Cert: 18 cert
Parents advised to read before viewing film as some scene may contain scenes unsuitable for younger viewers.
Sex & Nudity: 3/10 Two men crudely joke about one having sex with the mother of the other man; one of the men says he will "bend over" the man's mother.
A young woman lifts the back of her shirt to expose an injury and we see a portion of her bare back.
A young woman jumps and reaches for a man after accusing another man of touching her buttocks; the man denies doing so (we see video footage which backs up his claim).
A young woman touches a man's arm, and the man looks at the young woman and smiles, as another man remarks, "Keep dreaming."
An older woman scowls at a man after she catches him looking suggestively at a woman's behind.
Violence & Gore: An elevator containing a dead older woman, a dead man, another bloody and dead man (we see a piece of glass sticking out of his throat), a young woman and a man goes dark: we hear a thud and some panting, a woman screams as a slicing sound is heard, the man is shown holding the young woman in his arms with blood covering her and the man's hands, and it appears that her throat has been cut and she is seen bleeding to death.
Glass is heard breaking and shards fall over a man standing in an elevator with an older woman, a young woman and three men; the elevator goes dark and we hear what sounds like a woman panting, a loud thud and a slicing sound, and when the lights come back on we see a man lying on the ground with a piece of glass sticking out of his neck (blood pools on his neck and body).
An elevator where two men and a young woman are standing (the dead body of a woman and the bloody dead body of a man are seen slumped in a corner of the elevator) goes dark: they attempt to light the area with their cell phones, the phones are knocked out of their hands and the sound of bones crunching is heard; when the lights come back on one of the men is seen with his head turned 180 degrees and the woman screams.
We hear a sharp intake of breath as the screen goes black and a woman screams as a mechanical grumble is heard; the lights return, a woman is seen hanging in an elevator with an electric cord wrapped around her neck, presumably dead, two men lift the woman's body, unwrap the cord from her neck and set her body next to the bloody body of a dead man.
A man and a woman are in an elevator with the dead bodies of two men and a woman/spoiler], and they grab pieces of broken glass (we see blood on their hands) to use to defend themselves, while accusing each other of killing the people in the elevator.
An elevator containing several dead bodies, a wounded person and a man goes into free fall: we hear growling, the elevator comes to a sudden stop, the doors are pried open and we see bloody bodies and a man covered in blood (we later see body bags being wheeled away from the scene.)
A man rappels down an elevator shaft, loses his balance and flips over, unhooking his support carabiner; his body falls and a thud is heard from inside the elevator as a woman, a young woman and two men (we also seen the bloody dead body of a young man on the floor) lurch forward when it is implied the man's body hit the top of the elevator (blood is seen pooling on the ceiling of the elevator and the man's mangled body is later seen multiple times).
We see an apparently inebriated young man driving wildly, he crashes into another car, struggles to get out of his car (we see small cuts on his face and his nose is bleeding), and approaches the other car where we see a woman gasping for air as blood gurgles from her mouth and the lifeless body of a young boy (we only see the boy's back since he is lying face-down on the ground); the young man then drives away from the scene.
A body is seen dropping from the sky and slamming into the top of a delivery truck; we see the slightly crushed truck and the bruised hand of the dead person as two police officers discuss how it had been a suicide.
Sparks fly from a frayed wire sitting in a puddle, a man tries to pull the wire out of the puddle, and we see him, face mangled and shirt covered in soot, wander through a crowd; we hear women and men screaming as they move away from the man and then fall to the ground, presumably dead from electrocution.
A man tries to climb out of the emergency hatch on an elevator when another man inside drags him back in and he falls on top of the bloody dead body of a man with a piece of bloody glass sticking out of his neck.
A woman, a young woman and three men are seen in an elevator, one of the men starts hyperventilating (he says he is claustrophobic after his brother had locked him in a car trunk as a child), the elevator goes black and we hear a woman scream; when the lights come back on, the young woman is lying on the ground, she struggles to stand up, we see a bloody cut on her back and she says it feels like something bit her.
A woman pushes the legs of a dead man towards another man and the man shouts at her to stop.
On multiple occasions both a young woman and two men experience momentary mental images of a group of men and women lying on the floor of an elevator covered in blood and presumably dead.
A group of men watch security footage of a man's dead and bloodied body (we hear a man confirm that the man had been stabbed in the jugular and it could not have been an accident); a man instructs another man to reach into the bloody jacket of the dead man and pull out a piece of paper, and the man winces and touches the man's bloody body.
Two men standing on a sidewalk narrowly avoid being hit by a large piece of glass that drops from a tall building. An elevator goes into free-fall, as a man watches from the bottom of the elevator shaft, and lands with a thud on the ground; the man standing at the bottom of the elevator shaft is protected by a cage that surrounds him, and he is unharmed.
Two men in an elevator wrestle, one of the men slams the other man's face into the wall as a young woman watches and cries, until a man watching on a security camera shouts at them to stop and they separate.
A man shouts at a woman in an elevator, and she holds a can of mace as a second man tells her not to spray because it would "blind everyone" in the elevator; the man then knocks the can out of the woman's hand.
A man tells another man and a young woman that he had previously beaten up a person that he established to be causing a "rift" in his community, and implies that he will do the same to a young woman if she does not stop trying to get two men to fight.
