User Reviews (125)

Add a Review

  • Warning: Spoilers
    "The Cellar" has some promise, its atmospheric and its visuals are creepily, compelling. That said, it's utterly spoilt by the unrealistic reactions, of the main characters.

    The idea of self preservation, in the face of escalating and utterly terrifying revelations, that threatens the family, is met with a suicidal degree of calm. The remaining child, for example, is allowed to wander the house from hell, mostly unsupervised. An ancient predatory demon, who has a track record of hellish abductions, including his sister, stalking the hallways.

    Most sane people would be pushing said child out the door and burning rubber to the nearest motel. One ideally, with a church, equipped with a demon hunting priest, right across the road.

    But not these idiots. Nope, they are happy to stick around, blithely looking to solve "the mystery", as if its an episode of Nancy Drew or The Famous Five. "Oh bother, the demon ate Timmy!"

    In summary, the lack of realism undermines any promise The Cellar, might have had. Its watchable but feels, wooden and wholly contrived.
  • Love creepy house movies, could have been super spooky. It was let down by the parents "what were they thinking" or not in this case. Who leaves their children in a huge old house the day after they move in, to pitch an idea at work???? The acting by the "mother" Elisha Cuthbert was great. The father was sleepwalking through the whole movie, literally no point having him. Good concept, unfortunately, lack of budget and character development let it down.
  • An "evil house" film that is occasionally Lovecraft-adjacent, Cellar's story has good bones but little meat, and I was more than once reminded of Mitchell & Webb's "Lazy Writers."

    Add to that constant attempts at suspense that fall short because there aren't any stakes. The overbearing score, always letting you know to Be Really Scared Now Okay! Doesn't help. The first two thirds of the film felt like padding, like B-roll repurposed into something usable after the budget ran out.

    But when we finally get there, it's actually a pretty good ending! And the acting is adequate, and the production values are good. They just should have left half of this on the cutting room floor.

    Okay for a movie you watch with friends, fully intending to talk over half of it.
  • The Cellar (2022) is an Irish horror movie recently added to Shudder. The storyline focuses on a family that moves into a unique house in the suburbs with their little girl and boy. Shortly after moving in the little girl disappears. As they coupe with the loss the mother finds strange marking all over the house and as she researches them she discovers her house may be a vessel to something much bigger and discovering what that is may be her only hope of finding the missing little girl.

    This movie is directed by Brendan Muldowney (Love Eternal) and stars Elisha Cuthbert (House of Wax), Eoin Macken (Resident Evil: The Final Chapter), Abby Fitz (Redemption), Tara Lee (Moon Dogs) and Dylan Fitzmaurice Brady (Tides).

    This movie does have some unique elements within the storyline that are well done. There is really good use of sound to create jump scares and intense circumstances. The horror elements were lacking and I was disappointed so many scenes were shot so dark. The acting is really good and the family dynamic is well established so better horror elements could have made this very good.

    Overall this is an average addition to the genre that is only worth watching if you're a horror genre enthusiast. I would score this a 5/10 and recommend seeing it once.
  • Warning: Spoilers
    The Cellar is a rather good chiller with some really tense moments. The scene of the daughter counting to ten just like in the short, The Ten Steps, works just as well here. Elisha Cuthbert is good in the lead role and makes me wish she was in more movies these last 10 years. The movie, like most of these types of horrors, suffers once the monster is revealed but there is enough here to recommend and leads to a decent twist kinda ending.
  • Warning: Spoilers
    This movie had great scenery and wonderful momentum...the acting was top notch and I was into this movie! However...the last part of the movie left me hopeless. I know that literally ALL horror movies rarely have a happy ending...which this one certainly did not. I don't do spoilers, but at one point in this movie...you're going to go "WOW! What a mom!" You're going to be disappointed. People in horror movies buy homes and NEVER do the research into them. It's painfully too late when they start the research into the haunted house they purchased for practically nothing. Duh. The house sold for nothing with ALL the furniture in it. Yeah. Something seriously wrong with that deal. When something is too good to be true...it usually is. And then the house eats your family. The end. Peace.
  • domialenic16 April 2022
    I found this movie quite entertaining. There is not a lot left in this type of movie that hasn't been done or hasn't been seen before. Especially the old, big and lonely houses that harbor some dark secret. That's why I probably gave it a better rating (6) then it actually deserves. So, although the whole thing was rather generic. I found especially the first half of the movie quite entertaining, the ending though rather confusing.
  • Warning: Spoilers
    The Cellar (2022) is a full-feature adaptation of an older short film. The latter is available on YouTube, it's simple and moderately effective.

