Horror Movie Review: The Basement (1989)

Written and directed by Timothy O’Rawe, The Basement might look atrocious, but it’s an anthology horror that delivers entertaining horror. Especially when you find out the story behind its existence.

Shot on Super 8mm in 1989, the film was promptly abandoned by O’Rawe and left to rot until 2010. Camp Motion Pictures got hold of it, edited it, added a new soundtrack and dub, and released it in 2011 on DVD. The version I watched for this review though comes from Terror Vision, who re-released it in HD and put the original audio back in. Albeit vastly improved.

It’s somewhat of a miracle that this film even exists, and I’m glad it does.

The story surrounds four people, four strangers, who are summoned to the basement of an abandoned house by a mysterious entity known only as The Sentinel. The entity is here to judge them, but in an interesting twist, it’s for crimes they will commit in the future. Crimes that will damn their souls for all eternity.

What then follows is four short stories filled with macabre horror, tongue in cheek silliness, surprising gore, and more. There’s a definite Tales from the Crypt feel to things here, but what it lacks in originality, it makes up for in effort.

The first story is the silliest as it sees a woman kill those around her via some sort of monster that lives in her pool. Like all good horror stories, she inevitably gets her comeuppance in entertaining fashion. The second is less memorable, but visually arresting, as a man who likes to terrorise kids on Halloween is visited by monsters warning him to change his ways. Yes, this is A Christmas Carol but with a Halloween twist.

The third story is all about zombies as the dead rise and go after a mean director on the set of his new film, which just so happens to be a zombie flick. The fourth, and final story aside from the wraparound, is probably the darkest and the goriest. Telling a story about a cursed house, and the man who bought it.

The wraparound then ends with judgement being passed on the foursome, even as they deny that they could ever be capable of such things.

I really liked this anthology as it’s a rare example of each individual story being quite good. The varied approach to things, the creative ideas that are showcased, the tone shifts that keep you on edge, there’s a lot to enjoy here and I think it is worth hunting down. That being said, it’s rough and rough in a few different ways.

I already mentioned the visuals, but the sound has issues too. Terror Vision has done well, but not well enough it seems (I suspect they couldn’t get it any better). Though, in no way can they take any of the blame for the acting. Which is pretty suspect throughout, even if there is a low-budget charm to it.

None of this ruins things though. It’s well worth a watch.