Two men, a woman and a young woman shout and accuse a man of stabbing a young woman; the man says he did not (he has blood on his jacket) and suggests that the young woman stabbed herself.
A man shouts at a woman.
A woman speaks angrily to a man.
A woman shouts after a man grabs for her hand.
A young woman tells a man she has never seen a person die.
A man tells a man and a young woman that he had witnessed a lot of deaths when he spent time in Afghanistan and the other man wonders whether he was trained to kill people.
Two men discuss how a man might have had people interested in killing him; one of the men mentions that a person had died due to the man's actions.
Two men discuss the criminal past of a young woman and then agree that a man might possibly be trying to kill her.
A man reads a person's criminal record aloud, saying that he had been charged with assault multiple times, including beating a man into a coma.
A man confesses to having killed a woman and a young boy in a hit-and-run accident.
A man tells another man that his wife and son had been killed in a hit-and-run accident.
A man confronts a man who had admitted to committing a hit-and-run accident, which left a woman and young child dead, saying that they had been his family.
An older woman asks if an elevator could fall multiple stories and a man reassures her that it will probably not happen.
A Bible verse is heard being read by a male voiceover, and it states that the devil is going to devour people.
In a voiceover a person says that his mother had told him stories as a child about how the devil is going to gather people together and torture them before killing them; also, a suicide leads to the devil being present and leaving only after a person watches their most loved person die in front of them.
An elevator containing a woman, a young woman and three men jumps and then comes to a quick halt; the occupants are jolted but unharmed.
We see a hockey game where two players are seen slamming into the sidewalls.
Birds fly through an elevator shaft and frighten a man that's rappelling.
Profanity: 8 scatological terms, 2 sexual references, 4 anatomical terms, 13 mild obscenities, 4 religious exclamations.
Name-calling (scam artist, liar, twist, theft, thug, jerk, old man, creepy, scumbag.)
Alcohol/Drugs/Smoking:A young man is seen driving a car wildly and reaching for what appears to be a beer.
A man tells a group of people he almost "drank himself to death."
A man has a conversation with another man who says he is his "sponsor."
Frightening/Intense Scenes: A security guard is watching the people in the elevator, and sees a face in the screen and says it's the devil.
Several "jump out of your seat" scenes.
Two security guards experience momentary mental images of a group of men and women lying on the floor of an elevator covered in blood and presumably dead, (this is not a spoiler.)
When the blackouts occur, screams just come out of nowhere.
People with claustrophobia may be especially frightened, as more than 2/3 of the movie's running time is set inside a stalled elevator where the five occupants are nervous at first, then there is a great deal of tension mostly arising from the fact that five people are trapped in a confined space. As the movie continues the situation escalates, trapped occupants panic, etc.
Story : 5 seemingly ordinary people become trapped in a skyscraper elevator. each has a dirty secret, a tainted past. All seems well until the lights go out & the screaming begins. With no way to escape, the horrific truth dawns that one of them is not who they appear to be & only then they realise that very bad things happen for very good reasons.
Likes : As horror/thriller films goes this film was very good, sometimes it keeps you guess on what's going on who which one of them isn't who they appear to be, but the story of 5 people being trapped in a lift with no escape scares the crap out of even me, i think the story line is well through up & you feel the characters fear as the film go through, i find it creepy in place but it not a bad film.The directors managed to steer clear of the usual clichés for a fright fest, and rightly so as well because this is not that film. Granted that there are a few well crafted scenes to suggest that there are spiritual elements involved in how the victims - a mechanic (Logan Marshall- Green), an old woman (Jenny O'Hara), a young woman (Bojana Novakovic), a guard (Bokeem Woodbine) and a salesman (Geoffrey Arend) - the real draw is how visually arresting this film is in capturing fear from within close quarters. The opening sweeping shot of the city of Philadelphia upside down will bring about some disorientation, before reducing that spatial distance down to within the lift, mirroring that view through a CCTV camera back to the building's security control room, which to me is where some of the best instances of the film shines through.
I'd actually preferred what went on outside of that lift, since what's going to happen within is more like a done deal, with one of the five already revealed through marketing that he/she is someone who doesn't belong. There's more fun in following Detective Bowden (Chris Messina), who has to make sense of what's going on, balancing his deductive prowess against something that cannot be explained by logic, and watching how his due diligence and process get blown to smithereens when at first he thinks this is a simple open and shut situation, until he realizes that he's up against something that's inexplicable. It's one thing to swagger in with a plan, before fear sets in that one can be so helpless when trying to save the lives of others.
The strength of the film lies in Shyamalan's story, which is deceptively simple, yet highly effective in weaving all the plot threads together, and the linking up of the characters so crucial in providing a satisfying finale. Fans of Shyamalan's stories will find that he still has more than enough gas in the tank to come up with suspenseful tales that others now have a chance to helm on the big screen, something like what Luc Besson does these days. My interest is now piqued to see how the rest of the Chronicles will present themselves.
Dislikes : This film would be spot on if it wasn't for the fact it was to predictable on who it is,if it wasn't for that this film would keep you on the edge of you seat all the way through.
Overall : if you like horror film this is one to watch, but just be warned it is a bit predictable but worth watching.
Rating : for suspense 3 out of 5 stars & for horror theme 7 out of 10
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