It's almost that time of year again! October Horror Movie Review-A-Thon is just around the corner! I can tell you guys are salivating all over your lobster bibs for my reviews on new movies! Well, we don't have a new movie this week. In honor of throwback thursday, I'm reviewing something only about 18 years old, which is probably longer than most people on the internet have been alive.
Down (aka The Shaft, 2001) is about a possessed elevator. It's one of only two horror movies I know of that elevators are killing people. The other one is Devil (2010, bokeem woodbine, matt craven), which is also pretty decent, and I've reviewed it before. The Shaft stars James Marshall and Eric Thal as a pair of elevator repairmen who are called to repair an elevator that got stuck and caused a bunch of pregnant women to give birth all at once. They can't find anything wrong with it. The next day, a blind man apparently commits suicide in it, taking his dog with him. A guard loses his head in the doors, and that's only the beginning. Can the heroic elevator repairmen find out what's causing all these horrific accidents, before more lives are lost?
This movie wasn't the best killer elevator movie I have ever seen, and since it's a short list, I guess this is acually the worst killer-elevator movie I have ever seen. Still a good watch, though, even the second or third time around. Interesting actors to watch for are Ron Perlman and Michael Ironside as the evil experts behind the elevator accidents, and Dan Hedaya and Edward Herrman are supporting cast as owners of the building where the elevator is located. Naomi Watts plays the "intrepid reporter" role, and apparently doesn't believe in wearing a bra on cold movie sets. The ratings warned me of nudity in here somewhere, but I didn't recall seeing any at all. The dialogue and effects are so-so, but the story is relatively coherent, and the deaths escalate pretty quickly. I caught this movie on Showtime Beyond, but there are probably other places you can find it.
In other news, summer's over and the leaves are starting to change color, and that means it's time for OHMRAT! I hope everyone joins me for "October Horror Movie Review-A-Thon" next month. It starts next week tuesday! I will try and review a horror movie every night for a single month, that's 31 horror movies and 31 reviews posted in october, 1 per day! this year, I'm going to try and review only horror movies I haven't seen yet, but that doesn't always work out. Frankly, I love watching horror movies, so that's the easy part, but managing to fit 31 horror movies into 31 days can sometimes be a problem. Sometimes it'll be late in the day and despite my best efforts, all the more-recent horror movies turn out to be utter shit, and I can't even finish watching them. In those cases, I have to resort to the usual favorites, which are often played on regular TV in honor of Halloween. Can I do 31 days of horror movies again, same as I have been doing for the last ten years? :-o Only time will tell!
See you guys next week! :-)
