The Lift (Netherlands, 1983) – Episode 4

Cinemassacre’s Monster Madness is a yearly series of horror movie reviews produced by Cinemassacre Productions and airing around the month of October. This series is hosted by James Rolfe. This is episode 4 of Monster Madness “Around the World!”

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57 comments

  • Joedude
    October 4, 2021 at 5:16 pm

    Murdering elevator?!
    Sign me up

  • RetroDeath
    October 4, 2021 at 5:17 pm

    Frozen from 2010 is an absolutely perfect horror movie, one of my favorites, because the worst horror, is the stuff that is just 100% real! I always recommend this one!

  • KombatGod
    October 4, 2021 at 5:26 pm

    Yay it’s here! Great review as always!

  • Robert
    October 4, 2021 at 5:37 pm

    I enjoyed that review and movie very much!

    As a german with a very profund movie synchronisation culture (and multilingual capabilities), we see movies (of all genres) americans wouldn’t even know about. I love that you step in to make some promotion for movies around the world.

    Can’t wait for “Big Bad Wolves”

    As far as I know, there has been no instances where an elevator fell down to the floor killing people, except for one testride where this malfuntion should be tested and one man was hurt.
    So as long the building didn’t crumble itself never has been an elevator drop.

  • Memosaurio
    October 4, 2021 at 5:38 pm

    Cool, keep it up uwu

  • Bryan Hochstrasser
    October 4, 2021 at 5:42 pm

    There it is!! Been waiting for the new episode all day!

  • The Gaming Paladin
    October 4, 2021 at 5:44 pm

    lol The Shaft by Dick Maas, dude knew what he was doing there. XD

    that being said De Lift shouldnt have been about an Elevator gone Terminator, but your argument on Devil is flawed, because that is what the movie was supposed to be about, unlike The Lift, as it would’ve been false advertising had they not thrown the Devil in it.

  • Robert
    October 4, 2021 at 5:44 pm

    Also you should look in the very very very dark danish comedies like “Adams Apples”
    https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0418455/

    or even better “How to get rid of the others”
    https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0478365/

  • Drik
    October 4, 2021 at 5:45 pm

    Hey James,
    longtime fan of your work.
    I love the concept of movies from around the world. The moment i heard about this concept I hoped you would do a movie from the Netherlands as well.
    Great to see that on day 4 my wish was already granted, great video and keep up the good work.

    Greetings from the Netherlands

  • Kevin
    October 4, 2021 at 5:53 pm

    G E K O L O N I S E E R D

    Great movie! A classic for the Dutch. Dick Maas is a well know filmmaker here for making film in all kinds of genres but always being a bit silly and having fun with the concept.

  • serpentnight
    October 4, 2021 at 6:13 pm

    This came out just a year after Christine; coincidence?

  • Brand
    October 4, 2021 at 6:26 pm

    Good work, please continue reviews that are as genuine and interesting as this one.

    Also keep your head up, the internet is full of haters and ugly little groups, that blur the the line between criticism and hatred. This is no easy task, please do not let the keyboard warriors bring you down.

    Much love and appreciation.

  • Kyouka Suigetsu
    October 4, 2021 at 6:27 pm

    I remember seeing clips from the remake, wasn’t aware until now that it was a remake of a Dutch film

  • Christopher
    October 4, 2021 at 6:46 pm

    Loving MM’s return.

  • john ricciardelli jr.
    October 4, 2021 at 7:23 pm

    I have no interest to ever watch the Human Centipede.

  • Daniel Brizuela
    October 4, 2021 at 7:43 pm

    Didn’t expect so many Disney references and yet here we are.

  • silver
    October 4, 2021 at 7:52 pm

    disney did better than another movie of another theme? THAT MAKES NO SENSE

  • rabi
    October 4, 2021 at 8:29 pm

    noice

  • Deedee
    October 4, 2021 at 8:48 pm

    Don’t let the negativity brings you down, a lot of people love what you do and have done for more than 10 years

  • Andrazi
    October 4, 2021 at 10:05 pm

    Frozen – wow. One of my friends made me watch that. So ridiculous. The wolves… lol

  • Xena
    October 4, 2021 at 10:40 pm

    The shot of the building reminds me of Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace, a Uk show parodying classic low budget horror movies/shows.
    A must for horror fans if you haven’t seen it!

  • Gabriel
    October 5, 2021 at 12:00 am

    Great review. Thank you for bringing back Monster Madness and showing off movies I would have never known existed without it.

