Dark Floors (2008)

Director: Pete Riski
Starring: Skye Bennett, Noah Huntley, Dominique McElligott, Ronald Pickup, Mr. Lordi, Kita, Amen, Ox, Awa

SYNOPSIS

A father and his autistic daughter are stuck in a lift along with a security guard, a nurse and a few other people at a hospital. The lift soon moves again, but they find the hospital suddenly deserted apart from some murderous, demonic creatures.

REVIEW

Dark Floors is a movie that's actually a hell of a lot better than its gimmick gives it any right to be. It's a movie showcasing Lordi, a band that made some waves a few years ago by winning the cheesy, middle of the road Eurovision Song Contest, a pop music content that pits all European nations against each other to see who can write the best song. Lordi made waves because they won despite being a Finnish heavy metal band who wore elaborate troll make-up and costumes. That obviously caught the eye of some movie producers, because this movie followed not long afterwards.

Happily, this isn't the mess it deserved to be from its inception. What we have here is a pretty standard “alternate dimension” story (the type that just allows large locations to be used for minimal budget) where a handful of disparate characters have to find their way out of the place they've found themselves accidentally transported to. Here, the characters are never particularly annoying (apart from one guy you just know won't see the end credit!) and are often quite interesting. The central dynamic between a distraught father and his autistic daughter is particularly unusual and helps speed the movie along its mere 90 minutes of running time.

What also helps is that Lordi are apparently a band with low band egos. Whereas many bands would demand every possible second of screen time and derail the movie in the process, their appearances here are kept to the minimum required for the story. We don't even see one of them until almost 30 minutes into the film,and their appearances are kept spread relatively thinly throughout. This is nice as it makes the movie a “proper” horror story rather than a simple ego trip, and keeps the film enjoyable even if you don't know or care who Lordi are.

Overall, not a record-breaking or ground-breaking story, but an entertaining horror story that surpasses its cheesy roots.

7 / 10