An Evil Dead II frankensteining of Dick Maas’ previous The Lift, The Shaft makes an unexpected argument in favor of auteurism. The concept is virtually identical to Maas’ previous rendition of elevators that kill people (you get the clever title now, yes?), only here in English as opposed to Dutch, New York as opposed to Amsterdam, and a cast of David Lynch alums instead of unknowns. (I’m inclined to note that this contains both Naomi Watts and Dan Hedaya, and was released the same year as Mulholland Drive.) It’s apparently a pronunciation of Maas’ enormous phobia of elevators, and iterates many of the prior film’s death scenes. This isn’t a blatant rehash, however, as the killer elevators are given new scenarios, namely, a trip of pregnant women who fill the car to capacity, and a blind man who, triggered by the “bing” of opening doors, walks into an open shaft and pulls his seeing-eye dog down with him. This is a justifiably incompetent film in many aspects, but a very well-executed (and even innovative) genre piece by some measure.
by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Cable TV
20 Mar 2006 10:32 AM | Submit Comment
