"The elevator" was the debut of Dutch director Dick Maas. It is a thrilling film in the style of John Carpenter about a very normal object going mad. In "The elevator" this normal object is of course an elevator, in Carpenter's "Christine" from the same year it is a car.
The daily character of these objects make these films horror and not science fiction, but in "The elevator" there are elements of the last mentioned genre as well. The 80s were still far removed from the internet of things, but it slowly became more and more common to assimilate computers or chips in machines. It is the "system software" of the elevator that is causing trouble, and just like the computer HAL in "2001, a space odyssey" (1968, Stanley Kubrick) this software seems to have a will of its own and actively resists being turned off.
On top of this mix of horror and science fiction there is also a (minor) critical element in the film in the form of a commercial company preferring casualties to loss of turnover.
The daily character of these objects make these films horror and not science fiction, but in "The elevator" there are elements of the last mentioned genre as well. The 80s were still far removed from the internet of things, but it slowly became more and more common to assimilate computers or chips in machines. It is the "system software" of the elevator that is causing trouble, and just like the computer HAL in "2001, a space odyssey" (1968, Stanley Kubrick) this software seems to have a will of its own and actively resists being turned off.
On top of this mix of horror and science fiction there is also a (minor) critical element in the film in the form of a commercial company preferring casualties to loss of turnover.