Central Services New Ducts

December 1, 2012 1:33 PM

When the lights go out in the elevators of Brazil, the children come out to play (slyt)
posted by mannequito (40 comments total)

That's just plain cruel. Did they have the cardiac team on hand?
posted by HuronBob at 1:40 PM on December 1, 2012 [1 favorite]

Scaring people in elevators in the dark is suprisingly un-funny to watch, the laugh track/studio audience riotously laughing as people scream and cry seems pretty tacky.
posted by arnicae at 1:42 PM on December 1, 2012 [3 favorites]

Kind of dangerous. I figure most people try to run away from something scary, but some may attack when cornered in an elevator. There is a reason they call it the 'fight or flight' reaction. Me personally, I'd scream and try to claw open the doors to get out of there.
posted by wigner3j at 1:46 PM on December 1, 2012 [1 favorite]

This reminds me of a favorite Metafilter comment of mine.
posted by Brocktoon at 1:54 PM on December 1, 2012 [5 favorites]

Relevant from mph: "It's a supernatural hell-child from the netherworld come to wreak vengeance on the living, and it's freaking me out a little. I can probably avoid its infernal wrath by sort of edging around it."
posted by Blasdelb at 2:04 PM on December 1, 2012 [2 favorites]

Kind of a nasty trick, and possibly dangerous for the kid, too.

I remember seeing a show on Mexican TV where they'd prank folks. Some of the pranks were pretty assholish, such as a woman getting a young boxboy at a market to put her groceries in the trunk of her car, only to find a man bound and gagged in the trunk. Imagine being a 13 year old thinking you'd just witnessed something you really wished you hadn't.
posted by 2N2222 at 2:21 PM on December 1, 2012 [1 favorite]

After all the crazy shit I've seen on my adventures in modern urban living and a lack of belief in this sort of supernatural hokum I don't think this would even phase me.

I'd be more concerned that there was apparently an adolescent crack or meth addict in the building gurning their face off and that the elevator was malfunctioning, which would probably make me wonder if there was any functionally important bits of copper or metal scrap stolen and missing from the elevator.

Come to think of it, that would be the best way to scare almost anyone in an elevator. Rig it so it suddenly drops a foot or two and makes some creepy structural failure noises. Do that and I'd probably scream and/or soil my trousers.
posted by loquacious at 2:50 PM on December 1, 2012 [4 favorites]

you need to spend more time with your mom if you want to stay cool?
posted by philip-random at 3:02 PM on December 1, 2012 [3 favorites]

and possibly dangerous for the kid, too.

Yeah, tbh my first reaction would probably be KILL IT KILL IT KILL IT ATTACK which would not work out very well in the end.
posted by elizardbits at 3:11 PM on December 1, 2012 [1 favorite]

Yeah, tbh my first reaction would probably be KILL IT KILL IT KILL IT ATTACK which would not work out very well in the end.

Is this before or after you realize that it's a normal human child?
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 3:16 PM on December 1, 2012 [5 favorites]

gotta say that's a real asshole thing to do, and endangers the kid as well.
posted by facetious at 3:19 PM on December 1, 2012 [1 favorite]

"So this is the second time in about a week that an email from my mom has scooped Mefi on delivering me a link."

I think there were enough of us who have posted enough FPPs to figure hey this is pretty neat but maybe I wouldn't want to poke this towards metafilter with a ten foot pole.
posted by Blasdelb at 3:20 PM on December 1, 2012 [1 favorite]

I thought this was cruel, seemed to be a bunch of people who might be in danger of a heart attack since it looked like a fake clinic foyer. I think my instinct would have been to beat the crap out of whoever opened the elevator door.
posted by arcticseal at 3:28 PM on December 1, 2012 [1 favorite]

Oh god, I've seen this circulating around Facebook that last few days. Seems unnecessarily cruel, and also heart attack inducing. Scary as shit but over the line.
posted by exquisite_deluxe at 3:34 PM on December 1, 2012 [1 favorite]

Wow. 21st century Westerners really are a sensitive lot.

I would only be impressed if they found a way to make the incidental music sound pervasive and immediate. The second your brain identifies it (even unknowingly) as emanating from a small speaker it becomes about as convincing as Disneyland's Haunted Mansion.

