One of the many helpful tips that the horror genre has bestowed upon the world is that, if a house is up for auction for a screaming good deal, perhaps there’s a catch. Maybe even, a deadly catch. But with the housing markets the way they are these days, you can’t really blame these starry-eyed hopefuls for trying, right? Especially when it comes to snagging a stunning estate below market value. Proving some things never change, a new such family has moved into the subdivision with Brendan Muldowney’s haunted house film, THE CELLAR.
For fans of the home-buy-gone-awry subgenre of films, many aspects of THE CELLAR will feel familiar. Recently making its World Premiere at this year’s SXSW Film Festival, the film starts out with the Woods family moving into their new house. A stunning old manor complete with creepy paintings and random furnishings, the house offers Keira (Elisha Cuthbert), her husband Brian (Eoin Macken), teenage daughter Ellie (Abby Fitz), and son Steven (Dylan Fitzmaurice Brady) a new start. Obtained at auction, the house seems to initially offer a bevy of work-related and personal benefits for the young family. However, when Ellie goes missing under mysterious circumstances, Keira soon finds herself descending into a treacherous pit of riddles, eternal damnation, history, and evil mathematics.
Based on Muldowney’s 2004 short film THE TEN STEPS, the film is a great example of what is possible when expanding upon a previously toyed with concept. Rather than forcefully sticking with only the original material and somehow drawing it out to a full feature, Muldowney (also the writer for the film) uses the short more as inspiration than an immutable entity. Cleverly working a portion of the short into the film as a nod, the bones are still clear as day for fans to latch onto, but not an overarching presence that overstays its welcome.
Part of what ultimately gives THE CELLAR its charm is what will also drive a certain portion of its audience away. Dripping with all the haunted house hallmarks, the film walks a fine line of genre homage and original content. Flickering lights? Check. Creepy house backstory? Yep. Creepy record dispensing ancient ramblings of a potential mad man? You betcha. Oh, and don’t worry. There are also plenty of creaky doors and unexplained wind gusts that pop in to offer a good jumpscare. But while the road THE CELLAR travels is well worn, the destination it arrives at is terrifyingly unexpected.
Providing the main emotional and character support for the film is Elisha Cuthbert as Keira. A smart, intelligent business-minded individual, Keira is also navigating a typical complicated relationship with Ellie. However, when Ellie inexplicably disappears while on the phone with Keira, all of her previous tensions with Ellie and their dysfunctional mother-daughter relationship fall by the wayside. With Ellie known to run away in the past, Cuthbert really wonderfully navigates the growing dread bubbling inside Keira as her concerns begin to mount. Initially letting her husband and the police dismiss her concerns, her transition from worried parent to investigative crusader feels earnest. And although the other actors are perfectly serviceable in their roles, it is Cuthbert who shines through and injects the film with heart.
As she begins to piece together the mysteries surrounding their new abode, the facts Keira uncovers are really where THE CELLAR earns its keep. Soon, Keira discovers that their new home was previously owned by a renowned physicist—who also disappeared. What once seemed like random artistic choices scattered around the house quickly become pieces to a dark and complicated puzzle. Mixing elements from science, Lovecraft, occult religion, mathematics, and interdimensional theory, the film takes viewers down a truly unexpected hallway. More reminiscent of films like THE AMITYVILLE HORROR, THE BEYOND, and PHANTASM, THE CELLAR plays in the dark closet at the end of the haunted house genre hall that few dare to open.
Despite the story going to some inventive and interesting places, THE CELLAR stumbles a bit when it comes to some of the stylistic choices. Frustratingly dark at times (literally not just thematically), it becomes difficult to visually comprehend what is happening in multiple scenes. Swallowing many of the more important horror moments in darkness, the film relies more on sound design and shadow to build terror than it does the actual narrative content affecting our characters. While perhaps a creative way around the limitations of the film’s pandemic shoot situation, the reliance on sound, score, shadow, and inference ultimately takes a bit of the bite out of the story.
Even though many of THE CELLAR’s design inspirations replicate those of its subgenre neighbors, there are still a few interesting structural elements and hidden rooms that make it worth checking out. Family-friendly in a gateway horror kind of way, it’s a viewing experience that pleasantly and casually descends like the well-measured steps it counts so well. Just creepy enough to swaddle the room in discomfort without callously feeding nightmares, THE CELLAR is a welcome addition to the haunted house neighborhood.
Tags: Abby Fitz, Brendan Muldowney, Dylan Fitzmaurice Brady, Elisha Cuthbert, Eoin Macken, Film Festivals, Haunted Houses, Phantasm, SXSW, SXSW 2022, The Amityville Horror, The Beyond, The Cellar, The Ten Steps
No Comments