I have started a genuine "Asylum Horror" kick inspired by the SCREAM YOUR HEAD OFF segment from NIGHT TRAIN TO TERROR. So far today I have screened the Shriek Show SLAUGHTER HOTEL DVD, J.L. Moctezuma's DR. TARR'S TORTURE DUNGEON, and now a third screening of SF Brownrigg's longest lasting contribution to our culture, DON'T LOOK IN THE BASEMENT!
This is another one of those movies that late nite TV & the Bargain Bin Public Domainers have tried to get us to dismiss, but there is a lot of life beneath the threadbare surface of this film. Filmed in Texas in 1973 for a couple hundred thousand dollars, the movie is blessed with an unbeatable title, the presence of one-time Playboy Playmate Rosie Holotik in the lead role of a pretty, leggy nurse, a neatly compact little script that plays somewhat on the basic premise behind DR TARR [inmates running the asylum but the newcomer doesn't realize it, even though they are told so repeatedly], some great gloomy sleazy atmosphere reminiscent of A VIRGIN AMONGST THE LIVING DEAD & other Jess Franco productions of a similar ilk, a great unlikely hero in Will Lee's lobotomized Sam, and that fabulous splatterfest ending, which may or may not be cut depending upon which version you have on hand.
I had an old VidAmerica VHS unit for months before finally watching it and was disappointed to find a cut 83 minute transfer, with the synching on the closing credits even off by the cutting of graphic images. So I turned to the good old Diamond Ent. codefree DVD & was delighted to find an 89 minute version but a crummy pressing, with the Brentwood/BCI Eclipse 2 DVD/4 movie PLACES OF FEAR codefree presentation coming off the best of the releases I have sampled, with a likewise-natured SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT on the flipside and SATAN'S SCHOOL FOR GIRLS + the endearing HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL. Still have Platinum Disc Corp's $6 R0 with three others on it to examine [HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL, HOUSE AT THE EDGE OF THE PARK, WEREWOLF IN A GIRL'S DORMITORY] and then a brand-new Alpha Video DVD [whoopie] who have apparently rounded their runtime up to 90 minutes. And in true "Lost Movie" style, NO WIDESCREEN VERSION FOR HOME VIDEO IS DESCRIBED ANYWHERE, period. It exists these days only as DVD burns of old videos, which is a shame. I'd love to see an actual direct to digital widescreen transfer of this. LOVE.
The IMDB describes an Australian release clocking at 92 minutes, but I am wondering if someone didn't just time their video from the second they popped it in -- This Brentwood DVD appears to be uncut, with some naked boobs & a number of graphic axe swings clipped from the VidAmerica tape [and the entire bit about the girl getting the paper tacker in the eye, come to thing of it], and being that both Alpha and Platinum traditionally do shitty pressings I am not holding out much hope for a better version: All appear to have been sourced from VHS tapes, with Brentwood's digitization having somewhat richer color ranges and less electronic "skewing" of the pixelated DVD image.
I am usually the first to toss out spoilers on films when I write about them but will hesitate in this instance: DON'T LOOK IN THE BASEMENT will effectively freak you out the first time you see it because the plot twist that throws the movie into Hell mode really is a shocker the first time you sit through it. The best thing that the film has going for it is that it was a more or less "independent" horror production and as such lacks the traditional pap Hollywoodized touches that would have made this more of a polished COUNT YORGA like production, which would have totally ruined the effect of the movie. The use of non-actors, non-movie sets and unceasing claustrophobia/dread make it feel more like CHILDREN SHOULDN'T PLAY WITH DEAD THINGS, but without the stupid humor.
Not that there isn't a lot that will make you laugh as it is: this was a totally non-P.C. take on a nuthouse and we get our stock nutcases [lobotomized lunk of muscle, psychotic former judge with a thing for axes, nymphomaniac delusional psychopath who likes to take off her shirt for the boys, etc] with plenty of footage with insane babblings, weird camera angles, and lots of sweaty pent up tension that eventually boils over in a climax splatter-0-rama that initially earned this film it's reputation when I was a lad. And yes it's always great to watch nutzoids go berzerk with axes but these days I watch this film to see how you can take one location, a cast of maybe 8 people and craft a really creepy little thriller that still works thirty one years later. The trick is of course all in the script, and while having non-actors delivering certain lines does come off awkward, the script is GOOD and you could have had chimpanzees in Groucho Marx masks acting this out and it still would have worked.
Surely another instance where a reduced budget actually helped a film's effectiveness by forcing the director to cut every corner possible -- there is a lot of ambient lighting, which while creating inconsistant illumination at times really does make you feel like you are in a creepy old house. And that old lady ... Whenever some twisted, deformed old woman starts soothsaying and issuing grave advice, TAKE IT. That chick should have fled the second she realized the phone was conked: Ms. Holotik actually ranks up there with both of Margheriti's Alan Fosters, the girl from HORROR HOTEL and the husband from Hammer's KISS OF THE VAMPIRE as amongst the most clueless idiots in horror history, and if Ms. Holotik had not been playing an idiot this movie would have been over in about ten minutes.
Fortunately she is dumb, blond, has great green/gray eyes, gets two scenes where her long white nurse stockinged legs are shot from a low angle in broad daylight, and was a good enough screen presence to at least appear genuinely terrified during the movie's concluding passages. Seek it out/it ain't hard to find, and for my money stick with Brentwood's EVIL PLACES DVD set or the Diamond disc if you can find one, though they went very suddenly out of print and I have not seen one on a store shelf since early March.