In fact, as someone who is wired to have no belief in the supernatural, the presence of any incidental music would have tipped me off as soon as the lights flickered.
posted by sourwookie at 3:39 PM on December 1, 2012 [3 favorites]

That elevator is awfully large. Does Brazil have bigger elevators than America?
posted by srboisvert at 3:42 PM on December 1, 2012

This was not best of the web a month ago, a week ago, yesterday, or right now.
posted by mwhybark at 3:50 PM on December 1, 2012 [3 favorites]

I must be the only person instantly suspicious of mirrors in public places.

IT'S A CAMERA!!!
posted by DU at 4:01 PM on December 1, 2012 [2 favorites]

So this is the second time in about a week that an email from my mom has scooped Mefi on delivering me a link.

The other things Metafilter was "beaten to" this week mostly have kittens and/or cupcakes in them.
posted by Bartonius at 4:38 PM on December 1, 2012 [1 favorite]

Scare prank where actor is attacked.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 5:14 PM on December 1, 2012

I like how the first woman is all, oh yeah no big deal at all that this fucking Ring girl randomly appeared after my creepy elevator started having lighting problems, OH MY GOD SHE'S SCREAMING AT ME AAAAAAAAAAAAH
posted by threeants at 5:35 PM on December 1, 2012

I think I may be one of the few living humans who is not remotely creeped out by the idiotic trope of "OH LOOK, THERE'S A RATTY-HAIRED CHILD WITH A DOLL STANDING LISTLESSLY THERE! THIS IS THE WORST THING I COULD POSSIBLY IMAGINE!" All you need to do is couple it with the other idiotic overused hack writer trope of playing or singing a child's nursery rhyme very slowly.

I should get it. I find children off-putting, myself. Still, the persistence of this is just so...really? That's really all it takes to scare the crap out of someone? HOLY POOP, THE KID'S NOT DOING ANYTHING! THE WORST THING IN THE WORLD IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN!

"Honey, didn't your mother teach you to dress properly when out in public?"

Skreeeee!

"That's lovely, dear, but I'm more concerned that this strangely oversized elevator doesn't appear to be moving at all, since there's been nary a suggestion of inertia."

"Um..."

"Yes, child, I'm aware that you're a paid actor."

For this to be scary for me, something truly horrifying would have to appear in the elevator, like a horse or a sloppy pillow-back sofa. Watching people flip out because an incessantly overdeployed horror film cliche has appeared in a strangely oversized elevator makes me sad for the state of film critique in the world.

Children are easy to defeat. Give 'em lawn darts and aspirin when they've got flu symptoms, for pete's sake. What hath so much bad horror writing wrought upon us?
posted by sonascope at 6:09 PM on December 1, 2012 [3 favorites]

I think I may be one of the few living humans who is not remotely creeped out by the idiotic trope of "OH LOOK, THERE'S A RATTY-HAIRED CHILD WITH A DOLL STANDING LISTLESSLY THERE! THIS IS THE WORST THING I COULD POSSIBLY IMAGINE!"

I'm not particularly scared of wee Ring girls, but I'd be scared shitless if the lights went out and so much as a freaking box of raisins suddenly appeared in an elevator with me.
posted by threeants at 6:18 PM on December 1, 2012 [13 favorites]

...earlier this year a rusty beer can that I had never seen before showed up on my bedroom floor and I practically had a nervous breakdown until I was able to confirm that the landlady had sent maintenance through without telling me.
posted by threeants at 6:20 PM on December 1, 2012 [2 favorites]

Coming Soon, from the Makers of Paranormal Activity, starring Kevin Bacon, it's .....

