History Main / EvilElevator

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-->-- '''Rod Serling''', ''Ride/TheTwilightZoneTowerOfTerror''

* In ''Film/Gremlins2TheNewBatch'', the Gremlins commandeer one of the Clamp building's elevators with Kate inside it.

* Reference in ''Series/OnlyMurdersInTheBuilding'' when the trio discovers a secret elevator in The Arconia. Oliver quips "Where does it go, Hell?"

* During one episode of ''Series/{{Castle}}'', Richard Castle is convinced he has been cursed. While riding the elevator at the police station, he first loses cell phone reception, then the lights flicker and go out, then the elevator shakes and stops. Not knowing what to do if the elevator falls, he lays flat on the floor. When the elevator door opens he is seen by Beckett and other officers. He is obviously upset. They call maintenance.

* ''ComicBook/Inferno1988'': One of these materializes in the Empire State Building when New York is being taken over by demons from Limbo. A LawyerFriendlyCameo of [[Film/{{Ghostbusters}} a group of paranormal researchers]] absently gets inside to head to the roof, only for the doors to close and the sounds of screaming to be heard. When the doors open again, the inside is covered in a mural depicting the scientists being attacked and tortured by all manner of evil looking monsters.

* In ''[[Film/MissionImpossible1996 Mission: Impossible]]'', the elevator [[DeadStarWalking Jack]] is sitting on top of is sabotaged to cause it to move upwards rapidly, causing Jack to be impaled in the head by the machinery at the top of the shaft.

* In ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'', one of the tensest scenes involves the T-1000 punching it's way through the ceiling and walls of an elevator as our heroes try to escape the mental hospital Sara Connor had been trapped in. And it wasn't just the movie either, as Creator/LindaHamilton suffered permeant hearing loss as a result of the gunfire inside the cramped space.

* In ''Film/MissionImpossible'', the elevator [[DeadStarWalking Jack]] is sitting on top of is sabotaged to cause it to move upwards rapidly, causing Jack to be killed by the machinery at the top of the shaft.

* During one episode of ''Series/{{Fringe}}'', an electrical manipulator gets in an elevator with several people and accidentally drives it into the ground.

--> '''Balki :''' "(While gently caressing the elevator) Can I call you Otis?"

* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': [[ButtMonkey Geordi LaForge]] once got his ass kicked six ways to Sunday [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8dKbEzKuh8 by the turbolift]] ([[BlindWithoutEm and lost his VISOR]]) as a byproduct of a computer virus affected the ''Enterprise'' in the episode "Contagion".
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': In 4.17 "It's a Terrible Life", a security guard gets killed by a malfunctioning elevator in a haunted office building.
* One episode of ''Series/TheXFiles'' involves an elevator that is part of an office building's sentient computer network killing an investigator.

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[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* ''Film/FinalDestination2'' had a similar scenario with a malfunctioning elevator. A woman gets her braided ponytail caught in the hook of a model arm, panics, and gets her head stuck between the elevator doors. [[OffWithHisHead It then cuts her head clean off]]. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Earlier it took off a guy's shoe]].

* In ''Film/DamienOmenII'', a scientist who is about to expose the Antichrist is killed when his elevator first ascends to the top and ignores button presses, enters freefall to the lowest floor, and a cable falls from above to bisects both the car and the guy.
* Much of ''Film/{{Devil}}'' takes place in an elevator. Though it's not the elevator as much as who's in it...
* In the film ''Film/{{They}}'', a victim of the boogeyman-like living night terrors tries to flee his infested apartment in an old-fashioned elevator, which proceeds to jerk up and down and rattle him half to death. [[spoiler:Double subverted in that he makes it out of the elevator alive, only to be dragged down the open shaft by the night terror.]]
* One of the most famous scenes from ''Film/TheShining'' involves an elevator opening from which a literal tidal wave of blood pours out.
* In ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'', one of the tensest scenes involves the T-1000 punching it's way through the ceiling and walls of an elevator as our heroes try to escape the mental hospital Sara Connor had been trapped in. And it wasn't just the movie either, as Creator/LindaHamilton suffered permeant hearing loss as a result of the gunfire inside the cramped space.
* In ''Film/PoltergeistIII'' an entire skyscraper is taken over by evil spirits that can travel through mirrors. Of course, the elevators are ''lined'' with mirrors.... And if that wasn't enough, a character is pushed into an open elevator shaft by one of these now-corporeal entities.

