I'll be honest, I didn't notice the gap with the exit hallway the first dozen times I rode. When those elevator doors opened, my attention was on the car and moving into it and getting a seat. Its not perfect, but it only stands out if you look for it. And the ride feels like a classic horror beat.
You go into a haunted hotel and an unsettling bellhop shows us to a dilapidated service elevator. The doors close, and it feels like we're being pulled backwards into an abyss. The doors before us, pulling away and floating surrounded by blackness until they too fade away. We rise and thank God, it was just our imagination. A normal hotel hallway with a mirror. But wait, the hallway is changing and we're seeing ourselves vanish. Will we become invisible spirits too? Another hallway, but I don't trust it. The ghosts of the lost elevator passengers appear and beckon for us to join them. The hotel vanishes and we're focused on this floating elevator door at the other end of the hall. The ghosts appear there, almost a mirror to ourselves. Suddenly, we see the elevator drop to its deadly conclusion. And then we drop. But we're safe. Not yet, the Tower itself is pushing surges of power to push our elevator higher and higher! It drops us and catches us before we crash on the floor, only to push us up even higher! The Tower is toying with as a cat does with a mouse. Finally, the doors open to reveal a very real world, the Tower maliciously salting our wound before it delivers the death blow. But somehow we survive. We fall forward, the elevator doors coming back into focus. The doors open to reveal the same unsettling bellhop. Had I really not moved this entire time? Was this all a dream? Did my imagination get the better of me? Perhaps, but the bellhop does have that knowing smile. All I know, is I'm not messing around with a haunted hotel again!
I think that's why I loved DCA's TOT as it was a cerebral experience for me. It wasn't this linear overly explained story.