Don't Look in the Basement (1973)

People are voting emotionally.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

9.Insanely good.Thought this would be the usual run of the mill B-seventies horror movie set in an insane asylum but was pleasantly (for lack of a more appropriate word haha) surprised. I would definitely watch it again given the opportunity it was that good.

"The Forgotten", also known as "Don't Look in the Basement" (1973), was released on a double bill, primarily for the drive-in theatre market, with "Last House on the Left" (1972). Today this kind of bottom-of-the- barrel low budget film would be released directly to home video or an online streaming service. It borrowed the tagline from its companion film "Last House" - "To avoid fainting, keep repeating: It's only a movie. It's only a movie". That tagline was fairly good rationale for "Last House", but it is ludicrous with this sloppy, non-scary film. Do yourself a favor and skip this one. Some movies of this type are so bad, they are good. This is not one of them ... it's just DULL and promises more than it delivers.

"The Forgotten (1973)" is also known by it's more common title "Don't Look in the Basement". Don't Look in the Basement fits the film okay while The Forgotten seems to be a more appropriate title.Question why would Dr. Stephen allow a mentally unstable patient to use a real axe in therapy? A toy axe maybe but a real axe? Even if he thought it was therapeutic for the man to chop wood - a toy axe would have been the logical choice for therapy. Why was he so trusting in his obsession-development theory and creating a "family"? You'll have to watch the film to find the answers.The film is pretty good. It's worth watching if you like movies surrounding asylums.6.5/10

In the opening credits of "Aloha Bobby and Rose" (1974) you can see a movie theater marquee showing "Last House on the Left" & "Don't Look in the Basement" ! (I suspect that 90% of the fans on here never saw this in a theater because they were too young). I was not aware of the extra gore AND *nudity* ( the classic Allyson & phone company man scene) on the DVD after all the times I saw this (edited for TV) on good ole WOR Channel 9's FRIGHT NIGHT (Saturdays, 1:00 AM late 70s thru the early 80s). There is no way a remake can come close to the sleazy , creepy, late-nite atmosphere of D.L.I.T.B. I love hearing how people first reacted to seeing this on TV to begin with. Seems like most had seen it in 1980 or so on TV (at least that's when I did). YES: we need this to be listed under it's more common title instead of the post release "Forgotten" name.