While horror remakes are inevitable, its rare that international filmmakers are hired to helm American remakes of their originals. Even fewer filmmakers get to make not one, but Two movies about sentient killer elevators (Killovators? Murdervators?). Lucky for us, Dick Maas laughs in the face of convention. His feature debut, The Lift, is a zany 1980s concoction of A.I. paranoia and cable-attached monsters, kickstarting his career as an odd duckling who cherishes a proper B-Movie script. Movies like Amsterdamned, Prey (aka Uncaged), and Sint would further cement his audacious brand of metropolitan nightmares that treat midnight movie storylines with higher prestige, only adding to the Dutchman’s legacy.

Maas’ The Lift might seem like a strange choice for an American remake—a procedural thriller about corrupt elevator companies—but it’s hailed as one of the Netherlands’ premiere horror imports. Imagine an episode of The Twilight Zone with more...