DVD Review: Don’t Look In The Basement

Don’t Look In The Basement is a 1973 low-budget horror film about a young nurse who goes to work in a sanitarium where the methods are unusual, and soon finds herself in danger. The film has a strange, dark tone right from the beginning, and is populated by some interesting characters.

When the film opens, Sergeant and Sam, two patients, are looking out through a window, waiting for an unidentified enemy. But a nurse inside tells them things are okay. In another room, a woman named Harriet is protective of her baby, a plastic doll, freaking out when Danny tries to grab it from her. Outside, Dr. Stephens encourages another patient, Judge, to chop wood with an axe. But while he speaks to Dr. Geraldine Masters, Judge uses the axe to suddenly kill Dr. Stephens. Dr. Masters promises to take care of everyone, which is fine, as Harriet ends up killing the only other staff member, a nurse named Jane, who was packing to leave anyway. And this is all before the opening credits sequence.

Charlotte Beale (Rosie Holotik), a beautiful young woman, arrives to begin her job as nurse at the sanitarium. She was hired by Dr. Stephens, but Dr. Masters seems to know nothing about this and at first is reluctant to allow her to stay, which seems odd, as the staff has recently gone from three to one and you’d think she’d welcome the help. Another thing that’s interesting is that she doesn’t keep Dr. Stephens’ death a secret from her, something I feel a lesser movie would have done. And from Dr. Masters we learn a bit about Dr. Stephens’ methods, his idea that pushing a patient further into his or her obsessions would cause the patient to eventually use his or her own strength to destroy them. Yeah, it’s not difficult to see how that might backfire. Charlotte, whom Dr. Masters agrees to take on, also learns that the entire household functions as a sort of family, and the patients’ rooms are right next to the staff’s rooms, and there are no locks on the doors. Charlotte asks Dr. Masters if she’s ever afraid. Dr. Masters replies, “I’m always afraid.” It isn’t long before one of the patients startles Charlotte, warning her to leave.

It’s an interesting set-up, and I do like many of the characters. There is a wonderful moment later with Charlotte and that elderly patient who had startled her. The two go for a walk in the garden, and that night the woman says to Charlotte: “You liked our walk in the garden, didn’t you? Well, don’t be surprised if we never go again.” It’s creepy and slightly humorous and also rather sad. Though the tone is fairly dark and unsettling, there are a few moments to lighten the mood momentarily. There is a delightful scene when the telephone repairman arrives and encounters two patients without realizing at first that they are patients. He’s a likeable character, an outsider who is able to provide a little perspective, and one of the other patients takes a shine to him. When she gets aggressive, he tells her, “Look, sweetheart, you’re a good-looking girl and all that, but this ain’t my bag,” a line that made me smile. He then adds, “Not in a closet, it ain’t.” Of course, outsiders are not really accepted by all in this dysfunctional family, and the telephone repairman disappears from screen for a while. The film seems to ask, To whom do you turn for help when everyone is insane? And there are moments when you might even question Charlotte’s sanity.

Don’t Look In The Basement (also known as The Forgotten) was directed by S.F. Brownrigg, and was released on DVD on December 16, 2014 through Film Chest Media Group. Though it’s a digitally restored version, the picture quality still is not perfect (but then again, sometimes that helps with these 1970s horror films, adding to the uneasy atmosphere). The DVD contains no special features.