The Beast in the Cellar (1970)

Why so much hype?

Too much of everything

Overrated and overhyped

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

I remember viewing this movie when I was a kid. I recall it terrified me immensely and it stayed with me all these years. I spent a couple of years trying to find it online...didn't remember the title, only the storyline. After searching and searching, I came across a VHS that was being sold on E-Bay. I was excited and when it finally arrived, I jammed it into the VCR and couldn't help but feel a bit nostalgic. Needless to say, I was slightly disappointed. This wasn't the movie I remember watching as a kid. It was boring at times and I found Beryl Reid's incessant whinning extremely annoying. Both performances by Reid and Flora Robson were good overall but the movie wasn't scary. I think any movie is worth viewing to form you're own opinion but sometimes, well......

This film has haunted me for 30 years. I'm trying to buy a PAL format VHS or UK or USA DVD copy. This film is excellent. Flora Robson is disturbingly controlling and the ending, if you haven't been told of it, is sad & very moving. And my home is 90 years old- with a cellar.

The oddest thing of all about the Beast in the Cellar is that it is actually rather well acted. Beryl Reid and Flora Robson are just fine in their sinister roles, and it makes you wonder how well the film might have turned out if it hadn't been so poorly written.Possible plot spoiler: the storyline of this flick is odd too. A couple of nosy, simple minded old sisters live in a country house and seem to just drift along in life. Every now and then they hint that something weird is going on in their cellar. As the film develops, it transpires that they have kept their brother locked in there for years - three decades to be precise - and one day he escapes and goes on a killing rampage. Obviously, after thirty years locked in a damp, dark cellar, he looks more than a little like a caveman and has extraordinarily long sharp nails, almost like claws (all the better to mutilate you with!)With such a strange, unpromising plot, this never had much chance of being a great film. But it has interesting bits, such as the afore-mentioned high quality performances and a couple of nicely edited shock moments. Generally, though, it isn't up to much and belongs very much in its little time capsule as an early 70's cheap-and-cheerful British horror opus.

Rating: 5Good atmosphere - soundtrack, film technique, creepy "not what they appear to be" characters - marred by muddled screenplay. Poor continuity. Opportunities with characterizations missed. Not an original idea, done better elsewhere. Mistitled - alternate titles describe movie better. "Beast in the Cellar" sounds exactly what it tries not to be: a '50s drive-in throwaway. "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" Brit spinster wannabe description is apropos.