Other filmmakers and studios have abandoned the idea, but Friday the 13th producer Sean Cunningham is moving forward with a plan to shoot a horror film loosely based on the mysterious death of Elisa Lam, called The Elevator Game.
The 21-year-old University of British Columbia student was found dead in a water tank on the roof of a Los Angeles hotel in 2013. The coroner ruled her death was an accidental drowning, but a surveillance video of her acting strange in an elevator just before she died has spawned a truly impressive amount of theories about how the hell she got there. Her story added to a long history of spooky shit going on in the Cecil Hotel, once home to serial killer and rapist Richard Ramirez, and where many guests have committed suicide.
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The grainy video of her hopping in and out of the elevator and making erratic hand movements has been viewed millions of times, stoking the curiosity of amateur true crime investigators and paranormal activity enthusiasts. In deep corners of Reddit people continue to debate whether this was a demonic ritual gone wrong or a secret agent conspiracy involving the Clintons.
The Elevator Game appears to trade in the paranormal elements of the internet’s Elisa Lam obsession. According to Bloody Disgusting, the horror flick is about a young woman whose sister disappears after participating in a “mysterious internet ritual” that involves pushing buttons of an elevator in a specific sequence.
It comes long after Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn abandoned his version of the story, tentatively titled The Bringing in 2014. Sony initially replaced the Drive director, but spiked the idea completely in 2016.
Though Cunningham’s project will be the first Hollywood adaptation of the story, TV’s American Horror Story has already devoted a whole season to the Cecil’s freaky reputation. The hotel was named a historical landmark earlier this month.
Earlier this month, Elisa Lam truthers started a Kickstarter campaign to make a documentary that also visits paranormal themes. The film aims to trace three working theories: one from police, that Lam’s death was an accident prompted by mental illness; the online truthers who believe it was murder; and the ghost hunters that see her death as some otherworldly shit.
Whatever your own theory, it seems big players think there’s enough appetite for Elisa’s story to sustain more than one release.
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