Elisa Lam’s Strange Behavior in Elevator, Netizen Reactions

From Youku:

Elisa Lam Video

It has already been two weeks since 21-year-old Chinese-Canadian UBC student Elisa Lam mysteriously disappeared in downtown Los Angeles on February 1st, and her whereabouts remain unknown. Yesterday [February 15], the police revealed the surveillance video of the hotel that Elisa Lam checked into, the video showing that Elisa Lam was acting extremely strangely in the elevator the day before she disappeared.

Comments from Youku:

陈建霖Master:

Maybe this girl can see the 4th dimension. It’s a little disturbing watching [this video], not scary, just a little uneasy, and I actually hope it just a prank she’s pulling on her friends. Hope everything is okay, and she can be reunited with family soon. Peace!

宁财神:

Makes my scalp crawl!

碧江春树:

It’s not strange at all, let me restore the truth to this matter. The girl entered the elevator relaxed and cheerful, mischievously pressed 4 floor buttons, which indicates that there was another person who was about to enter. After waiting a while, nobody came in, the the girl hid in the corner of the elevator hoping to give the second party a scare. Judging from the way the girl playfully and flirtatiously hopped out, the second party should be a man with whom she has an intimate relationship with. The reason for the elevator door remaining open is because this man was pressing the button outside. Although the girl opened her arms to express her dissatisfaction, she at last changed her plan to go down, and returned to the hotel room with the man. The elevator door closed and it went down, opening and closing its door at the floors on which the buttons were pressed, operating normally.

诚or诺:

Personally, judging from this video, the girl had already felt there was danger before she entered the elevator, or she knew there was danger, that somebody was following her. She entered the elevator and pressed the button of every floor to cover her tracks, so that whoever was coming after her wouldn’t know which floor she got off on. But I don’t know why the elevator door wouldn’t close for such a long time. The girl kept looking outside, because she wanted to know if the person following her had caught up. She leaned her body sideways near the button area so that the person couldn’t immediately see that someone was in the elevator. When the girl found the elevator refusing to work, she stepped out to check, and kept complaining to herself, with this probably being a natural emotional response when under stress, and related to foreigners’ behaviors being more exaggerated due to how they are educated to be freely expressive of their thoughts and feelings. When finally the girl no longer appears on camera, that’s when trouble started. And there are limitless other possibilities afterwards as well. Hope she can be safe!

寂寞失落哥:

Forwarding someone else’s analysis. To put the pieces together, I think she was hopping and gesticulating because she wanted to draw investigators’ attention to this video, indicating that she had already known what she was into. Therefore, to begin from checking the background of this incident makes sense to me. Some say she lost a game of Truth or Dare and had to walk all the floors, but I lean towards her having encountered something suspicious and was hiding from someone, the way she was walking indicating being weak in her knees and terrified, being highly alert of her surroundings and even possibly being able to see the outside buttons via reflection when she was hiding in the corner. Her stepped out hopping and giving out a cry is just like when I was little and I’d do the same thing to boost my courage when scared, and using noise to break the silence and fear outside. In the end, her body suggested she was essentially in a state of hopelessness or desperation, so it probably wasn’t just any ordinary encounter of something scary in the night, and may have received some messages concerning her life beforehand.

狗狗拉菲Lafite:

First of all, she pushed all floor buttons for the ghosts. As to the elevator door remaining open, it’s because there were too many ghosts in the elevator leading to the door not closing because it was overloaded, and her being squeezed to a corner of the elevator proves this point. Hopping and gesticulating by the door was her discussing the situation with the ghosts, asking some of the ghosts to get out of the elevator to reduce the weight. From this we can see, there will always be things that man’s science is unable to explain, or there really is another dimension. This is purely one’s point of view, if you don’t like it, don’t read it.

八英寸火烧:

There wasn’t a surveillance camera in the corridor/hallway? I trust the police must have more information but have only made just this public. However, based on my own experience, if it’s pressing the button from the outside, the elevator will not continue opening the door for this long. An alarm will go off, and the door will slowly close. There’s nothing strange about it.

Comments from Sina Weibo:

冷场幼V:

Elisa Lam’s video scares me to death… and I was already scared of even fake ghost stories… and this one is real…Ahhhhhhhhhhh, I almost burst into tears… I didn’t dare watch the rest of it, turned it off after just watching half of it.

captain细:

Watched the Elisa Lam video, and while watching it, my mind drifted off to thinking, if it wasn’t a skinny thin-legged black-haired Asian girl, but a fiery strong chick with big boobs like Penny or Max, the horror level would break down to a sitcom level…

魿惜姑娘:

I don’t like to be in this kind of enclosed elevator in the first place, now I don’t want to be in it even more after seeing this elevator video about her. I always feel uncomfortable taking this kind of elevator.

Porco_Channn:

Wow, it really is scary, more scary than scary movies. You must watch all of it in patience! It’s really weird!

麦家文把路踏平来走:

Fuck, I watched it for 10 seconds and was afraid to watch any more. Someone hurry and watch it and then tell me about it.

Artemis-faye:

Every time I see news possibly involving the supernatural, just like this disappearance of Elisa Lam video today… her behavior in the elevator weird, freaking me out, I will watch an episode of Great Detective Conan and trust in science. Every time after I see something that destroys my faith in love, I will watch The Pirate King, where love is everywhere in the world… These two anime are enough for my life!

上上肚子疼:

Speaking of the video about that missing ethnic Chinese girl Elisa Lam… weird it is, but the girl’s whereabouts is currently completely unknown!!! This is a person’s life we’re talking about, okay?! Those who are treating this video as a scary movie watching it for entertainment, where is your fucking humanity!!!

丸子_不惜代价求offer:

As a person who used to take an elevator every night at 1am to go down from an eighth floor lab to the first floor, and then walk 15 minutes alone to my dorm, I want to say you just need to listen to music when entering the elevator and you won’t be scared at all! Sister [referring to herself] is a real man [brave]!

机智的2囍:

I want to cry after watching the Elisa Lam Video. How am I supposed to sleep tonight?

Timasam:

Watching it gave me goosebumps and cold sweats. When girls — especially single girls — are alone outside, they must beef up their self-protection. Hope the police can find her soon, hope that she is safe.