The Forgotten

This is a film that if you watch it today and you have seen a more than a couple of horror films, you are going to know exactly what is going on. By the title of the film and by the description on the box I figured out what was going to happen before I even saw a minute of the film, and if it is not obvious then it will be during the first five minutes of the film. There are no real surprises to be had here, suffice to say. It does play out somewhat interestingly in areas and there are a couple of pretty good kills, but it is simply too obvious what is going on and how it is going to play out. I see the original title of this one is apparently, "The Forgotten" and perhaps that would have made for a better title, because as I have said, you read the description for this on and you will probably figure out what is going on or if you do not, you will still know how it is all going to go after you watch about five minutes of it with its title of, "Don't Go Into the Basement". Still, there are a couple of surprises as I was not quite expecting the way it ended and there was even a rather funny scene involving a phone repair guy, so I would say while not a particularly good film, it is not terrible either.

The story has a house for those who are crazy in the middle of nowhere. At this facility, the doctor in charge allows the patients to roam free and employs some very questionable methods to help his patients. A nurse there has had enough as the only one she seems to like is Sam, a man who has the innocence of a child. The others are getting on her nerves and after she is threatened by one of the patients she is ready to leave! The doctor doesn't take this news well, and he takes what is coming to him next even less well as he is hit with an ax. A new nurse is soon seen coming to the place and a new doctor has taken over saying the previous one has been killed. Well the new nurse is quickly warned to leave the place by one of the patients, but she sticks with it, but things begin to unravel quickly as the patients start losing control!

Like I said, it has its moments, but just not enough for me to really say it was an okay film. Some things were cool in it, but at other times things going on were a bit perplexing, such as the new nurse being unable to find the exit to the house. The people being treated did okay for a low budget film my favorite being the super sexed up woman who simply wanted the love of a man and was stuck in a place where the guys all seemed to pass on her despite her being rather attractive. The one dude who would just scream and grab stuff was my least favorite as he just seemed to be doing a stereotypical crazy person. One thing that also surprised me was that during the course of the entire movie, no one told the nurse to no look in the basement...I was kind of expecting that within the first few moments she arrived.

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 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.

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.

I have to admit that my preference is for psychological horror where the imagination is left to roam. Thus I thought the lead-up to the unfortunate bloodbath was both interesting and different. Each of the asylum patients in the lead-up is given a chance to demonstrate his or her particular disorder— the compulsive soldier, the nympho hungering for love, the obsessive mother with her doll baby, the partially lobotomized black man, et al-- and except for the judge (Ross) none seems particularly homicidal. And, of course, there's the power-crazed "doctor" (Weenick). Then, into this loony bin arrives poor drop-in nurse Charlotte (Holotik) not realizing that a loony is in charge.

This sets up an interesting and fairly suspenseful storyline since we can't be sure where the plot is headed since the murder, mayhem and gore so far is at a minimum. Plus the acting is pretty darn good—Weenick & Holotik, especially. (And after 60-years of movies, I've never seen a cast with more un-Hollywoodized names!)

Now, in my view, had the creators exercised more imagination, they could have come up with a less hackneyed climax than the gore-fest we're subjected to. Of course, the blood-letting may satisfy many horror fans, but to me, it betrays the subtler possibilities posed in the lead-up. For example, why not have the real doctor murdered by one of the patients, and then try to figure out which of the patients is actually homicidal. A sort of loony-bin whodunit.

Anyway, the film is mostly well-crafted for a cheap-jack production. Still, I wish IMDb provided more background info, since what does appear looks like a wholly Texas production with a local cast. To me that would amount to quite an achievement, regardless of budget or fall off in imagination.