Truly Dreadful Film

brilliant actors, brilliant editing

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Blistering performances.

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 short tells the exact same story as Cube. I liked Cube for the cute trick of having one set for the whole movie. But after seeing this I wonder if Natali actually has anything to say.People seem to be OK with being left to imagine a lot, but here you really have to imagine everything. There is virtually no plot apart from the movements of the actors. The dialogs are pointless and repetitive and the acting is not really convincing (like in Cube) but this is a small budget short.We are left with nothing as for the reality of the "aliens", the motives of the guy in the suit and of Ben's. Only the woman seems to be like some sort of office clerk who may well be a normal person trying to go home. Apart from the killing of Ben we don't have a clue as for what is going on, just people stuck in an elevator.Leave it to our imagination? I wonder after seeing Elevated and Cube if Natali will ever have more than one idea.I'll have to see Cypher...

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).

Canadian director Vincenzo Natali is an expert at getting more out of less. The short film Elevated is a prime example. It manages to do more with its 25 minutes than many films can do in 2 hours. The story follows three people confined in an elevator avoiding the monsters in the building that are stalking them. The only problem is that only one of them believes in the monsters, the other two just want off. The tension grows until it finally explodes and only one is left standing. The entire short is filmed using only a single set piece, yeah one, thats right. Rumor has it that when Natali filmed Cube he also used only a single set. And if you've seen the film you can see how it could be done. So if you have the chance to see this short don't waste any time, because if you do it'll probably be over. Check IFC it plays on there from time to time. 10/10 My highest praise!