HELLEVATOR

HELLEVATOR

(a.k.a. GUSHER NO BINDUME; GUSHER NO BINDS ME; THE BOTTLED FOOLS)

A wayward girl, Luchino (Luchino Fujisaki) travels the darkened streets of Japan on her way to school after a lengthy absence. The streets are rife with homeless people, watched over carefully by members of The Surveillance Bureau - state-appointed police/soldiers.

Luchino meets with her psychiatrist who gives her a packet of cigarettes. She begins smoking one in the subway, a forbidden act, and moments later is running from the gun-toting police whose radars have quickly spotted her crime.

Fleeing into a large elevator, Luchino meets an old school friend and suddenly feels safe ... but not for long.

Odd characters come and go in the lift, including a colony of clone-like businessmen who look the same and talk the same, and a four-year-old girl who drags along a human brain in a jar as her pet.

More significantly, the lift is also shared by a robotesque female attendant (whose repeated line "Mind the doors" recalls the excellent DEATH LINE), a scientist who cradles his briefcase protectively and a cool, mysteriously silent guy in shades, who sits through all the ensuing action quietly observing from the corner.

In a future Japan where the city has begun building upon itself to house the growing population, the elevator has 138 floors to travel. Floor 99 belongs to a prison, and it's here that the lift takes in two dangerous convicts, on their way to the top floor to be executed. A Surveillance guard chains them to the wall and ensures his fellow travellers of their safety.

But, alas, an explosion at the base of the building causes the lift to halt - and in the unfolding chaos the prisoners break free from their chains ...

Hiroki Yamaguchi (MIDNIGHT VISCERA) was only 22 when he began filming this futuristic horror. Considering the tender age, and the obvious low budget he had to work with, HELLEVATOR is a triumph of imagination and design. It's cannily edited in a manner that keeps things consistently interesting to the eye. The use of colours (predominantly primary colours) is another simple, yet effective trick that's used to good effect.

The largely unknown cast is superb, fleshing out the roles of disparate strangers locked in a tense situation with skill and enthusiasm. Fujisaki impresses in particular as the mildly psychopathic schoolie harbouring traumatic memories of her abusive father, while the two convicts are portrayed with genuinely chilling relish by the relevant players.

The violence, it must be said, is filmed with just as much gusto as the other visuals on offer. This really is bone-crunching stuff at times. Why smack someone in the face with a broken video camera, when you could do it, say, 20 times?!

The plot, too, merits a mention. Were this a mere innocents-stuck-in-a-confined-space-with-psychopaths premise, it would run out of steam pretty quickly. But Yamaguchi throws a lot more into the mix - some delightfully unexpected, others just plain baffling. For a start, we learn early on that Luchino is psychic (which is useful, because we get to learn more about the people she's trapped with through her visions), then later that she happens to be telepathic too. Oh, and there's the cop who interviews the survivors throughout, desperately trying to pin the aforementioned explosion on one of Luchino's discarded cigarettes ...

But HELLEVATOR exists to be enjoyed for it's unrelenting pace, stunning, often imaginative visuals and editing, rousing violence and madcap plot twists. It's fair to say there's nothing else like it - although the group-of-strangers-under-pressure-who-fall-apart-and-aren't-what-they-at-first-seemed scenario, along with the sci-fi elements of the set design, do vaguely recall CUBE. Which isn't a bad thing.

Terra's disc offers the film uncut in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen. Images are clear and bright, with only minor grain and ghosting in the odd scene to moan about. The Japanese 2.0 audio is a good job, as are the error-free removable English subtitles.

The film can be accessed via 20 chapters.

Extras include an engaging 12 minute interview with the young director, who speaks energetically about how he was able to fund the film's theatrical release thanks to it winning a couple of festival awards (including Most Groundbreaking Film at Montreal's Fantasia Festival).

A making-of documentary offers some interesting on-set footage, but is all to brief at only 6 minutes in length.

More substantial are interviews with several of the principal cast members, shot at the same time as the director's interview. These last 13 minutes in total.

A 16x9 enhanced theatrical trailer follows, while trailers for seven other Terra titles - including TOKYO PSYCHO and SUICIDE MANUAL round things off.

All the HELLEVATOR-related extras are presented with removable English subtitles.

HELLEVATOR was scheduled to be screened at 2005's Dead By Dawn Festival. Unfortunately it never made it and it's a shame, because this would be a good tense flick to watch with a full audience. Still, it works well on video and stands a cut above the usual dreary Asian nonsense posing as "horror" these days.

A fine film, on a suitably fine disc. My only major gripe is that bloody awful title. HELLEVATOR?! Awful ...

Review by Stu Willis


 
Released by Terra
Region 2 - PAL
Rated 18
Extras :
see main review
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