The Box....Of Raisins
posted by mannequito at 6:36 PM on December 1, 2012 [5 favorites]

I like stuff like this, but it did make me think about prank shows in America. Give the number of states with concealed carry, what kinds of safety guards are in place to make sure the person being pranked/punk'd/whatevered doesn't actually pull out a gun? There must be some sort of process because otherwise I find it hard to believe that it's never come up.
posted by Ghidorah at 6:40 PM on December 1, 2012 [2 favorites]

If it helps assuage your concerns at all, a very large percentage of reality shows are faked. Now, that's not to say the people being pranked are actors or know precisely what is going to happen, but they know they're on a show, and they know something crazy is going to happen. The setup that we see on the show is artificial -- in my case, when I was on a reality show ("Instant Beauty Pageant"), I auditioned twice, once before the show's producers. And they weren't the most terribly organized show, but, even so, I knew everything that was going to happen on the show before it happened (often a producer warned me when something supposedly surprising was about to happen). And the artifice was obvious from the inside, including producers doing whatever they could to encourage me to act panicked by a supposed deadline that didn't exist, and trying to get me to badmouth other contestants, who I hadn't really met and didn't know what they were up to.

I mean, I love this sort of thing. I can go down the wormhole of dokkiri videos for hours (this is one of my absolute favorites). But if a prank seems like it has a high possibility of breaking the law, going wrong, or just seems unspeakably cruel, there's a really good chance that the person being pranked is the viewer.
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 7:09 PM on December 1, 2012 [4 favorites]

fake or not, I think a lot of people here are underestimating the pure cognitive chaos that ensues when something like this happens. My guess is everyone would at least experience a moment of sheer panic, manifest in some awkward defensive body language plus possible embarrassing yelp.

It's how the mind resolves the chaos that separates the fools from the wise.
posted by spacediver at 8:05 PM on December 1, 2012 [1 favorite]

That's interesting to know. I was thinking of an old episode of punkd where someone from a restaurant was telling members of Good Charlotte (gah) that they'd done something wrong, and would have to make restitutions. One of the members of the band did the 'I'm going to act like I'm going to punch you to make you flinch" actions. He sold it pretty well, and the actor playing the waiter or whatever took a couple hasty steps back.

Luckily, it was only Good Charlotte, not anyone you'd ever have to worry about. Seriously, what sort of asshole does the 'make you flinch' move?
posted by Ghidorah at 8:45 PM on December 1, 2012

If you thought the elevator prank was funny, you may like this exorcist one.
posted by nickyskye at 9:32 PM on December 1, 2012 [1 favorite]

Is there any clinical documentation regarding the notion that people get heart attacks when terrified?
posted by Brocktoon at 9:52 PM on December 1, 2012

Signs point to Yes
posted by edgeways at 10:13 PM on December 1, 2012

Give 'em lawn darts and aspirin when they've got flu symptoms, for pete's sake

If I ever have kids, I'm flying in sonascope to babysit.
posted by arcticseal at 10:50 PM on December 1, 2012

Scare prank where actor is attacked.

Another example with a laugh track. If the elevator prank is real, they put that girl in some serious immediate danger.
posted by samsara at 6:45 AM on December 2, 2012

Same set-up, different approach. This one takes the bight out. And you see them build the fake elevator.
posted by Goofyy at 7:40 AM on December 2, 2012

Good title by the way: Central Services New Ducts
posted by philip-random at 10:43 AM on December 2, 2012

I saw this last week, and immediately my internal self told me what I'd have done if I was in that elevator when this happened... I would have killed that little girl. I'd have punched her in the throat, stomach kicked her, ripped my nails into her hair and proceeded to bash her head into the floor....

We would have all felt real bad afterwards....you know...when they come out to say "It's a Joke!"
posted by QueerAngel28 at 1:00 PM on December 2, 2012

"If you thought the elevator prank was funny, you may like this exorcist one."

Oh man could that have been vastly improved by doing it to some actual Brazilian exorcists.
posted by Blasdelb at 1:25 PM on December 2, 2012 [1 favorite]

I've a feeling people are overestimating their degree of violence in such a situation. I can totally see someone striking out "instinctively" and perhaps seriously hurting the girl, more likely it'd be a heavy shove rather than a bunch of punching and kicking, sustained prolonged attacks? I think that would be actually pretty rare.

All that being said I think it is a extremely stupid prank. Lot of people do not like being scared, it's just another form of negative emotional manipulation... ha ha you where scared aren't you foolish!
posted by edgeways at 1:56 PM on December 2, 2012

Oh, those naughty Brazilians and their elevator trauma pranks. This is the corpse falling out of the coffin one.
posted by nickyskye at 12:12 PM on December 3, 2012