Cellar Dweller (1988)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Admirable film.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

A mildly amusing title and a cameo appearance from Jeffrey Combs (dressed in his RE-ANIMATOR coat, apparently, and appearing for ten minutes at the beginning before going off to cash his pay cheque) are the best thing about this otherwise appalling movie from Empire - so at least with that company making it, you can't say you were surprised. Once again the director turns out to be John Carl Buechler, who is quickly becoming one of my most hated directors of all time - sure, the man makes good special effects, but must all effects men try directing too? It's obvious he has no talent yet still he churns these movies out.The plot is a non-existent excuse to throw a few bad actors together and have them get picked off one by one by a huge slimy demon that somehow lives in the cellar due to a comic book - childish isn't the word for it. As usual for the genre, there's plenty of poor humour, false scares and naked women being menaced by big monsters. The demon is actually quite an effective-looking monster so it's a shame that its not appearing in a better movie, and it just gets relegated to lurking around in the cellar, roaring. The violence is surprisingly kept to a minimum, and I think limited to a singular bloody decapitation scene and some severed body parts. Meanwhile, the cast is made up of boring unknowns, aside from the presence of Yvonne De Carlo who enjoys hamming it up as an unpleasant landlady - whatever happened to her career?The biggest enjoyment I had from watching this movie came when I realised that it only ran for seventy-something minutes and it was nearly over. It's one of those films which you get the feeling was only created in order to make money - neither the cast nor the crew seem to have any interest in it whatsoever, instead going through the motions and picking up their pay cheque at the end of it all. This makes it nigh on impossible for the viewer to be interested in it either. A cheap, pointless, shallow piece of drivel.

This horror film suffers from something that is common in a lot of horror films. The story has something good going for it, but it is executed in such a way that the film suffers. This film was not bad, but it could have been really good had they done a couple of things differently. The premise of the story had enough going for it that it could have easily taken an hour and a half and seemed like a complete film, but thanks to where they went the movie was filled with padding and had a very short running time. The setting had a lot to do with this problem. The cellar and house were fine, it was making the focus of the film the house and then making the house an art colony that kind of doomed this one to being kind of good and kind of bad. Some all right kills and nudity, but it took a bit too long for the killing to begin as they kept establishing all these unnecessary plot points thanks to the whole art colony setting. It was also kind of annoying to see Jeffery Combs at the beginning and then he is absent for the rest of the movie. I figured since he made his way into the credits he would be seen somewhere in the main portion of the film, but alas he is only in the pre-credit sequence.The story has an artist killed by his own creation and a curse some 30 years prior. A young woman who idolized this man who wrote a horror type comic comes to the house where he drew his work to join an art colony where she is less than wanted by the head of the house. She also does not get along with another who lives there and the head of the house and this other woman scheme to get the woman out because they do not look very highly upon her comic book type art. Well, the lady finds a book in the basement or cellar and reads about a monster and proceeds to draw said monster. Unfortunately, as before, the monster is given life due to the curse in the book and it begins to feast upon the artists within the house. At first the young lady draws the monster feasting upon the woman she doesn't like and what she draws occurs, but soon the monster seems to be the one dictating the action.I think the film would have been better had they kept the monster more under the control of the artist rather than having it simply do what it wanted. Add a nearby town and have the artist literally take revenge upon the unsuspecting dupes who crossed her. Instead, we have a limited cast for the monster to feed on and I would have liked to have seen more monster munching. Too often here the killing was shown in comic panels rather than getting to see it happen. Good amount of nudity in this one which I enjoyed as well as a fairly decent monster. I find it kind of funny that a monster in a 1988 low budget film looks better than a lot of the stuff they do now. If they added more kills and less padding and changed up the story this one could have been really good. As is, it is short and watchable as it does not bore anyway...it does not really last long enough to be boring.

