YMMV / De Lift

• Awesome Music: The atmospheric, Carpenter-esque synth score, composed and performed by Dick Maas himself. Standout tracks include the opening and end credits themes and "The Search"
• Harsher in Hindsight: The night watchman's death bears an eerie resemblance to that of Hitoshi Nikaidoh twenty years later.
• Iron Woobie: Felix, even after being Wrongly Accused of adultery by his shortsighted wife Saskia, eventually culminating in their divorce without him being able to explain what's actually going on, still does everything he can to stop the evil elevator.
• Narm:
  • For some viewers, the premise of an artificially intelligent, homicidal elevator is a bit too outlandish to be taken seriously. For others, it's straight-up Paranoia Fuel.
  • The tagline for the foreign releases: "Take the stairs... Take the stairs... For God's sake, take the stairs!"
• Narm Charm: While the core premise is admittedly goofy, it's actually a highly competent, well-made and genuinely eerie horror movie, with plenty of atmosphere and interesting touches of Black Comedy.
• Paranoia Fuel: The idea that an everyday convenience like the titular elevator could suddenly come to life as murderous weaponry.
• The Scrappy: Saskia is disliked for irrationally jumping to the (wrong) conclusion that Felix is cheating on her and then divorcing him without ever giving him a chance to explain what's really going on.
• Special Effects Failure: The security guard's severed head is a very fake-looking rubber prop with more damage and dents to it than it should have. This is because they only had one prop head and it was one of the last takes they did.

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