Two people are working late over valentine’s day weekend. They get trapped in an elevator on their way out. Everyone else is gone for the day. No help is coming until Tuesday. They are stuck with each other and the meager belongings in their brief cases.
Hey, they might as well get to know each other better, right? You never know what might happen. A little intimate conversation. a few spilling of secrets. it might lead to bouts of nakedness and passionate lovemaking.
Down starts fast on it’s evocative premise. The two leads (Matt Laurie, Natalie Martinez) are on the screen for most of the movie. They do a good job as they reveal who they are to each other. They both have an intensity to their character.
The tension lessens considerably as the inevitable sexual encounter concludes
The second half stalls like the elevator they’re trapped in. There isn’t enough plot material for a full length movie. We guess fairly early that the security guard guy is behind the whole ruse, using his security key to pretend to be stuck. The emphasis is on over-the-top cruelty as they take turns getting the upper hand and torturing each other.
The encounter with the fellow security guard (Arnie Pantoja) is fun and breaks the monotony of the two main combatants punching each other out. It’s all too brief. Once the big secret is spilled, that the stalker has set the whole situation up, we kinda know how the rest of the story goes.
The main woman made so many dumb decisions. I actually yelled at the TV twice because she kept being such a dimwit. It’s a shame because the film is otherwise okay.
** Spoilers ** She’s trapped in the elevator with a psycho and she proceeds to threaten him before she gets out?? Does nobody question the director?
A pair of office workers get trapped in an elevator over a long Valentine’s Day weekend, but what at first promises to be a romantic connection turns dangerous and horrifying.
This film was intense. Basically only two actors one male (Matt Lauria) and one female (Natalie ent and the grindhouse-style shocks. This episode offered real suspense, violent fun, and a tightly effective script.
It fell apart once they had them get out of the elevator, but this was actually a fun little cheesy horror movie.
‘Into the Dark’ is already returning to the well it drank from with ‘Flesh & Blood’, keeping things in one location with two main characters at loggerheads. The results are mostly enjoyable even if the ‘trapped in an elevator’ premise leaves little room for any real invention.
TV stars Natalie Martinez and Matt Lauria carry the 80-minute running time admirably enough; with the former giving a believable and sympathetic turn while the latter enjoys the opportunity to chew on some scenery. They have an interesting chemistry together but rarely do their performances rise above the lurid B-movie nature of the piece. This is familiar territory to anyone who remembers the woman-in-peril thriller ‘P2’ (which was set on Christmas Eve and would have been a perfect fit for this series come to think of it). ‘Down’ plays out in a similar fashion only with a smaller budget, less locations and not as many suspense sequences.
This is the first of the ‘Into the Dark’ movies that felt a lot more like a TV movie, in both premise and execution. We know that our two characters will be stuck in this elevator for the majority of the story so therefore we know that neither one of them will face any true peril for at least an hour. And we know exactly which character is not all they appear to be, simply based off the limited nature of the set-up. ‘Ah, this could be exciting!’ I thought to myself, but then we went straight back into the trapped-with-a-psycho formula. Too bad.
For the first half an hour we get some really interesting character dynamics between Martinez and Lauria, particularly their early flirtations, so they keep things watchable until the plot closes in on them and forces them into conflict. There are some contrivances along the way to get them there too, as both characters say and do things to keep this antagonism alive. When a screenwriter limits themselves this much with their set-up, such contrived behaviors can be expected and even forgiven. Something has to push this story forward, even if Martinez giving the finger to Lauria at a key moment is about as stupid a thing anyone in this series has done thus far. Still, I have to give screenwriter Kent Kubena credit here because ‘Down’ is never dull nor does it outstay its welcome. It is slick and efficient schlock.
I love a good one location thriller, especially if the writer and director can keep the suspense juice flowing for a feature length runtime, but ‘Down’ is hindered in its ability to drum up true terror by its all too simplistic premise
In fact, ‘Down’ is the most true-to-premise installment of this holiday themed series so far. It really does feel like a twisted take on Valentine’s Day where as previous episodes have often felt tenuously connected to their holidays. I like that each film has Sueco mujeres personales a different way of dealing with the holiday theme though and they have all explored different themes and issues in their own twisted ways. ‘The Body’ felt like an attempt to size-up and cut-down millennials; ‘Flesh & Blood’ explored some devious gaslighting between parent and child; ‘Pooka’ delved into the nature of existential guilt; ‘New Year, New You’ toyed with toxic femininity; and ‘Down’, I suppose, explores toxic masculinity. You could say it is a #MeToo movie in that regard, even if its ideas and scenes are lifted (almost wholesale) from movies that were around way before that movement got going. Ultimately, I feel like ‘Down’ is entertaining but somehow redundant. This cat-and-mouse one location deal was done to better effect in ‘Flesh & Blood’ and ‘New Year, New You’.
‘Into the Dark’ is proving itself to be quite divisive. Rather than it being a straight-up horror anthology it seems to be unfolding as more of a celebration of the horror/thriller B-movie. That is really quite awesome in its own way. In an era of prestige TV, when every serialized show takes itself way so seriously, it is really refreshing to have something this trashy, fun and entertaining to watch each month. So I’m still digging the series and will continue reviewing every episode as and when they come out. Next up, ‘Treehouse’. See you then!
