Blackout

I was surprised to see that this movie was not as well received as I think it should have been. It was a clever story of three people trapped in an elevator during a rolling blackout. I know I would lose my shit in that situation. What made it appealing to me was that the story focused on a small group of people reacting to a stressful situation. The catch is that one of them happens to have a few naughty habits when it comes to keeping people alive, thus a horror movie is made.

We first meet Karl, an Irish actor attempting to hide his accent but comes across as stiff. He’s visiting his late wife’s grave telling her fluffy stories about his day and their daughter. A woman appears and I assume it’s his new wife and his daughter gets out of the car ready to spend the holiday with daddy in the city. Only thing is, Doctor Karl has some business at home that he needs to clean up first and it is agreed that his daughter will arrive by 2:30 the next afternoon. Karl races home.

Claudia is a young woman who we meet with dried blood on her body. We meet her at the hospital where her grandmother is being treated for a car accident. An asthmatic bookworm raised entirely by her grandmother, is asked to collect one thing from their home and return to the hospital with it before she passes. Off she goes, blood and all.

Last is Tommy, a rebellious kid who has made plans to elope with his girlfriend to save her from her abusive father. He races home to meet her when she is able to sneak away from home.

All three converge in the lobby of the building which is clearly under a lot of construction and the last few occupants have left for holiday or until the extensive renovations have been completed. They step into the lift and when they hit the 6th floor the blackout hits, stopping its assent. Trapped, they struggle to locate a way out and complete what they had designed to do. As the hours tick, tension builds and they begin to unwind and one of the occupants has a bit of a psychotic streak in them.

Sure the writing could have been better, but the story is what did it for me. I enjoyed it, it isn’t the first movie about being trapped in an elevator, but it was a unique vision none the less.