Don't Look in the Basement (1973)

Redundant and unnecessary.

How sad is this?

best movie i've ever seen.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

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.

In a '70s private sanitarium, the physicians are at ease playing the weirdest medical games, free from any prudence (endowing the patients with weapons, like in the dryly and efficiently satirical scene of the 1st murder, when the physicians looks as insane as his patient, and has an intriguing look of carelessness and incompetence), delving into alternative psychotherapy, and the plot actually has a dramatic underbelly, there's something respectable, mostly the acting, by people who enjoyed their roles (the usual cartoons of cinema insanity) and the thrill of the plot, and by the directing (good, unhurried scenes, like the open-minded young nurse's arrival at the sanitarium, in the aftermath of the murders), with a sense of satire, until it indulges in aqua-fortes of delusional behavior and it becomes a moderately convincing rip-off of a '60s stage-play (the ravings, the screams, like in Albee or Williams). The _jurisconsult is aware of the uselessness of the treatments as given in the sanitarium, they are like the Popsicles cherished by the childish giant.The new nurse arrives from a dignified professional world, into the realm of insane experiments. The actress, a '70s starlet with an eerie look, and nowadays the highlight of the cast (as she probably was at the time of the release, as well), does a reasonably sunny role.'The Basement' has a mystery puzzle plot, with scattered hints: the doll, the phone, the missing vials …. It's a satire, with the placidity of the female psychiatrist in the aftermath of her colleague's demise (when she receives intruders, she seems one of her patients), the insane psychiatrists who were also neurosurgeons, the knowing smiles of these deluded medical workers, who put themselves at the mercy of crazy people, the shocking carelessness of the sanitarium life, with the murderer left free, and the young nurse's room open to the patients during her sleep. The patients don't look like sick people, they seem stock movie weirdos.

A young nurse named Charlotte Beale arrives at a small sanitarium run by Dr Stephens, but soon finds out that not all is as it seems, as the patients aren't locked in their room and the previous Doctor got murdered, so Charlotte tries to investigate the secrets of the place and soon finds out more than she bargained for.In my opinion I find this movie very uneven, firstly as the first hour basically nothing happens just a bunch of overacting and patients screaming, and plus endless boring dialogue, but then the final half hour the movie finally kicks in which is intense and thrilling and the setting is brilliant with it a genuinely eerie feel -- claustrophobic, intense, and a sweaty nightmarish feel. Overall "Don't Look in the Basement" isn't that bad of a film although it's pacing is one of its biggest issues overall. The movie seems to lack direction in parts although it does end up a lot better than most will expect.All in all Don't Look In The Basement is a fun 70's slasher, definitely one of the better ones, but nothing that sets it apart from the other movies of this calibre or memorable.

Not without some shock value, this claustrophobic little horror movie concerns a nurse (Fulton) inspired to join a small, rural mental health clinic where an intrepid doctor (Harvey) is practicing new techniques on the seriously deranged patients. Needless to say that after the doctor is killed by one of the crackpots, the suspicious 2IC (MacAdams) presides over an ever-deteriorating situation where the crazies seem to outdo each other for most bizarre and violent outburst.MacAdams playing the twisted "Dr" Geraldine Masters seems a competent actress and her character is genuinely unhinged - Fulton, by distinction, doesn't so much seem to act, as affect a performance of shock and awe in which she does, at the very least, a decent scream queen impersonation. McGhee is okay as the docile and supposedly gentle lobotomised Sam, while among the assortment of oddballs, there's a sultry but dangerous nymphomaniac (Chandler) who just wants to be loved (the scene where she "consummates" her marriage to the phone guy is pretty chilling), an old duck who utters quaint yet sinister premonitions until she apparently bites off her own tongue, while certified nutcases of various afflictions taunt each other incessantly to the point of psychotic rage.While amateurish, with performances varied in quality, the dialogue seems reasonably intelligent and the narrative is pretty solid with a few well-constructed plot twists. The intense climax is perhaps a bit over-the-top for sheer lunacy, but I suppose in a house full of nuts, it's only a matter of time become some of them crack.