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De Lift
The Lift
Goin' Up / Fahrstuhl des Grauens
Netherlands 1983
produced by Matthijs van Heijningen for Sigma Film Productions, First Floor Features
directed by Dick Maas
starring Huub Stapel, Willeke van Ammelrooy, Josine van Dalsum, Liz Snoyink, Wiske Sterringa, Huib Broos, Pieter Lutz, Hans Veerman, Peer Mascini, Piet Römer, Michiel Kerbosch, Jan Anne Drenth, Cor Witschge, Emma Onrust, Sydney Kuyer, Serge-Henri Valcke, Onno Molenkamp, Manfred de Graaf, Luk van Mello, Ad Noyons, Siem Vroom, Aat Ceelen, Paul Gieske, Johan Hobo, Dick Scheffer, Matthias Maat, Ger Van Groningen, Carola Gijsberg van Wijk, Hans Dagelet, Arnica Elsendoorn, Guus Hoes, Gerard Thoolen, Kees Prins
written by and music by Dick Maas, special effects by Leo Cahn
review by Mike Haberfelner
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It all starts with a powerfailure, which causes not only the lift in a
high-rise building to stop but also its air conditioning ... which almost
costs the lives of the lift's four passengers. When on the next day though
Adelar (Huub Stapel), a mechanic from the elevator company, checks the
whole system, he can find nothing wrong., and the whole affair soon seems
to be forgotten - when the lift kills 2 people, one by opening the door to
an empty elevator shaft, the other by catching his head in the doors and
decapitating him. Again, Adelar is called, and again he finds nothing
wrong, and soon enough everybody thinks it was sabotage ... everybody but
Adelar and journalist Mieke (Willeke van Ammelrooy), who thinks there is a
dark secret behind it, and not only encourages Adelar to keep on
investigating but also actively helps him - much to the dismay of Adelar's
wife (Josine van Dalsum) who thinks he cheats on her and eventually leaves
him. Adelar and Mieke meanwhile track down the mechanic who has
previously taken care of the life (Ad Noyons) and find him completely gone
bonkers, and they learn about the compay Rising Sun, which has
provided the microprocessors for the lift, but which seems to be
experimenting with some new form of dangerous, living microprocessors. In
the end, Adelar, who has since been suspended from his job, decides to
take matters into his own hands and breaks into the high-rise building to
check on the micro processors himself ... but to his surprise, they are
not situated in the control room where they are supposed to be in but
hidden away somewhere in the elevatorshaft where they are only hard to
reach ... and where the lift can easily defend them. Adelar tries his
best, but in the end, he not only has to admit defeat but is also almost
killed by the lift, if it wouldn't be for Mieke who pulls him out of the
shaft in the nick of time. By that time though, Kroon (Hans Veerman),
cheif researcher of Rising Sun, has realized the error of his own ways,
and kills the living micro processors with a gun - but in the
process,he too loses his life when his head gets caught in an elevator
cable that drags him upwards ... ouch ! Even though my synopsis
might sound nothing short of ridiculous, and the sci-fi-aspects of the
film are badly outdated, to say the least, De Lift is a pretty
well-done piece of sci-fi-horror: The film has an interesting, unusual monster,
it is full of fleshed-out colourful characters, even in supporting roles,
the storytelling is stringent and engaging, and the film refuses to take
itself too seriously (after all, this is about a killer elevator) without
needlessly poking fun at itself or the audience. That said, De Lift
might be no masterpiece of milestone of the genre, but it's good
entertainment, to say the least.
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