Elevator is a great short piece and really highlights the fact that you can create a good horror with a small budget and even just using one location. There were elements which made the viewer feel uncomfortable and definitely had a mysterious vibe which made you want invest more, highly recommend taking a look at this short.