In the new trend of torture flicks like Hostel and Saw there are bound to be a slew of independent flicks that follow suit, some of them are good and some alright, the majority however are either a direct rip-off of the latter or just plan suck. The Cellar Door kind of sits in the middle of being a good to alright torture flick.
The Cellar Door is about a guy named Herman whom is looking for the perfect girl to marry. Herman however would rather capture and torture his dates instead of trying to pick them up like a normal guy. But all the girls that Herman picks up and locks in a cage in his basement have all been duds, and Herman only takes the good parts from them, a hand, blood, and other body parts and keep them in jars in his cellar. One day however Herman captures and kidnaps a women named Rudy. A women who Herman thinks is the perfect match for him, or is she?
The script is pretty good, except it’s nothing original. How many horror films have we’ve seen where one human being keeps another hostage and tortures them? Plenty of horror films follow this format. But The Cellar Door however did take more of a notice to other such notable films like Frankenstein and Psycho, while adding the like of the torture format to the process. There is a decent amount of character development between the two lead characters and the plot moves along very quickly. The dialogue is actually not half bad either and the process in which the dialogue is used does not give away or tell the story to the viewer as the third person.
The acting in the film is pretty good for an independent film, both James DuMont whom played Herman and Michelle Tomlinson whom played Rudy fit perfect together in their roles. Both actors seemed very comfortable with each other and they both were able to really get into their characters. The supporting cast was pretty good as well, but this film belonged to it’s leads.
The production value for the films is so-so, while I thought the set design and make-up effects were decent, I was not too keen on the way the film was shot. There was an odd over the top hand held style that was used for many of the shots in the flick and I felt the editing was a bit choppy and confused me at times. This of course is during the action sequences, as the scenes that involved dialogue were shot pretty decently. The film also had this orange tinge to it, that I think was there to establish a kind of atmosphere, but it just annoyed me.
Overall, The Cellar Door has it’s up and downs production wise but delivers with it’s story and decent acting. It’s a very good torture flick that has substance and yes; it even has a very well put together story and does not solely rely on the gore and effect to get it by. The film has some pretty shocking moments and does have it’s fare share of blood and gore. But it truly is the story that gets this film by and I think fans of torture film like Saw will enjoy this film. It’s not a film for everyone but it gets it’s point across and does have a shocking ending that can rival that of Hostel II. I my opinion it’s a decent flick well worth checking out for fans of the torture genre.
One last thing worth saying — small indie torture flicks like this one travel in odd ways. The audience finding them is global and a lot of the search trails reaching my reviews are not even in English; over the past year I’ve seen referrals from German horror forums, Polish file-sharing threads, even Swedish queries for things as off-topic as casino utan spelpaus that somehow loop back here through the wrong rabbit hole. Whatever it is about the genre, fans of this kind of movie keep digging up the obscure stuff long after it’s left theaters, and that’s a good thing for films like The Cellar Door.
– Horror Bob
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