* The elevator in ''Boo'' will only take you to the hospital's very haunted third floor, no matter what button you press.
* In ''Film/MissionImpossible'', the elevator [[DeadStarWalking Jack]] is sitting on top of is sabotaged to cause it to move upwards rapidly, causing Jack to be killed by the machinery at the top of the shaft.
* In ''Film/Gremlins2TheNewBatch'', the Gremlins commandeer one of the Clamp building's elevators with Kate inside it.
* In the TV movie ''Paper Man'' (1971) a number of college students are apparently being picked off by the college mainframe. One woman, played by Tina Chen, is first terrorised by a terminal printing "Death, Death, Death" and then chased down a hallway to the elevator by the lights going out behind her (creating a gaping maw). Once in the elevator she tries to leave but it stops between floors. When she tries to climb out the doors close and the elevator descends, killing her [[spoiler:In the end we learn it's not the computer, or even the elevator, but a person is behind it.]]
* ''Film/RipperLetterFromHell'': When Marissa tries to leave APartyAlsoKnownAsAnOrgy, the rickety freight elevator takes her up instead of down, and strands her on the 13th floor. Where the killer is waiting for her.

* In ''Literature/DreamPark'', the AI controlling a horror-themed attraction speaks to passengers entering the ride via elevator. It informs them that it's tired of pandering to humans' craving for fake scares, and will see to it that one of them genuinely won't survive the experience. [[spoiler:One of the passengers does appear to die horribly, but she's a hologram and part of the attraction.]]
* In the ''Literature/TheNecromanticMysteriesofKyleMurchisonBooth'' series, ''The Wall Of Clouds'' has an elevator that has a tendency to break and stop between floors. After several long minutes of terrified screams from the person using the elevator, it will again work and a dead body will be all that's left. It's implied that this has happened many times.
* Philip Kerr's novel ''Literature/{{Gridiron}}'', in which a computer-controlled building is taken over by [[AIIsACrapshoot a homicidal AI]], has a variation. The evil computer kills a character by moving an express lift upwards at high speed, then stopping it suddenly. The victim is then described as "looking like FrankensteinsMonster".
* One of the ''Literature/FinalDestination'' Novels has the big disaster at the beginning of the novel take place in a glass elevator on the outside of the building. The elevator gets caught and the gears continue forcing it to move, which causes it to tilt until everyone falls into the glass and it shatters, causing them to fall to their deaths. This continues until the thing is entirely sideways. Of course the protagonist wakes up from her vision in time to save her friends, but as Final Destination does, everyone dies in various ways eventually.

* One episode of ''Series/TheXFiles'' involves an elevator that is part of an office building's sentient computer network killing an investigator.
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': In 4.17 "It's a Terrible Life", a security guard gets killed by a malfunctioning elevator in a haunted office building.
* ''Series/TheBobNewhartShow''
** Not evil but sort of cruel: after a therapy session, a pleased Bob is telling one of his regular patients (Mr. Carlin) how well he is coming along with his inability to make decisions. As they walk to the two elevators, Mr. Carlin presses the button and both elevators' doors open at the same time. He stares at them for a while and storms out the stairway exit.
** Bob himself is nearly done in on two occasions by a missing elevator car-and one time sees Death itself waiting in one that does arrive.

* The pilot of ''Series/SixHundredSixtySixParkAvenue'' has a woman being nearly killed by the elevator she was about to step off of. And two episodes later, the [[VictimOfTheWeek Devil-Dealer of the Week]] [[spoiler:is pushed down an empty elevator shaft by the show's BigBad, Gavin Doran]].

* ''Series/TheNewAvengers'': In "Complex", the murderous AI controlling the building causes the floor to drop out of the elevator beneath Greenwood's feet, send him plummeting to his death.
* ''Series/{{Freaky}}'' has a variation of this, where the elevator is bedecked with a host of traps to obliterate anyone unfortunate to tick off its operator. This manifests in a series of levels that are all potentially fatal, and may as a whole be never-ending.
* A VillainOfTheWeek in ''Series/TheFlash2014'' invokes this with his first victim, using his {{Technopath}} powers to make the elevator said victim gets into move rapidly up and down repeatedly. While the result is not shown onscreen, other charater's reactions imply that it is not pretty.
* ''Series/TheMagician'': In "Nightmare in Steel", a hitman attempts to kill Tony's new LovelyAssistant by sabotaging the elevator so that it bursts into flame when she presses a button.
* Parodied in the ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' skit "Haunted Elevator," in which a couple rides a ''Tower Of Terror''-esque Halloween ride where every floor is some spooky character, such as a ghostly butler or a zombie bride. Things go downhill when they arrive at a floor with a character by the name of David S. Pumpkins who, along with two skeleton backup dancers, just does a goofy, not-very-scary dance and asks "Any questions?" leaving the couple confused and slightly annoyed. Unfortunately for them, he keeps showing back up. [[spoiler:In the end, he finally manages to scare them by popping up behind them and yelling "ANY QUESTIONS??"]]

