Dark Floors

***1/2
(2008)

A father, caring for his autistic daughter, is disgruntled by the care she receives at the hospital. The battery of tests she is put through seems more analytical and less compassionate. Thus, he decides to wheel her out to find better care. A young doctor follows him on to the elevator, pleading with him not to be so rash. Also on board the elevator are three others, representing quite the dramatic corps. Two floors down, the elevator stops, and what the passengers walk into seems to be an alternate version of the hospital, aged, abandoned, and with lots of ghosts and ghoulish demon things stalking them. How did this happen? What does the little girl have to do with it? Why do electronic medical devices seem to stop the creatures? What do the creatures want, anyway?

Which way to the Gwar concert?!?

None of these questions really gets answered during the course of the film. While this movie starts out with a lot of promise - original characters, very cool monsters and special effects, intelligent dialogue, the film ultimately lacks a coherent backstory and resulting resolution. Shame too, as it seems like the filmmakers had a good one in mind. There are subtle hints at the end, but I was too dumb to figure it out, and there were no "cliff's notes" available on wikipedia to explain what really happened.

Overall though, I would still recommend this film for the creepy ambience and chilling look this film has. It's a Finnish film, released as part of the "Ghosthouse Pictures" "Underground" series. This series of 8 films, straight to dvd was released in competition against the Horrorfest 8 films to die for series that has increased in popularity over the last few years. I've now only seen two of the Ghosthouse Underground pictures, and both were very good. This one - Dark Floors, and the other one, "Room 205" is also very cool. Check 'em out.