The Shaft (2001)

[slayrrr666]

“The Shaft” is a decent affair, but it’s nothing all that special.

**SPOILERS**

Lightning strikes the Millennium Building in New York, and elevator specialists Mark Newman, (James Marshall) and Jeffrey, (Eric Thal) are called in to investigate after an accident on-board which none of the building’s crews can figure out. After checking it out and giving it the all-clear, more accidents continue to plague the building. Reporter Jennifer Evans, (Naomi Watts) catches on that something isn’t right, but no one is willing to say. After she and Mark do some investigating on the story, they come up with a possible reason for the killings involved. Together, they try to piece what went wrong and save the people inside.

The Good News: There wasn’t all that much to like about it, but what was there was enough to like. The gore is pretty plentiful and has some cool deaths. There is a great decapitation done in slow motion, several falling down a shaft onto a series of spikes, and a quite brutal slicing in half by a fiery piece of debris. There’s some other great deaths in here. The action scenes that comes in later in the film are quite well filmed and are actually quite interesting. They never really lose interest and make the final act a real saving grace for the film and makes up for the pretty slow beginning. The premise to this is actually kind of interesting and original, and is certainly what is needed to get the genre interesting again. It’s not the cleverest one, but it is a new one, and that is what is needed quite badly.

The Bad News: There is one thing about this movie that really drags it down a notch. The film follows a constant cycle of killing someone off, conducting an investigation only to find an accident, then repeating ad nauseam. It gets frustrating as it keeps happening, and we know that something is wrong and it should be an easy find for those involved, yet it continues to be an unknown factor to the authorities. It’s pretty discouraging. Another factor that really didn’t sit too well as the fact that there are at least three different explanations given for the cause of the accidents, and all three have their evidence to back them up, but it just seems like a bunch of different reasons culled together to be the official explanation and no one was willing to part with any of them, so they were just mixed in at different points along the way. It would’ve been much easier to just pick one of them and stick with it. For such a cool premise, there is little to no real tension in the film. There was no real moment that really was all that suspenseful over anything else. This really needed some scenes of tension to get a sense of fear towards the elevator.

The Final Verdict: With a little more work fixing the screenplay, this could work, but as it is, it’s too much of a disappointment. It could be worthwhile if you’re looking for something similar, but if not then this is something to be ignored.

Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Brief Full Nudity and a scene with a child in danger

[Bartwald]

slayrrr666 said:

For such a cool premise, there is little to no real tension in the film. There was no real moment that really was all that suspenseful over anything else.

Hmm, I agree that generally the film lacked suspense but just before the decapitation, when you KNEW some bad shit is bound to happen, I think it was pretty tense. And the decapitation scene was bloody good, of course.

The Shaft, even with Naomi Watts and Michael Ironside in it, is perhaps my least favourite horror/thriller by Dick Maas, but this guy has an original touch that was shown even here (the first scenes on the top of the building were wonderfully shot, I think, and nicely set the mood for the film). By the way - this is actually a remake of Maas' first successful film - The Lift. Recommended, though perhaps kinda difficult to get.

[slayrrr666]

I did mention the decapitation in what I liked about it, which I would nominate as best scene only due to the glorious set-up it had, but once the guard kneeled down into the shaft, it was telegraphed from right there. The only thing was the switching to inside the shaft watching the elevator close down on him and the other guard outside, which left you wondering what angle would be used for the scene. I can see where it can be called suspenseful, but I found it telegraphed. However, I will not argue that it was the best moment.

I, incidentially, had found out that it was a remake afterwards, when I submitted the review. I clicked onto it's trivia pages and found that out. I'll keep an eye out for it.

[Bartwald]

I saw The Lift many years ago but still have it around somewhere. Will have to re-watch it and then perhaps review it so that we have as many as three Dick Maas' films here. Damn, I wish this guy was making films more often, not just every six years.

[slayrrr666]

Well, while I wish that he would make more output to give him more of a fanbase, at least he isn't burning himself out with too much product in a short amount of time.

[Bartwald]

You know, in case of The Shaft I was disappointed that instead of going for an original story Maas decided to remake his old film instead; I mean, if he so rarely releases a new film let it be totally fresh, dammit!

But what the hell, I still like the guy's weird style a lot.

[slayrrr666]

Yeah, I hear what you're saying. Sometimes it's like that with someone who hasn't done a lot and does a big budget remake of an earlier film (Evil Dead falls in their as well) but you would think that with so little, he would offer something new.