  • LZB Music
    October 5, 2021 at 12:41 am

    I agree. There should be more horror flicks where there isn’t any real antagonist but something just goes wrong which causes a whole debacle. It’s getting really boring having everything be related back to a super natural event. Just give me a scary real situation and do your damn hardest to put me in it.

  • Robert
    October 5, 2021 at 1:42 am

    @Andrazi

    Yes, I also didn’t like Frozen in the end.
    I really loved the premise and big junks of the movie, but the wolves were shit.
    Also Emma Bells acting was bad beyond belief. She was so cringeworthy and pulled me out of the tension several times.

  • Spookanide
    October 5, 2021 at 2:10 am

    I actually watched this about a month ago. I’m Dutch and I can guarantee you get a great sense of what The Netherlands was actually like in the early 80s. Everybody’s smoking all the time, drinking shitty coffee, little rooms and kitchen tables to work on, shitty tiny rust buckets for cars. It’s all there.
    There’s some of the classic Dick Maas dark humor in there too. It’s a fun romp overall, but not something I’d highly recommend. Give it a watch if you’re curious.

  • Mark
    October 5, 2021 at 2:41 am

    Ah, one of the few good movies to come out of our country. Greetings from The Netherlands on my favorite Around the World episode so far! 🙂
    Thanks James for digging deep and highlighting movies that few people know about globally! I feel that Monster Madness is becoming as classic as some of these movies themselves 😀

  • Bigmouth
    October 5, 2021 at 3:32 am

    I remember seeing this movie in video rental, and the box cover always intrigued me.

  • Tom Bowman
    October 5, 2021 at 4:49 am

    Glad you were here to fill in the new movie a day challenge since Dread Central seems to be slacking this month with no Month of Dread. For those who want to check this movie out it is available to stream on Tubi there is also an HD version of it on Youtube but that has dutch audio and English subtitles.

  • Miraisora
    October 5, 2021 at 5:18 am

    Being from the netherlands myself. i only watched this movie for the first time somewhere last year. when i was on a bad horror movie binge. and looked up what my country produced.

    happy to see your take on the movie.

  • Marco
    October 5, 2021 at 5:50 am

    Dick Maas, the Dutch John Carpenter (in that he mostly made horror movies and always composed the music himself). Maybe Saint and Prey/Uncaged might also be fun for a future video.

  • Matticus
    October 5, 2021 at 9:15 am

    “Who has a picture of their building IN the building?!”

    Michael Scott of course!

    Great reviews James and Co. — the concept for MM and the Cinemassacre podcasts have been amazing. Keep it up!

  • driss
    October 5, 2021 at 10:36 am

    tip for a dutch commedy .. you have to see the movie ….FLODDER. from 1986. also from dick maas .

  • Ryan Lindop
    October 5, 2021 at 11:59 am

    This was like a classic review from the old monster madness days

  • DennisTheMenace
    October 5, 2021 at 4:41 pm

    Dick Maas made some awesome movies that all have the ingredients for a typical Dutch film of the 80’s: violence, gore, sex, nudity, strong language, twisted humor… He and fellow Dutch director Paul Verhoeven (Robocop, Total Recall) knew exactly how to mix them for the perfect movie recipe…

    I liked ‘De Lift’, but I think Maas’ 1988 movie ‘Amsterdamned’ you mentioned at the beginning of this episode, about a scuba diver in the Amsterdam Canals going on a killing spree, was better (although that was more of a thriller than a horror movie). The lead in that movie is played by the same actor that plays Felix in The Lift (Huub Stapel)

    Dick Maas also used Huub Stapel as one of the leads in ‘Flodder’, a comedy about an anti social family moving to an upperclass neighborhood where they cause all sorts of trouble. That movie spun 2 sequels and a TV series. In the second Flodder movie, the family moves to the US as a foreign exchange project. If you want to see a Dutch family cause havoc in New York, and eventually blowing up the Statue of Liberty, be sure to check it out 😉

  • Salvador Alien Day
    October 6, 2021 at 2:59 am

    The director Dick Maas also made “Saint” (“Sint”, 2010), a horror movie in which the boogeyman is St. Nicholas, a sort of equivalent to Santa Claus (in countries like The Netherlands, Belgium and some parts of France too). “Saint” is a pretty good horror flick, with good special effects (for exemple when St. Nicholas travels with his horse on rooftops of houses), and very gory sometimes. It has some flaws too like the dialogs lines from some secondary characters, but it’s good to watch anyway.

