Going down

Was the Elevator Game responsible for a woman’s death?

In February 2013, a 21-year old Canadian student called Elisa Lam vanished while staying at the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles. She’d been missing for five days when Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) released footage of her last known moments. She was filmed on the hotel elevator’s security camera, walking in and out of the lift, looking highly agitated and muttering to herself, and pressing buttons in the lift, seemingly at random. At times, it appeared she was hiding from something in the elevator.

Shortly afterwards, Elisa’s body was discovered in the water tank on the hotel roof. The door to the roof was locked to hotel guests, with no indication that it had been forced. The water tank had a heavy lid. The coroner recorded a verdict of accidental death – but how did Elisa get into the tank?

Speculation

The video of Elisa’s last known moments was widely shared on social media, and many theories put forward, from schizophrenia to foul play.

One particularly creepy theory, however, concerns the paranormal. Internet users have speculated that Elisa may have been playing the ‘Elevator Game.’

An occult ritual that appears to have originated amongst young people on social media, the Elevator Game is said to be a way of accessing other – possibly demonic – dimensions. To play it, you need to find a building with 10 floors or more. You get into the elevator alone, and ride to the floors in the following sequence – 1, 4, 2, 6, 2, 10, 5, 1. If the game is working correctly, a woman will get on with you at the fifth floor. It’s crucial you don’t speak to her, or she’ll attempt to lure you away from reality - permanently.

Once you get back to the first floor, you’ll find things are subtly different. People have reported seeing a long, dark corridor with doors behind which there appears to be blazing light. Some say that if you look at the windows in this Otherworld, they’re black with just a red cross on them. Others say that technology – Smartphones, tablets – doesn’t work there.

Followed

Several gameplayers have admitted that they did acknowledge the woman on the fifth floor. And she’s been following them ever since…

To get back to your own reality, you need to ride the floors in the reverse sequence. Get it wrong, and you could be trapped in that alternate dimension forever!

Playing the Elevator Game at the Cecil Hotel, of all places, would be messing with dangerous paranormal forces because the hotel itself has a sinister reputation. At least four people have died by jumping or falling from the hotel windows. Serial killer Richard Ramirez, nicknamed the Night Stalker, lived at the hotel for two years in the 1980s. During that time, he killed 13 people. So, was Elisa Lam playing the Elevator Game? Was she ‘hiding’ from the woman who gets onto the elevator on the fifth floor? Did the game get out of hand – and that’s why she ended up in the tank? We’ll probably never know…