The Forgotten

DON'T LOOK IN THE BASEMENT may be an ordinary-looking exploitational grindhouse movie, but it's actually worth a look for fans of cult cinema. It's entirely cheap with a scuzzy look, but it's also actually a pretty interesting look at mental illness and it doesn't just rely on gore shocks and axe murders to make it work. It has more plot than that, including a fine ending which is something of a mini-classic.

The setting is a cheap, run-down old asylum populated by a group of distinctive characters: there's a the girl who cradles a doll and thinks of it as her child, the former judge who goes around dispensing law, alongside a handful of sympathetic characters. Soon enough a series of gore murders are taking place, and it's up to the pretty young heroine to solve the crimes before she herself becomes the next victim. Director S. F. Brownrigg gets the most out of a clearly non-existent budget, and the film becomes most impressive at the Grand Guignol-style climax, which has something of FREAKS about it.

I was surprised how good this film was. The IMDB rating is so low. I'm not sure why it rates so poorly.

The biggest problem with the flick is that it had a miniscule budget. The overall look is fairly shabby - a very thin production. BUT it has everything else you want in a cheapo horror flick...the script is original, the acting is actually decent, bordering on pretty good for a few characters. The camera work is creative. The heroine is a babe.

A bit of gore and a bit of suspense. Seasoned horror junkies may be able to guess the main gimmick after the first couple of scenes, but it is still worth watching. The film does provide a couple of minor twists that you won't guess though.

If you are looking for bland and well produced then perhaps you should stick with Phantom Menace. If you want to watch a nifty little throwaway horror flick, try Dont Look In The Basement.

Take an ensemble cast of good B grade actors, give them a good script, a somewhat original premise, and unobtrusive directing, and you may end up with a film that over-achieves as much as "Don't Look in the Basement" did.

The film takes place in a large house which is home to several psychotic individuals. Before the plot even begins, the head of the hospital is chopped up by one of the patients with an axe. Then Rosie Holotik enters the hospital looking for the axe victim and finds that the hospital has a new head who is not at first willing to honor her agreement with the deceased Dr. Stephens. Soon, however, Dr. Masters reconsiders and Nurse Beale (Holotik) is hired. The rest of the film builds tension and successfully develops the individual psychoses of the in-mates. After a while it becomes very unclear who is a patient and who is a doctor.

In the end, Don't Look in the Basement is a cleverly plotted film which benefits from generally good acting and directing and not-overly-ambitious camera work. A must-see for B horror fans, and an interesting diversion for those interested in psycho-dramas and psychological thrillers. Be warned, however, this film is slightly more gory and sexy than the average horror film of its time.

"Don't Look in the Basement" is a very, very cheaply made film. Nothing about it seems very professional….yet, oddly, the film is quite entertaining. Is it really good? Nah—but very entertaining providing you are the type person who can appreciate such an odd film!

This movie is set in some sort of sanitarium for the mentally ill—the very, very, VERY mentally ill. No attempt is made to make these folks seem real and it has about the same level of insensitivity you'd find in "Birth of a Nation". I have worked in a psychiatric hospital many years ago, and it was NOTHING like this place! It's pretty obvious they did not film it in a real hospital and just looks like an old house was used. And, for the parts, the 'patients' were told to act very stereotypically insane—like you might expect folks to do on "Whose Line is it Anyway?"—subtle, it ain't! When the doctor (whose methods seem no saner than his patients) is killed by one of the patients, another doctor takes his place. Soon, a new nurse arrives—and she's shocked at how ineffective and stupid the treatment is for the patients. Eventually, more folks start dying and only then do you learn some very interesting secrets. I'd say more, but I really don't want to spoil the suspense.

This engaging film looks like if you were to remake "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and had it rewritten by an actively psychotic individual! It's bloody, it's scary and, what I really like is that you really have no idea who, if anyone, is sane in this film! It's one of those ultra-low budget films with no-name casts that manages to work in spite of all the many strikes against it! Clever, strange and probably not for all tastes! If you like "Carnival of Souls", "Night of the Living Dead" (the original one) or "Spider Baby", then this film is for you!

S.F. Brownrigg is surely one of the most overlooked directors in the slasher genre with Basement being his masterwork. The plot concerns a young nurse (Playboy covergirl Rosie Holotik) who takes a job at a secluded mental hospital. Upon her arrival, it transpires that her employer has been killed by one of the patients and the place is now being run by strict disciplinarian, Dr Masters. Make no mistake, this is a horribly under-staffed operation. The lunatics truly are taking over the asylum and you really have to feel for the young nurse. Tough first gig. The basement figures only very briefly and towards the end of film. It is, in fact, the safest place in the house because the rest of the place is pure madness. I can only assume that Don't Look in the Basement was perhaps an afterthought as a title, possibly forced on the film by the backers to make it sound more scary as the title card appears to have been dropped in arbitrarily and does not match the other titles. Scenes worth watching for are the Judge attacking the doctor with an axe and a broken rubber knife in the final bloodbath. Forget One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. This is the stuff.