Don't Look in the Basement (1973)

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

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.

"Don't Look in the Basement" (how's that for a gimmicky title?) has an attractive young nurse taking a job at a remote insane asylum that is known for its experimental approaches to psychiatric treatment (such as letting the patients simulate their own delusions, no matter how demented or dangerous). Upon her arrival, she is notified that the head doctor was murdered by one of the inmates, and is geared to run the asylum with the help of the head nurse, but finds herself receiving increasing hostility from the patients.Also known as "The Forgotten," this deceptive and dreary grindhouse flick was apparently a staple of drive-in horror in the mid-1970s, and has been put through the shredder by audiences online. The truth is that this is actually not nearly as bad a film as many reviews would lead you to believe.Make no bones about it, this is a low-budget production on all counts— it looks as though it were filmed inside a large farmhouse haphazardly made up to appear as a hospital, and the special effects are definitely minimalist, but there is something about the low-budget awkwardness that makes this film strangely effective. The narrative is admittedly slow-going early on and the film does feel a bit like a psych ward drama throughout the first forty minutes or so, but some well-played sequences and decent and sometimes disturbing performances from the inmate cast and the foxy, likable heroine elevate the proceedings from potentially dull to surprisingly engaging. Add to that a clever narrative twist that may or may not be easy to read between the lines, which may be the film's greatest asset.Overall, "Don't Look in the Basement" is an effective and atmospheric low-budget horror offering that aspires to greater heights than its budget could clearly afford. In spite of this, the quirks resulting from the production's monetary shortcomings add a raw edge to the film, and it boasts a decent cast of unknowns playing up the hysterics of a '70s psychodrama. What the film does well, perhaps inadvertently, is weave a drab and unsettling atmosphere that infects the entire production, up to its uncompromisingly gruesome conclusion. 7/10.

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.

In the opening credits of "Aloha Bobby and Rose" (1974) you can see a movie theater marquee showing "Last House on the Left" & "Don't Look in the Basement" ! (I suspect that 90% of the fans on here never saw this in a theater because they were too young). I was not aware of the extra gore AND *nudity* ( the classic Allyson & phone company man scene) on the DVD after all the times I saw this (edited for TV) on good ole WOR Channel 9's FRIGHT NIGHT (Saturdays, 1:00 AM late 70s thru the early 80s). There is no way a remake can come close to the sleazy , creepy, late-nite atmosphere of D.L.I.T.B. I love hearing how people first reacted to seeing this on TV to begin with. Seems like most had seen it in 1980 or so on TV (at least that's when I did). YES: we need this to be listed under it's more common title instead of the post release "Forgotten" name.