Hellevator: The Bottled Fools
Hellevator: The Bottled Fools
| 28 February 2004 (USA)
Hellevator: The Bottled Fools Trailers

Luchino's routine morning elevator ride up from her subterranean home on level 138 to her school many stories above turns horrific when the elevator operator is ordered to pick up two passengers from floor 99, the maximum security level. What starts as psychological manipulation soon turns wholly physical as both the cruel convicts and Luchino's own dysfunctional past are unleashed. And then every passenger must fight for his or her survival.

Reviews
Protraph Lack of good storyline.
Izzy Adkins The movie is surprisingly subdued in its pacing, its characterizations, and its go-for-broke sensibilities.
Stephanie There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes
Janis One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.
proxyisalive It's difficult to say weather I liked it or not. Its interesting and thought-provoking, with action, but it is over the top excessive with the blood and a little short on detail. I will say this, you believe that there is a city and an atmosphere past the elevator doors and you get a very good feeling for how their society works without seeing much of their world at all. The acting is good, the visuals are good, the atmosphere is very well done, but it veers off course a little. The dystopian society is great, and the sociological/psychological element are quite enjoyable, but the bloodbath was overplayed and the story was just a little loose. I would recommend it to those with strong stomachs interested in psychology, bizarre horror and Japanese suspense.
Alexander Bondarenko Hellevator... is quite simple, the whole movie could go good and end in 45 minutes as it goes, but 'enough' is not enough here and It goes on. Probably it is some source of hard to watch, you gotta be ready for a 60 minutes one room only movie. I was expecting something else, but it went great. The ending was the best, it actually makes you think about all you saw in the 90 minutes.Acting was cool, very good acting. Characters are 'original' you can hate them if you want, it looks like they want you hate them. And the main character, i felt like i was going to go wild if she kept her persona, she's annoying.Overall Hellevator was kind of a letdown to me, but STILL is good film i would recommend.6 out of 10
Boba_Fett1138 This movie wasn't at all what I expected from it. It's being somewhat a mix of an art house film and a modern Japanese exploitation horror flick. So in short, it's bloody and artsy but it's not being really good and successful as either an horror or an art house type of movie.First of all, something that often bugs me about modern Japanese horror flicks is how low-budget they are looking. Cheap sets, cheap lighting, fake gore. Yes, everything is present in this movie as well its cheapness often can take you really out of the movie.But what mostly was disappointing to me was its story. I mean, the concept sounds so promising and surely they could and also really should had come up with something more interesting and good for the actual movie. What is really the problem with its story is that it doesn't seem able to keep focus. For a movie that's almost completely set in an elevator it's a shockingly messy told movie. It takes a while before the movie finally kicks in and after that, every time I thought that the movie was going into an interesting direction, it completely changed course. You could call this surprising but bad or annoying are some words that I would rather use.It's one of those movies that thinks it's being really clever but the movie is just too often either predictable or annoying with all of its twists and oddness. It also really makes this movie a bit of a mess to watch.Yes, this movie can get a really odd one to watch. Hiroki Yamaguchi seemed to be full with plenty of ideas but the execution seems only halve, halve, which again is also really partly due to its restrained budget, so in this case you perhaps really can't blame the director for anything. Who knows, he might be capable of delivering something really good, if only given the right budget next time. Seems unlikely to happen though, since director Hiroki Yamaguchi hasn't made a movie since this one and prior to this he did only amateur stuff and shorts. So this was his big movie and I doubt it was a financially successful one. Slim chance he is ever going to get a new chance, unless he's capable of raising the right amount of money himself somehow.Not the worst attempt I have ever seen but I also just can't think of any reason why you should ever go watch this film.5/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/
timmy_501 Hellevator: The Bottled Fools is set in a dystopian future somewhat reminiscent of THX1138. Apparently the outside world is no longer fit for human habitation so everyone is forced to stay indoors. Large elevators are used to get from one place to another and the commute time on these vehicles seems to be substantial for most people. After dropping an illegal cigarette and running away from the police, thus starting a chain of events that culminates in a large explosion a few minutes later; Luchino Fujisaki, a seventeen year old telepathic schoolgirl who has recently been released from a mental institution in spite of her ongoing violent urges and/or delusions, enters one of these elevators. The elevator soon becomes a HELLEVATOR when a young, nervous police officer enters with two extremely dangerous prisoners moments before the aforementioned large explosion causes him to be distracted long enough for the prisoners to get the upper hand and wreak havoc. Eventually Luchino gets a little berserk herself and the bodies start to pile up. As this unusual scenario plays itself out each of the eight passengers is involved in multiple acts of violence and it's revealed that virtually every one of them has something to hide.Although rookie director Hiroki Yamaguchi pulls out a lot of tricks to make Hellevator at least moderately visually interesting, it's clear from the get go that the film was shot on a tiny budget. Still, there are some nice dreamlike special effects shots when Luchino enters the minds of her fellow passengers and the frequent gore effects were done fairly well. Yamaguchi also does a good job of creating some atmosphere, both in the green tinted elevator scenes and the interwoven interrogation scene that makes use of a dark blue color palette. Hellevator is a fairly well done cyberpunk movie that makes adequate use of an unusual setting but runs out of steam just before the inexplicable ending.