The film could have been a trendsetter in the horror genre. Unfortunately, it relies too heavily on jump scares.
Lift review: A promising horror flick that gets badly derailed
Cinestaan Rating
Release Date: 01 Oct 2021
Haricharan Pudipeddi | Chennai, 01 Oct 2021 18:07 IST
Kavin’s Lift (2021), which has been released directly on Disney+ Hotstar, is one of those horror movies you don’t mind at first. With a very promising premise about a haunted lift, it tries to live up to the expectations of the genre by Tamil cinema standards. For about 30 minutes, it presents itself as a unique horror film, deviating from the regular cliches associated with the genre, and everything works in its favour. Unfortunately, the film gets derailed after the 30th minute and it gets extremely repetitive in terms of generating thrills and ends on a very predictable note. By the time the film ends, you realize even the promising premise hardly leaves any impact.
The story introduces us to Guru (Kavin), an IT professional who has just been transferred from Bangalore to the Chennai branch of his company. It’s his first day at work and he spends most of the day getting to know his colleagues. When he meets Harini, the company’s HR person (Amritha), we’re quickly told they share an unpleasant past. Towards the end of the day, Guru is handed over the responsibility of completing the project summary for a client. Guru stays back to finish the task. However, when he gets ready to leave, Guru starts to experience some paranormal events. When he gets into the lift to go down to the parking lot, he realizes he keeps coming back to the same floor. The rest of the film is about finding out the reasons behind this bizarre occurrence.
Lift relies mostly on jump scares that fizzle out after a point because they get so repetitive. It spends a lot of time on building the thrill factor but when it finally comes to the big reveal, everything built up until that point falls flat. The hard-hitting backstory about the IT work culture and its challenges could’ve been a better core story than the haunted lift. The backstory should’ve been introduced much earlier.
One of the highlights of the film is its single-location setting. Since the entire film takes place inside a building and mostly inside a lift, the film succeeds in inducing claustrophobia. Another highlight is Kavin’s convincing performance. As the helpless guy trying to protect himself from all paranormal activity, he brings out the fear quite effectively. Amritha Iyer is equally good in the limited screen time she gets.
Lift could have been a trendsetter in the horror genre. Unfortunately, it turns out to be one of those attempts that you don’t want to wholeheartedly praise.
Lift is now available on Disney+ Hotstar.