Director: Becca Hirani (as Rebecca J. Matthews), Tom J. Kelly
Year: 2023
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: Haunted Hotel; Hellevator Hotel
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
Answering a night manager's open position, a woman arrives at a hotel where rumors abound concerning the grisly deaths of visitors over the years have consistently been reported which soon brings her into contact with the demonic forces operating within the facility and try to get away alive.
Review:
Overall, there's quite a lot to like with this one. One of the better elements present here is the solid setup that provides the kind of workable foundation for everything despite the immensely cliched work about it. The initial setup of the hotel and the series of accidents that have taken place at the location, including the opening attack of the guest inside the elevator which also serves as the most recent incident, starts this off rather nicely by tying it into the common story of the cursed hotel operating in the city. With the job at the location taking place as a means of allowing an in so that she can investigate the incidents herself, this all comes off incredibly well with the idea of making the area have such a creepy backstory that seems worthy of investigation while also working to generate the kind of budding mystery that convincingly drags her in the longer this goes on.
That brings about the kind of effective supernatural attacks and ambushes that are immensely effective. The first attack showing the demonic figure attacking the guest in the room and out into the elevator brings a fine start to things, while the later encounter with the bloggers trying to perform a bit for their project is a fine way of going about showing off the threat implied by the beings even further. As this launches into the investigation of the hotel’s incidents and history that brings about her continuing visions helping to connect the clues left around the hotel which helps to signal what’s going on that slowly starts to unravel as time goes on. The ending revelation involving the supposed satanic cult operating in the location that has been messing with her head the entire time as this all leads to a rather intriguing finale putting that into play for a lot to like here.
There are some minor drawbacks at play with this one. The biggest drawback here is the generally sluggish and rather sedate pacing which is quite hard at injecting much energy in the opening half. Other than the series of encounters mentioned here, the need to investigate the incident under the main manager’s nose means that there’s more focus on her sitting at computer screens looking over the footage or slowly wandering through the hotel corridors attempting to figure out what’s going on. However good this is at setting the stage for the ending revelation, there’s not much in the way of enthusiastic engagement with the stiff and static tone that runs rampant with everyone not bothering to get involved much which does get a little tiresome. As well, that also causes the low budget to get highlighted quite readily as there’s not much in the way of spectacle-inducing setups or sequences that all end up coming together to bring this one down.
Overview: ***.5/5
Likable enough for what it is but still with some flaws, this one manages to bring about some intriguing factors here even though it does have enough here to hold this back overall. Those who appreciate the style and approach taken here or are fans of the creative crew will have a lot to enjoy here while those who are turned off by these factors should heed caution.
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