by Conan Simmons – February 9, 2021 – 5:24 pm
Michael Goi, known for being the director of photography for the first five seasons of hit television series ‘American Horror Story’, is set to direct a new feature film ‘The Elevator Game’. The movie is looking to shoot in Manitoba later this year. Manitoba, like many areas around the world, has been closed to film production during the coronavirus pandemic. Filming restrictions in the Canadian province are set to lift this Friday, February 12.
‘The Elevator Game’ is being produced by start-up production company, Fearworks. The Los Angeles production company consists of film producers Ed Elbert (‘Anna and the King’) and Stefan Brunner (‘Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance’). The screenwriter for the project is Travis Seppala, whose previous credits include the upcoming horror film ‘Captive’. Casting is yet to be announced. ‘The Elevator Game’ is the first feature for the production company.
‘The Elevator Game’ is based on a popular horror game played according to rules found online. Originating in Korea, the idea of the game is to travel up and down in the elevator in a specific order with the goal of reaching another dimension on the 5th floor. The movie is said to feature a ‘woman on the 5th floor’ as the film’s antagonist.
The game is not without controversy, mostly through a perceived association with the 2013 disappearance and subsequent death of Elisa Lam.
In 2013 Elisa Lam, a Canadian student from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, was traveling down the west coast of the United States. In January of that year she was last seen staying in the Cecil Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. She was reported missing early February.
The last known sighting of Elisa Lam was from security camera footage inside an elevator at the hotel. In the footage Elisa is seen behaving erratically, she may or may not be interacting with someone the camera never sees. Whether she was being pursued by someone or merely playing a game, it is not known.
After her disappearance the LAPD conducted a search with canines throughout the hotel but came up empty. After guests started complaining about problems with the hotel’s water pressure, on February 19, Elisa Lam’s body was found naked inside a water tank on the hotel’s roof. Official reports cite cause of death as drowning. Interestingly, her phone was never found, it was assumed stolen around the time of her death.
In a strange twist, the circumstances of Elisa Lam’s death coincide with the plot of a 2002 Japanese horror film, remade in the U.S. in 2005, ‘Dark Water’. That film was based on a short story by author Koji Suzuki published in 1996. Suzuki’s other works were adapted into the popular Japanese horror films ‘Ring’ and its American remakes.
Elisa Lam’s death instantly became an internet sensation when security footage from the elevator was posted online. Theories by amateur sleuths continue to ponder the truth behind her fatal ending.
Several television shows, from ‘Castle’ to ‘How to Get Away with Murder’, promptly made episodes inspired by the incident. Several film productions also took shape in the U.S. and China. The mysterious incident has even inspired several songs and a video game.
Season five of ‘American Horror Story’ entitled ‘Hotel’ took much of its inspiration from the Cecil Hotel and the Elisa Lam tragedy. Director Michael Goi served as director of photography for that season.
Netflix has a limited series, ‘Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel’, that focuses on the mystery. It premieres tomorrow, February 10.
The Cecil Hotel itself has a long history of murders and suicides and is a known stopover for notorious serial killers, Jack Unterweger and Richard Ramirez.