I have to admit, I originally watched this movie not expecting it to be any good. Then again, I approach almost all horror movies with such skepticism, especially when they're on FearNet On Demand. In the end though, I was completely won over.
Although produced in Finland, the movie is in English and the English is completely comprehensible, despite the accents of some of the people. The movie revolves around an autistic little girl, Sarah, and her father, Ben. From the beginning of the movie, the viewer can clearly see Sarah is severly disabled. Her vocabulary seems to consist entirely of "No, no, not again, not again" and "I want the red crayon" and she doesn't seem particularly in touch with the world around her. Just watching her and her poor father makes you want to cry. Ben struggles to decide whether he should take his daughter out of the hospital and eventually takes Sarah to the elevator, intent on taking her home. The nurse, Emily, follows them onto the elevator, trying to convince Ben that if there was a better place for Sarah, she would have taken Sarah there herself. Also on the elevator are Tobias, a beyond unusual man to say the least who is always complaining that he feels colder than death, Rick, the security guard, and Jon, who is just a complete jackass.
As the elevator starts to descend, it suddenly screeches to a halt. This is the second power outage in the movie - the first being when Sarah was in an MRI at the beginning. When the elevator starts to move again, they get off the elevator to discover the hospital is abandoned and in ruin. As they start to explore the hospital, things go from wierd to wierder. A photocopier with an open lid that is spitting out copies all on its own, communication systems kicking their own messages back to them, a woman in a wheelchair who has had her eyes ripped out, time skips and overlaps, loads of monsters, and oh did I mention that when they look out the window, they notice the surrounding landscape is frozen in time?
One by one, the monsters pick off all the group members, starting - true to the unofficial rules of horror movies - with the black guy. Despite being told that "The only logical solution is to give up the girl," Ben presses on. In the end, it's just Ben and Sarah. Ben leaves Sarah and goes to have a showdown with Mr. Lordi, who seems to be the monster of all monsters. However, in the end, it's actually Sarah who has the showdown with Mr. Lordi and she suddenly opens her eyes to find herself back in the MRI during the power outage. As the doctor, Emily and Ben try to pry her out, Sarah seems to have changed her tastes, because she starts screaming, "I want the blue crayon! I want the blue crayon!" At the very end, Tobias passes Sarah in the hall. He leans over her with a kind smile and whispers, "I'm not cold anymore, Sarah," and walks away.
Dark Floors is not your standard horror film. That's probably why I like it so much. It's not just people running and screaming, attempting to flee from the monsters. It makes you think and it has an intelligent subplot of the human struggle with good versus evil. Oh, and did I mention that Lordi, a heavy metal band, made the film? Hats off to Lordi and the rest of the cast and crew for a job well done!
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