Hellevator (1964)

When Harvey’s apartment finally installs a modern elevator, things seem to be moving up for him. But there’s something very sinister about the new device and its unsettling operator. New basements seem to appear each night, and below the basements, Harvey discovers that the madness goes even deeper. Can Harvey put the Hellevator out of service before evil from below reaches the surface?

Design

Sometimes, you come up with a monster name SO absurd that you HAVE to make it into reality. That’s pretty much what happened with Hellevator. It’s an elevator that brings you to hell. Straight and to the point. Turns out, we weren’t the first ones to think of this. There are no less than 4 different horror films literally named “Hellevator”. Consider this monster our take on the concept.

Born from the mechanical concepts of the old Angler as well as an early design for a UFO monster that “kidnapped” other figures into its ship, Hellevator has a unique room that’s not in the theater. The Operator (the monster figure in the theater) acts as a door leading to the Hellevator room. This effectively turns the monster into a “mobile” room that can relocate within the theater at will. 

Be careful if you’re in the room with the Operator. You may find yourself stepping into the Hellevator…FOREVER!

Ideation

With such an on-the-nose concept, it’s pretty easy to think of various poster directions. It’s an elevator. It goes to hell. There’s an operator. While many of the above concepts definitely showed this, it felt like it was showing too much. There’s a subtlety to the horror of the Hellevator. You unwittingly enter it and find yourself trapped all of a sudden. There are no clawing hands or evil monsters hiding. All there is is the unnerving knowledge that your final destination is a place you’d never want to go.

The final poster shows this off quite well while cleverly integrating the elevator’s path into the title. It’s part of the building you’re in. Any door could be the Hellevator. Will you step in?

Strategy

As mentioned earlier, the Hellevator is a unique room that other figures enter and exit through the Operator. This alone makes for a unique play style which involves “kidnapping” various figures and dragging them all collectively through the theater. In fact, if you have an empty Hellevator, simply moving an opposing monster into it can result in easily spoiling their turn for relatively small effort. Such a play pattern makes Hellevator one of the most aggressive monsters in the game, interrupting opponent plays and forcing other monsters to fight each other in its narrow elevator walls. Of course, being an extra door himself, the Operator’s spook effects are just a tiny bit more powerful as he can always spook one extra guest.

However, that’s not all it can do! Many of the Hellevator’s effects actually reference the contents of the Hellevator. For example, Max Load gives you points for each player and different color of guest in the Hellevator. With enough guests and monsters in it, Hellevator can make a staggering 9 points with 1 card!

Play If You Like:

• Warping the game’s base rules in a visible way
• Creating lockdown situations where opponents can never leave the Hellevator
• Setting-up big combos by populating your unique room
  

Avoid If You Dislike:

• Being excessively mean to the rest of the table
• Immobile monsters
• Inflexible monsters who rely on specific combos to gain tons of points

See it LIVE!

Watch the Operator do stuff!

COMING SOON!

Give me liberty. Give me the Dead Presidents next event!

Alternate Poster

The Brazilian poster for Hellevator comes from the stylistic Kuppy. I love the shift in perspective for this one. Here, we see the fate of a hapless passenger as they realize the horror of having stepped into the Hellevator

What floor will you go to? Tell me in the comments below! And learn more about Bride of Spooktacular on Gamefound!