The Cellar Door (2007)

There is just something interesting about the deviant stalker in a horror movie, which is actually why I decided to sit down to watch "The Cellar Door". I had no knowledge about the movie or its existence prior to finding it by sheer luck in the horror section.The story told in "The Cellar Door" was adequate for what it turned out to be. It was actually, just another stalker who captures prey and keeps it in the basement type of movie. You know the type, once you've seen one you have essentially seen them all. And the storyline told in this movie was rather predictable as well.The cast ensemble in the movie was rather small, and sadly the cast wasn't putting on particularly memorable performances. And the fact that the characters portrayed in the movie were generic and non-distinct wasn't really helping either."The Cellar Door" is adequately paced which was a definite plus. However, the movie was struggling with the fact that it was just another generic torture flick.This is clearly not a multi million dollar and the production level clearly shows that. But despite that, then I will say that they actually managed to do well enough with their endeavor.This movie might be worth your time and effort for a single viewing if you have nothing better to watch at hand, but it is hardly a movie that you will go out of your way to get your hands on.

The Cellar Door starts as kidnapped woman Jennifer (Christina Reynolds) manages to escape the small wooden cage that deranged psychopath Herman (co-producer James DuMont) has imprisoned her in, however Jennifer doesn't make it too far as Herman catches her & suffocates her. Herman now needs another victim to lock up & sees close friends Rudy (Michelle Tomlinson) & Christa (Heather Sconyers) enjoying a night out, Herman decides he likes the look of Rudy & later that night breaks into their apartment & kidnaps her. Rudy wakes up in Herman's basement locked in a small wooden cage, Herman is a fat loner who just wants some company & a girl whose bodily wastes he can keep in jars but Rudy is a less than willing participant. Meanwhile Christa calls the police but they can't do anything for at least seventy two hours, the question is can Rudy survive that long...Executive produced & directed by Matt Zettell the general consensus is that The Cellar Door is a Saw style rip-off but I'd say it's more akin to Captivity (2007) as there are no traps, puzzles, any real torture scenes & no twists either. The script for The Cellar Door is rather simplistic, the first twenty odd minutes doesn't feature a single conversation & only a couple of random words while the rest of it is nothing more than a battles of wills & wits between the prisoner & the inmate. I did actually quite like The Cellar Door, it has it's moments & I thought the lead actress in particular was very good. It's not that gory & the body count is low with little on screen violence but the story is reasonably gripping & the interchange between Rudy & Herman is alright & there's that degree of interest in finding out how it's all going to end which will probably keep most viewers watching through to the end. The subplot about Christa trying to find Rudy feels like an afterthought & I am not sure what the whole thing about the store assistant was & don't they have CCTV in car parks these days? Also the final showdown between Rudy & Herman is alright, there's a memorable final scene but there are too many times where either Rudy or Christa could have killed Herman & made sure he was dead rather than just sort of injure him & run off letting him go after them again & Herman isn't really given any great motivation behind his crimes & his actions feel a little random at times especially the murder of the store clerk. All in all I quite liked it but it's by no means any sort of masterpiece.The title The cellar Door seems a little random as sure there's a cellar door in it but it has no relevance to the story or any real significance at all. There's actually very little gore here, there's a couple of stabbings, a bit of blood splatter & a few dead bodies but nothing else of note. Rudy looks really hot here actually & I can see why Herman chose her.With a supposed budget of about $250,000 this was low budget but it looks OK if it wasn't for the shaky hand-held camera vibe which just looks awful & becomes very irritating. The acting varies, Michelle Tomlinson is great actually & thought she nailed down the part well although James DuMont is poor & just isn't intense enough to be thought of as a threat while the extras don't fare much better.The Cellar Door is a film I liked overall but there are things that let it down including a lack of gore & some poor acting although the story is alright & there is also some very good acting as well. You could do a lot worse.

I admit I kind of liked Broken for its atmosphere and cold feeling although it was going pretty much nowhere. I don't know why this movie is called Broken 2... except for the crazy guy kidnaps woman they don't have so much in common. This time the crazy guy is a pathetic loser who puts women in his cellar and cages them to have smalltalk with them and collect their feces. Obviously the movie tries to be smart and psychological with the caged woman and crazy guy interacting but at no point its getting any clear whats behind crazy guy Herman's acting. The script is once again a mess and covers stupidity on all levels... stupid victims running around with weapons just to get captured again after leaving them behind, 60 Minutes of pseudo-psychological boredom and then when the going gets tough the doorbell rings, the captive is kept in a cage for weeks and still got shiny bright white teeth... and the ending, oh my god.. crap ending, even crappier music. Its like the fourth movie in a row I saw that doesn't have a proper ending. The acting was OK but thats about it. This movie has no atmosphere, no suspense, no gore and a script like one big hole. Avoid.

I found The Cellar Door to be rather interesting and I will admit it captured my attention to almost the very end. I sensed the storyline was well played out and with all of the scenes appearing believable other than the contrived unbreakability of the movie's most viewed prop. The cage was constructed of a weak ceiling of very thin wood and without a wire mesh that in reality could have easily been kicked out. Toward the story's end is where the timing and the series of events destroys whatever greatness the movie could ever attain. That timing and procedure goes from good to ridiculous. The most notably poor scene being when the girlfriend strikes the perpetrator over the head with a bat. At that point, in light of the severity of what had already happened, it would only stand to reason the girlfriend should have struck him more than once in that particular region. But, that would have ended the movie too abruptly, right? So, I would think the scene should have never been shot in the first place. As well, I would assume some other totally different finale could have been concocted instead.I must say James DuMont plays an excellent psycho "perp". So much so the movie just may stereo-cast him as such.