Dead Drop

The premise of Dead Drop might feel like a familiar one.

Eight strangers are waiting for an elevator that seems destined to never arrive in the foyer of a bustling skyscraper. When one of them notices a service elevator around the corner, they all jump, hoping to take a shortcut to the penthouse. However, when the journey is halted midway and their emergency alarms bring no help, they find themselves in an increasingly perilous – and perhaps orchestrated – position. Channeling the spirit of films like Cube (1997), The Exam (2009) and Escape Room (2019) amongst others, Dead Drop is a fiendish mystery thriller full of quick humour and enough bloodshed and supernatural overtones to satisfy ardent horror fans.

Although their backstories do get revealed in snippets throughout, the majority of strangers who decide to get into the freight elevator are archetypes and remain that way. As such, the characters are not given names in the film, and in the credits they are known by descriptive monikers. There is the Bike Messenger (Daniel Adeosun) who notices the elevator in the first place, there is Irish priest (John O’Mahony), there is the sunglass-wearing actress (Alexandra Kate), there is the bodyguard-looking suit (Roger Ajogbe), the pop-culture referencing troll (Victor Rivera), the silent Chinese lawyer (Christina Tam), the personal trainer bro (Elijah Craft) and the teacher, who from the very beginning feels the least stereotypical except in seeming a likely candidate for final girl (Melissa Neal).

Once the ride up the building is halted, and people begin to loose their cool being stuck in a suspended metal box with one another, events – inevitably for a film like this – begin to spiral. Initially it is primarily about waiting for aid but, despite the automated (or is it?) voice on the intercom reminding them to “follow the instructions,” people’s nerves eventually begin to get the better of them and they start attempting to find or force a way out of the lift. It is at this point that the first occupant dies and from that moment forward the film plunges towards a seemingly inexorable hellish conclusion.

The challenge in a film like this is, of course, to keep things interesting. On one hand this is done by the drip-feeding of story and the regular letting of blood, but even still a single-location film like this needs to feel propulsive despite its literally static nature. Cinematographer Aidan Gault does a sterling job of maintaining visual freshness in what would likely have been a challenge with two cameras shooting in an enclosed space. There’s an immediacy to everything, with most actors appearing, even in the background, of lots of shots that keeps the compositions active and various angles are utilises to avoid an aesthetic staleness.

The other side of maintaining the energy of the piece is the dialogue and this is where Dead Drop excels even in comparison to those similar one-room films that it shares DNA with. Crowley’s script is full to brim with sharp exchanges, never pausing to let a gag land or an emotion time to breath, the occupants are constantly speaking over one another and commenting on what someone has just said. This is especially the case with Victor Rivera’s troll whose verbal diarrhoea is constantly firing cultural references and acerbic passive aggression. It’s the case across the cast – all of whom perform admirably throughout. While Neal’s teacher might feel the closest thing the film has to a protagonist, various characters take centre stage at different points and have to showcase a range of emotions as the shifting circumstances test them.

Whether they are actually being tested is a constant debate and the troll is a perfect archetype to include to allow the film to make its own meta-commentary on conspiracy mysteries like this. As links between some of the strangers begin to be established, the troll and others repeatedly lay out different explanations for what is happening to them. Are they being tested by the owner of the building? Is the elevator actually being controlled by aliens? Is one character’s unborn child actually the spawn of Satan? Are they in an elevator to hell – “a hellevator”? Crowley’s script has a lot of fun playing with the mythological, religious and cryptic possibilities and even at its end allowing the audience to form their own theories and conclusions. One thing is certain, anyone watching will think twice before trying to the skip the line by taking the service elevator in future.

Director, screenplay: Ned Crowley
Cast: Melissa Neal, Daniel Adeosun, Roger Ajogbe, Alexandra Kate, Victor Rivera, John O’Mahony, Christina Tam, Elijah Craft
Producers: David Henri Martin, Lisa Sepp-Wilson, New Crowley
Cinematography: Aidan Gault
Editing: Gregory T. Evans, Maedeh Moayyednia
Music: Andy Fosberry
Sound: Joe Scandella
Art direction: Rositsa Trayanova
Production company: Lamb Bone Films (USA)
Venue: Oldenburg Film Festival (Midnite Xpress)
In English
88 minutes

Read more of our coverage of Oldenburg Film Festival.