* The card game ''TabletopGame/{{Hecatomb}}'' had a creature type that was all evil animated objects, one of which was an evil elevator.
* The Mystic Elevator in ''TabletopGame/BetrayalAtHouseOnTheHill'' moves around the house somewhat randomly (you roll to determine which floor it ends up on, but get to choose where), but on a roll of 0 will crash into the basement (which is dangerous in its own way) and harm all occupants in the process. Also, when the Haunting begins, the Traitor has complete control of the elevator and can make it go where they want, because they are "on the same side". Since the Traitor is unquestionably evil...

* Fairly common in earlier FPS games, the first ''[[VideoGame/DarkForcesSaga Jedi Knight]]'' for example, but usually due to the physics involved. If you weren't getting crushed underneath the descending platform, you were being squashed between the lift and the corridor ceiling. And you can basically forget actually ''jumping'' while going down.
* Starting with ''VideoGame/HitmanBloodMoney'', the ''Franchise/{{Hitman}}'' series lets '''you''' be the evil in the elevator by letting you sneak on top of them and garrote whatever poor schmuck is in.

* One of dozens of Game Over screens on ''VideoGame/FearEffect'' had your character crushed while trying to climb an elevator shaft and reduced to a smear of blood on the wall.
* ''VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon'' had a preoccupation with elevators that go about halfway and then stop, forcing you to crawl, bash, shoot and stumble your way through what should have been a 5-second elevator ride but instead takes at least an entire level. There's an evil version too: [[spoiler:The player is making his way through the maintenance areas, passing through an elevator shaft. Without warning, an elevator freefalls down the shaft a few feet in front of you.]] Oh, but there is one (count them, ''one goddamn time'') that you get where you need to go without getting shot at... the doors open just in time to see the person you were chasing driving away very quickly.

* Fifth boss in ''VideoGame/RadiantSilvergun'' is an elevator which tries to destroy the player with various components. It is also able to replace each destroyed component twice.
* In ''VideoGame/VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines'', an evil spirit of Ocean House Hotel tries to [[spoiler:drop a lift on you]].
* Variation: In the classic arcade game ''Elevator Action'', the player can control his elevator to squash enemy agents passing underneath. The player can also fall victim to this.
* Unintentional example in ''VideoGame/{{Starbound}}'': The elevator in The Grand Pagoda, due to its construction (rather than going up and down, it goes on a loop; a short bit to the right, down a long distance, then a bit to the left, then up again) is prone to whisking the platform away from under the player's feet, dropping them all the way down the (very long) shaft to an inevitable demise. As the whole place is severely broken, it kind of makes sense.

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheRealGhostbusters'', a building becomes so saturated with ectoplasmic energy from the Netherworld that its elevators turn into monstrous faces with gnashing mouths and lolling tongues, and vomiting up a never ending stream of ghosts.

* ''Film/ResidentEvil'' has a woman getting decapitated as she tries to escape a trapped elevator. The reason she's trying to escape is that the crowded elevator she's in is stopped by the A.I. -- then they hears the screams from the elevator next door passing by as it freefalls from the top floor to the bottom.

-> ''One stormy night long ago, five people stepped through the door of an elevator and into a nightmare. That door is opening once again and this time, it's opening for you.''

* ''ComicBook/{{Inferno}}'': One of these materializes in the Empire State Building when New York is being taken over by demons from Limbo. A LawyerFriendlyCameo of [[Film/{{Ghostbusters}} a group of paranormal researchers]] absently gets inside to head to the roof, only for the doors to close and the sounds of screaming to be heard. When the doors open again, the inside is covered in a mural depicting the scientists being attacked and tortured by all manner of evil looking monsters.

* ''Webcomic/SleeplessDomain'': WordOfGod has stated that all of the monsters in the comic are based on specific phobias; one that appears prominently in Chapter 2 embodies the fear of elevators. The creature appears to have an elevator car embedded within its head, and an unnaturally long neck resembling the exterior of an elevator shaft. It also has what appears to be a floor indicator dial protruding from the back of its head; as it moves the needle from one side to the other, it's victims are thrown into the air and slammed into the ground, as if they were experiencing a [[ElevatorFailure particularly violent elevator ride]].

* In ''Film/DamienOmenII'', a scientist who is about to expose the Antichrist is killed when his elevator gets stuck and a cable falls from above and bisects both the car and the guy.