"Cellar Dweller" is a fun, harmless cheesy creature feature.**SPOILERS**Arriving at the isolated Colony, Whitney Taylor, (Debrah Farentino) meets Mrs. Briggs, (Yvonne De Carlo) for an interview to do a relaunch of a famous, favored comic book, Cellar Dweller at the place. Gaining employment, she meets the other cadre of artists there, including Phillip Lemley, (Brian Robbins) Amanda, (Pamela Bellwood) Lisa, (Miranda Wilson) and Norman Meshelski. (Vince Edwards) who all warn her away from the basement. Determined to uncover the truth, despite the story about a horrible murder that occurred there and eventually decides to move there to create the comic series. After a while, they start to notice that the other tenets are disappearing, and eventually realize that her drawings are coming to life, and since her series is of a ravenous creature, they try to stop it before they all disappear.The Good News: This one here does have some good parts to it. The fact that the film contains a rather unique and creative storyline is something to be commended. Taking the literal world of the comic books and turning them into actual scenes is quite nice, making this one feel really clever and creative, and using a rather complicated but still understandable back-story gives it even more flair than expected and really goes a long way towards making this one fun. There's also the fact that this one comes with the complete story with this one and it makes the film feel really good. The film also has a nice amount of cheese, which is really helpful. The creature attacks at the end, with the good one being the one on the victim in the shower meaning that there's the nudity requirement fulfilled nicely, and it ends with a great chase through the house complete with the action also seen through the eyes of the comic scene that it's emulating. It's great fun, and the other attacks in here aren't that bad either, and they do result in some nice gore scenes as well. There's a great decapitation, an upper half of the chest and head ripped completely off, one is ripped to pieces and completely dismembered and another is set on fire, which is quite nice and allows for some really nice gore moments. It isn't all that bloody, but it's gory enough to satisfy, and that's what matters here. The basement where the majority of the film takes place in is pretty creepy, coming with the completely well-done look of disuse and making sure that there's nothing in here that looks recent or could be misconstrued otherwise. It's a great set and helps set off those sequences nicely. The last big plus is the monster in here. It's a fantastically-designed creature, making it an imposing threat while also using it's werewolf-ish look to be both unique and quite threatening. Combined, these here are the film's good points.The Bad News: This one here does have a few flaws to it that are pretty hard to overcome. The cheese, which makes it fun to begin with, also manages to become a detriment as well. The main issue is that there's a unmistakable scent of the 80s, which gives it a cheap feeling and that reduces the cheese levels to greater emphasis. From the ability to find faults in the monster costume to the comic book-like scenes that play out in the middle in substitute for the actual action, it contains enough sequences in this style to make it apparent, and that can be something that few could avoid if not really interested in this sort of film. The creature itself also has a few flaws associated with it. The fact that it's never explained how it manages to get around to deliver it's kills when it's drawing powers from the animation, yet it does so by animating itself going after them instead. This is wholly confusing and doesn't make the least bit of sense, especially since it does them even after it's secret has been revealed. Then a later scene has it completely harmless when it lets a victim come back to rejoice with the heroine, then is talked down to and manages to let them celebrate, despite the evidence drawn in front of them which points elsewhere to other matters. This is all apart of the film's weak ending, which, besides these matters here, also manages to exploit the one thing that would've put an end to everything to begin with and stopped the rampage from even happening. When it happens, it's inevitable to be caught and it doesn't make the film any better for it but sends it off on a weak note. This is the weakest part of the film, and it's most obvious fault. The short running time could also be seen as a weak flaw, barely getting over an hour, but compared to the one before it, it pales in comparison but still manages to knock it down a little.The Final Verdict: A remarkably fun creature feature, featuring enough cheese to make it fun while also having a couple of flaws that are pretty detrimental. Give it a shot if you're into this sort of film or have an urge to satisfy a harmless curiosity, while those that can't handle these would be advised to take caution.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Language and Nudity

This is a cheap horror flick with TONS of gore. I seen this one on @ 3 AM again - had to see it only because the title itself drew me in. Actually , I wasnt too disappointed. I love all horror flicks. Has a totally late-80s horror genre feel to it. I wish I could find this VHS also. Rare stuff. PEACE