3 out of 5

Directed by: Daniel Stamm

I understand why people may have hated on this entry in particular – it can feel outdated in our current push for gender balance across any and all platforms – but I think that’s a kneejerk reaction to the thing; otherwise, I’d maintain: if you go into Into the Dark expecting B movies, the less auteur-y entries have been pretty dang fun.  I’d even nominate ‘Down’ as, perhaps, the best directed and acted entry yet, and if not for an inevitable dilution of tension to get to the 90 minute mark, leading to some “but why would you do that?” decisions toward the end, it edges over to being one of the better episodes.

The setup is simple enough: Natalie Martinez and Matt Lauria both work in the same office building, hopping on the same elevator on a Friday night to start their long holiday weekend.  …And then the elevator stops, the the two are faced with three days or so of potential isolation.

It could be a meet cute, and the way Kent Kubena’s script starts to break down conversational barriers between the two, and Stamm’s patient, conversational camera work, certainly lends it that flair.  Sex happens, of course, and the conversation that leads us there is particularly groan-worthy, but Martinez and Lauria do a pretty excellent job of humanizing it, as they do with all of their banter.  It’s Into the Dark, though, so we know the meet cute won’t last forever.  That it happens around the midway point, leaving us with 45 minutes of stranded elevator time, is maybe surprising, but as with The Body, I felt like the flick mostly navigated its way around that roadblock rather well, very much thanks to Stamm switching his style up to something more aggressive and nervy.

Again, it crumbles a bit toward the end, but one spoiler: the flick never resorts to reveling in abuse or endangerment, a tactic which has the script offering us up a little more depth than your standard horror movie of this type.