  • John Pannozzi
    October 7, 2021 at 12:09 am

    2:14 – I see Dustin from Stranger Things is starting to wear his hat backwards.

  • DJGrandPa
    October 7, 2021 at 6:41 am

    Omg the Dick Maas joke took me a second. Funniest shit I’ve heard in a while lmao

  • FarBeyondDriven
    October 7, 2021 at 8:47 pm

    I gotta see this now!!

  • Nenad Pavlovic
    October 8, 2021 at 6:05 am

    If you want to watch a legit good and scary Dutch horror movie, go see De Johnsons (The Johnsons) from 1992. If’s really creative and f-ed up, with great visuals, interesting story and good production. No cheese at all (ok perhaps some trace amounts).

  • Dozen
    October 8, 2021 at 10:26 am

    OMG, just realized that the actor who plays Felix is also Johnny from The Flodders 😀

  • Pepijn
    October 8, 2021 at 12:20 pm

    The main character Felix Adelaar is played by Huub Stapel. Dick Maas often casted him in many off his other movies such as Amsterdamned, Flodder, and Sint (great movies if you want to want to make a video about them).

    He is a great actor, and actually still pretty active these days, such as with his role in the police drama serie, Flikken Rotterdam.

  • Snake
    October 8, 2021 at 4:49 pm

    A head being chopped off by an elevator isnt silly, actually lol. That happened at a hospital my mom worked at about 12 years ago. The elevator got stuck and a nurse was stuck in the elevator with the severed head for a few hours while the fire department worked to get her out.

  • Dude
    October 9, 2021 at 7:29 am

    hahaha, I remember one night, when I was young and I was at my grandparents place, I stepped into the living room, just to see who was still up that late. well, it was my grandpa watching TV and I entered the room just at the second the guy’s head get’s chopped off. I Immediately left the room and went back to sleep, without saying a word xD

  • motty420
    October 9, 2021 at 10:28 am

    How is Stephen King not involved in this LOL

  • DarwinTheMan
    October 9, 2021 at 7:09 pm

    Hey James I got an other horror movie for you from the netherlands it’s called prey or in dutch prooi it’s about a lion that’s killing people in Amsterdam also by dick maas maybe something for monster madness

  • Danny
    October 10, 2021 at 3:29 am

    never heard of this one before. gotta go check it out now lol

  • mandyR40/pika23
    October 12, 2021 at 9:39 pm

    Dude. I’m scared of elevators now

  • Keenergetic
    October 13, 2021 at 9:43 am

    Nice. I need to watch this.

  • zen
    October 14, 2021 at 9:46 pm

    Man you conjured the AVGN at the end there. Well played 🙂

  • Kees
    October 19, 2021 at 11:36 am

    I have actually shot a few commercials in that building, and worked on post for a few of my films there too! The elevator isn’t actually inside that building, I don’t think. They only have two side by side.

    good to see a Dutch classic still turning up now and again.

  • DammitSteve
    October 19, 2021 at 2:47 pm

    Too early for Christmas? Try Dick Maas

  • Tomi Kankaanpää
    October 23, 2021 at 8:03 pm

    Dodged The Human Centibullet, huh? Well I’ll take this.

  • PolygonStew
    October 25, 2021 at 3:49 am

    Is the Human Centipede a good resource for going green? Maybe brown, is that vegan approved or gluten free?

  • danny
    October 26, 2021 at 12:51 am

    That’s definitely not my favorite Dick Maas Movie, in fact I have never even seen this one in full and I’m Dutch.
    Anyway you should take a look at Flodder and Flodder in America. Now those are the guys real magnum opus. Funny Beverley Hillbilly type of movie about a really poor and backwards family going to live in the richest neighborhood. Sex drugs rock and roll and explosions plus a whole host of hijinks. Seriously recommended you watch those.

  • AnthonyG
    October 27, 2021 at 7:50 pm

    May I please know the name of the song that plays during the review? Thought it belonged to the soundtrack but couldn’t find on YouTube.

  • Quickman26
    November 1, 2021 at 10:58 am

    Hey AnthonyG, if you’re reading this, the song is the main theme for Amsterdamned

  • Leo S. Luna
    November 1, 2021 at 11:20 am

    I’ve been stuck to elevators that smell a lot like piss. Like getting stuck wasn’t shitty enough. This one looks cool, but you’re right, they could make this a simple and realistic experience as a terrifying one

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