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DON'T
LOOK IN THE BASEMENT
 
PLOT
"Don't Look In The Basement" takes place in a secluded
rural asylum, where
Dr. Steven's encourages his patients to live like a family and act
out their
neuroses. A young nurse named Charlotte is hired, and upon
arriving finds
that Steven's has been murdered by one of the patients. She is
reluctantly
taken on by the new administrator, Dr. Masters, who's new
"methods" of
running the asylum lead to chaos and murder.
REVIEW
"Basement" is one of those films that has sort of gained a minor cult
reputation over the years... when it first came out in the early seventies,
it ripped the tagline from "Last House on the Left" (...Keep repeating to
yourself: "It's only a movie"...."it's only a movie"...."It's only a
movie".....) and even claimed on some posters that it was "from the makers
of Last House On The Left". Actually, "Basement" owes more to old William
Castle movies than any of it's then contemporaries.
Shot on a shred of a budget and probably taken right to the drive-in
afterwards, "Basement" really does manage to make the most of what it has to
work with. The entire movie takes place in and around a desolate farmhouse
that passes for a mental hospital...given the radical methods of the head
doctor, this serves as a pretty acceptable locale and is used to it's full
advantage in creating suspense in the film's latter half.
The film opens with a chaotic prolouge that introduces some of the
patients: Jaffe, a war vet who hasn't quite left the war; Sam, a
child-like bear of a man with an affinity for boats and grape popsicles;
Harriet, an unhinged woman who is shown consistantly cradling a toy baby;
and Judge Cameron, a burnt-out judiciary who has made one too many rulings.
Dr. Stevens is quickly dispatched with an axe during a therapy session,
ending with Dr. Masters reassuring that things will be alright....but it is
made clear that things are not all right, and they are only going to get worse.
The heroine of this story, Nurse Charlotte Beale, enters the picture as
the new resident at the hospital. She proves to be one of the movie's
weakest aspects, as the actress playing her is quite horrible and only
succeeds in making her come off as unsympathetic and inept. After an icy
reception from Dr. Masters, she sort of flits through the rest of the story
oblivious to the fact that the patients hold the key to what's really going on.
Strange things start to happen upon Charlotte's arrival: the phone lines
are cut by an unseen person, patients lurk in Charlotte's closet with
knives, an old woman cuts her own tongue out, and Dr. Masters begins
displaying erratic behavior under the stress of running the place.
The performances in "Basement" range from bad to good. Anne MacAdams (who
is the only professional here, and would go onto bigger things) is a trip
as Dr. Masters. Bill McGhee is also quite good as Sam and makes a fitting
hero to the story. The rest of the actors playing the patients seem to fall
somewhere in the middle, but are capable of being quite frightening as the
movie approaches it's climax.
The last twenty minutes spiral into some good clausterphobic suspense as
our daft heroine begins to piece together the horror of her situation while
the resident loonies pop in and out of the darkness to torment her. I won't
spoil the ending for you because it is quite a treat and gives quite a
release from the madness preceeding it.
"Basement" also has an air of black comedy laced throughout it...the are
quite a few scenes that will make you laugh, but they never distract you
from what the story is about. A lot of things about it haven't aged well in
years, but for me, it never ceases to be fun and at the same time,
disturbing.
GORE
There's an axe murder, a nasty throat slashing, an
eye-skewering, and of
course, the ending turns into a lot of blood being splattered
around.
Nothing really explicit...the blood looks a little fake, but if you
can get
over that and enjoy the movie itself, it's something you can
overlook.
SOUNDTRACK
Very simple mood music ranging from the percussive, to blends of
flute and
harpsichord, and even a little sitar thrown in!
BOTTOM LINE
I think that people will either love it or hate it...the people who
love
it will enjoy it's brand of grindhouse suspense....the people who
hate it
will probably think that it's unbelievable or too dated, or write it
off as
just a no-budget piece of shit. Either way, if you surrender
to it's
faults, "Don't Look in the Basement" is one hell of a good
time.
Review
By: The Scaremaker
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