Main cast: Gino Anania (Ryan Keaton), Megan Best (Becki Keaton), Alec Carlos (Kris Russo), Nazariy Demkowicz (Matty Davis), Samantha Halas (Allie McCormick), Madison MacIsaac (Izzy Simpson), Verity Marks (Chloe Young), and Liam Stewart-Kanigan (Kevin)
Director: Rebekah McKendry
Shudder continues its noble quest to be the Netflix of horror… if Netflix exclusively bought stuff from the discount bin at Spirit Halloween.
And with Elevator Game, they’ve really outdone themselves by scraping the bottom of the bottomless pit of internet creepypasta and calling it a Shudder Original.
So, the plot: a group of paranormal investigators with all the charisma of a wet mop and the IQ of room temperature air decide their tanking views can only be saved by playing the most thrilling urban legend of all time—an elevator-based ritual that involves pushing buttons in a particular sequence and then… waiting politely.
Spooky, right? Nothing says “edge of your seat” like standing in a confined space going, “Okay, next, press four.”
But wait, it gets better! Once you get to the fifth floor, you’re supposed to close your eyes because a ghost woman might show up and shank you with her prosthetic cheekbones.
And listen, this movie would be about five minutes long if anyone involved had the brainpower of a houseplant and just kept their peepers shut. But no, these are horror movie people. Curiosity may kill the cat, but in this case, it murders common sense.
We spend what feels like an eternity watching these “characters” (I use that term loosely — they have the emotional depth of microwave oatmeal) bicker about who’s more haunted by their childhood or whatever. Meanwhile, the so-called horror amounts to a lady in Party City-level monster drag skulking around like she got lost on the way to Dragula auditions.
The “scares” mostly consist of flickering lights, groan-worthy jump scares, and repeated shots of people squinting anxiously at elevator buttons. There’s more tension in a waiting room at the DMV. Even the “spirit world” looks like they ran out of budget halfway through and filmed in the parking lot with the saturation turned down.
And yet, the true horror isn’t the vengeful ghost — it’s watching adult humans argue for twenty minutes over who pressed what button, like the world’s worst episode of The Amazing Race: Haunted Edition.
In conclusion, Elevator Game isn’t just bad. It’s the cinematic equivalent of someone pressing the “down” button and falling straight into a dumbwaiter full of clichés, non-scares, and vacant stares. Watch it if you enjoy yelling “JUST CLOSE YOUR DAMN EYES!” at your screen until your neighbors call the cops.
