VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

neener3707 This film is pleasantly surprising in its quality considering it is a trashy 70's B-horror film. Set in an isolated lunatic asylum, a young woman gets a job after a tragic accident kills a member of the staff. Coming at a tense time in the asylum, the woman must deal with the patients becoming more and more erratic and violent. What follows is a swirl of madness and violence that isn't as shocking as the trailer/tagline suggest, you won't have a panic attack, but there are still enough chills and frights to keep even veteran horror film viewers interested. As said before, this film is surprisingly well made for a film with such a low budget. The acting is what really surprised me the most. Normally in films of this nature we see cheesy and awful, but in this film, the cast does a surprisingly great job performing the story and their characters. While a few actors aren't so good, the rest do a fantastic job. Characters are fully fleshed out and some you will find very sympathetic, due to both solid writing and good acting. The story is also quite competent, keeping you interested throughout the film, also with some twists that caught me by surprise. While the film isn't as graphic as some movies today, the kill scenes are well filmed and frightening. Without giving to much away, the final kill is superbly directed and very effective.In short, this film is as good as it gets for low budget 70's horror, with surprising quality all around.

MartinHafer "Don't Look in the Basement" is a very, very cheaply made film. Nothing about it seems very professional….yet, oddly, the film is quite entertaining. Is it really good? Nah—but very entertaining providing you are the type person who can appreciate such an odd film! This movie is set in some sort of sanitarium for the mentally ill—the very, very, VERY mentally ill. No attempt is made to make these folks seem real and it has about the same level of insensitivity you'd find in "Birth of a Nation". I have worked in a psychiatric hospital many years ago, and it was NOTHING like this place! It's pretty obvious they did not film it in a real hospital and just looks like an old house was used. And, for the parts, the 'patients' were told to act very stereotypically insane—like you might expect folks to do on "Whose Line is it Anyway?"—subtle, it ain't! When the doctor (whose methods seem no saner than his patients) is killed by one of the patients, another doctor takes his place. Soon, a new nurse arrives—and she's shocked at how ineffective and stupid the treatment is for the patients. Eventually, more folks start dying and only then do you learn some very interesting secrets. I'd say more, but I really don't want to spoil the suspense.This engaging film looks like if you were to remake "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and had it rewritten by an actively psychotic individual! It's bloody, it's scary and, what I really like is that you really have no idea who, if anyone, is sane in this film! It's one of those ultra-low budget films with no-name casts that manages to work in spite of all the many strikes against it! Clever, strange and probably not for all tastes! If you like "Carnival of Souls", "Night of the Living Dead" (the original one) or "Spider Baby", then this film is for you!

trashgang Made by Brownrigg and his most notorious one even as he made Don't Open The Door (1975) or Keep My Grave Open (1976)later in his career. This has become a really exploitation classic even as it is a bit low on blood nowadays but back then it was way ahead of its time.Originally titled The Forgotten it was shot in 12 days. But the marketing boys were clever and flicks started with 'Don't' were a hit. Not even that, they retitled it and paired it with Wes Craven's controversial gore landmark Last House On The Left (1972). The double bill was so popular at drive-ins that it staid there for 13 years. So Don't Go In The Basement got a cult status. Many find it one of the best exploitations of the seventies because the story was insane (no pun intended). The demented inmates in an asylum axe the head doctor and take over the insane asylum. But an unsuspected nurse arrives and tries to unravel the maze of madness. The insane are insane some love popsicles, others never leave their toy boat. But it was the splatter that was non seen back then. A tongue being ripped out or an eye being impaled on-screen. Still it's didn't survive the time and nowadays it look ridiculous. But also a bit of a tittie shot made it all the weirder.It was okay but for me not the hype I suspected. Still it's a good exploitation but it takes a bit too long before things really go wrong. Nevertheless, a must have in your horror collection. Gore 1/5 Nudity 1/5 Effects 2/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 0/5

acidburn-10 A young nurse named Charlotte Beale arrives at a small sanitarium run by Dr Stephens, but soon finds out that not all is as it seems, as the patients aren't locked in their room and the previous Doctor got murdered, so Charlotte tries to investigate the secrets of the place and soon finds out more than she bargained for.In my opinion I find this movie very uneven, firstly as the first hour basically nothing happens just a bunch of overacting and patients screaming, and plus endless boring dialogue, but then the final half hour the movie finally kicks in which is intense and thrilling and the setting is brilliant with it a genuinely eerie feel -- claustrophobic, intense, and a sweaty nightmarish feel. Overall "Don't Look in the Basement" isn't that bad of a film although it's pacing is one of its biggest issues overall. The movie seems to lack direction in parts although it does end up a lot better than most will expect.All in all Don't Look In The Basement is a fun 70's slasher, definitely one of the better ones, but nothing that sets it apart from the other movies of this calibre or memorable.