***1/2 out of ****
This is another one of those movies that late nite TV & the Bargain Bin Public Domainers have tried to get us to dismiss, but there is a lot of life beneath the threadbare surface of this film. Filmed in Texas in 1973 for a couple hundred thousand dollars, the movie is blessed with an unbeatable title, the presence of one-time Playboy Playmate Rosie Holotik in the lead role of a pretty, leggy nurse, a neatly compact little script that plays somewhat on the basic premise behind DR TARR [inmates running the asylum but the newcomer doesn't realize it, even though they are told so repeatedly], some great gloomy sleazy atmosphere reminiscent of A VIRGIN AMONGST THE LIVING DEAD & other Jess Franco productions of a similar ilk, a great unlikely hero in Will Lee's lobotomized Sam, and that fabulous splatterfest ending, which may or may not be cut depending upon which version you have on hand.
I had an old VidAmerica VHS unit for months before finally watching it and was disappointed to find a cut 83 minute transfer, with the synching on the closing credits even off by the cutting of graphic images. So I turned to the good old Diamond Ent. codefree DVD & was delighted to find an 89 minute version but a crummy pressing, with the Brentwood/BCI Eclipse 2 DVD/4 movie PLACES OF FEAR codefree presentation coming off the best of the releases I have sampled, with a likewise-natured SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT on the flipside and SATAN'S SCHOOL FOR GIRLS + the endearing HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL. Still have Platinum Disc Corp's $6 R0 with three others on it to examine [HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL, HOUSE AT THE EDGE OF THE PARK, WEREWOLF IN A GIRL'S DORMITORY] and then a brand-new Alpha Video DVD [whoopie] who have apparently rounded their runtime up to 90 minutes. And in true "Lost Movie" style, NO WIDESCREEN VERSION FOR HOME VIDEO IS DESCRIBED ANYWHERE, period. It exists these days only as DVD burns of old videos, which is a shame. I'd love to see an actual direct to digital widescreen transfer of this. LOVE.
The IMDB describes an Australian release clocking at 92 minutes, but I am wondering if someone didn't just time their video from the second they popped it in -- This Brentwood DVD appears to be uncut, with some naked boobs & a number of graphic axe swings clipped from the VidAmerica tape [and the entire bit about the girl getting the paper tacker in the eye, come to thing of it], and being that both Alpha and Platinum traditionally do shitty pressings I am not holding out much hope for a better version: All appear to have been sourced from VHS tapes, with Brentwood's digitization having somewhat richer color ranges and less electronic "skewing" of the pixelated DVD image.
I am usually the first to toss out spoilers on films when I write about them but will hesitate in this instance: DON'T LOOK IN THE BASEMENT will effectively freak you out the first time you see it because the plot twist that throws the movie into Hell mode really is a shocker the first time you sit through it. The best thing that the film has going for it is that it was a more or less "independent" horror production and as such lacks the traditional pap Hollywoodized touches that would have made this more of a polished COUNT YORGA like production, which would have totally ruined the effect of the movie. The use of non-actors, non-movie sets and unceasing claustrophobia/dread make it feel more like CHILDREN SHOULDN'T PLAY WITH DEAD THINGS, but without the stupid humor.
Not that there isn't a lot that will make you laugh as it is: this was a totally non-P.C. take on a nuthouse and we get our stock nutcases [lobotomized lunk of muscle, psychotic former judge with a thing for axes, nymphomaniac delusional psychopath who likes to take off her shirt for the boys, etc] with plenty of footage with insane babblings, weird camera angles, and lots of sweaty pent up tension that eventually boils over in a climax splatter-0-rama that initially earned this film it's reputation when I was a lad. And yes it's always great to watch nutzoids go berzerk with axes but these days I watch this film to see how you can take one location, a cast of maybe 8 people and craft a really creepy little thriller that still works thirty one years later. The trick is of course all in the script, and while having non-actors delivering certain lines does come off awkward, the script is GOOD and you could have had chimpanzees in Groucho Marx masks acting this out and it still would have worked.
Surely another instance where a reduced budget actually helped a film's effectiveness by forcing the director to cut every corner possible -- there is a lot of ambient lighting, which while creating inconsistant illumination at times really does make you feel like you are in a creepy old house. And that old lady ... Whenever some twisted, deformed old woman starts soothsaying and issuing grave advice, TAKE IT. That chick should have fled the second she realized the phone was conked: Ms. Holotik actually ranks up there with both of Margheriti's Alan Fosters, the girl from HORROR HOTEL and the husband from Hammer's KISS OF THE VAMPIRE as amongst the most clueless idiots in horror history, and if Ms. Holotik had not been playing an idiot this movie would have been over in about ten minutes.
Fortunately she is dumb, blond, has great green/gray eyes, gets two scenes where her long white nurse stockinged legs are shot from a low angle in broad daylight, and was a good enough screen presence to at least appear genuinely terrified during the movie's concluding passages. Seek it out/it ain't hard to find, and for my money stick with Brentwood's EVIL PLACES DVD set or the Diamond disc if you can find one, though they went very suddenly out of print and I have not seen one on a store shelf since early March.
***1/2 out of ****