    It feels like an ambitious undertaking to bring such a short and simple story to a full-feature length. I can't say they have succeeded.

    There are two significant problems with this film:

    1) The time in the beginning that should've been used for character introductions just wasn't there. They rush straight to a scary cellar.

    2) Since there was no build-up, the middle part got too long and featured the same scenes repeatedly with no progression.

    I did enjoy the ending, though. It just goes completely off the rails. I still have no idea what the point was with all those numbers and counting. It looks like it was just color, never really adding up (pun intended) to anything.

    This is the first time I have seen Elisha Cuthbert act in a long time, and now she plays hide&seek with Baphomet, shuts doors on it, and hits it with a flashlight. This is surreal.

    Overall: nice (although basic) atmosphere, empty, senseless mystery, only one real character.

    Film's achievements: parents of the year, Baphomet hide and seek.
  • Nice plot, I let myself be tempted. Sincerely, I had a great time in front of my screen.

    The film is intriguing and we want to know what's going on, it's well done. It could have been better because certain ideas could have been better exploited. Some scenes of the films, or visions are still very distressing and disturbing. Conclusion : not bad, could have been better, but it's watchable, yes.
  • First I wanna say that I rented this without hesitation because I'm a big Elisha Cuthbert fan. She is definitely the best part of the movie and about the only lead even though she has kids and is married. She does a good job with what she has to work with, but the problem is what she has to work with.

    The plot itself is interesting enough for a decent horror flick, but it ends up as just squandered potential. We've seen all this before, but at the very least they could go all the way with their ideas. Nothing shocking, no twists, very few actually scary moments, and the actor playing her son was so bad it was honestly distracting.

    It's an OK watch, but nothing I would say is worth spending money on.
  • Warning: Spoilers
    If you are familiar with the Greek language or I guess hebrew sign language, you may be able to see some red flags ... or whatever you would want to call them. Before you buy a house you should definitely check what happened there ... no one seems to be doing that in movies ... ok I kind of half kid - I mean we wouldn't get any movies done otherwise, right? Rhetorical question and all that.

    The movie did surprise me however. I did not expect much and the way it started it seemed to fit into the pattern I imagined this to be. But then it does turn out to be something really interesting and good. The story is tight and it concentrates on what is important. There are still the usual tropes and cliches that have to be checked of course. But still if you are not too nitpicky, the movie offers a lot here. Some may even compare certain things and moods to classics like The Beyond.

    And then the ending that will "reward" the viewer for having stayed on ... hopefully. Because I would understand if some felt it was a bit too much. Not me and a friend I can assure you. Watch at own peril.
  • Warning: Spoilers
    A family moves into an old house with Hebrew letters carved above particular doors. The letters Lamed (L), Vav (V), Yod (Y), Tet (T), Nun (N) spells Leviathan, which is the demon that is spoken about being the beast. When the daughter disappears the mommy starts connecting the dots and begin to realize that she needs help in order to save her family from an ancient demonic entity that uses the house as a gateway.

    This occult themed movie got satanic and alchemical elements throughout and comes across more like a thriller than a horror. If you are expecting gore you will be disappointed. It builds up tension till the last horror-part concludes.

    If you are into horror and the occult in general you will probably like this one.
  • A gazillion close up shots of Cuthbert a little boy with a nice haircut, a rebellious daughter who had five minutes in the entire film and a clueless dad, did nothing for this super meh long and drawn out story. This film was dreary, lackluster and melodramatic. Watch with the volume down, with subtitles on and turn on some music and you will still be able to follow the story. And all of those nonsensical close up shots on Cuthbert's face only proved that she is old.
  • Watching The Cellar won't kill you, I'm relatively sure about that, but it also won't scare you the least bit (but maybe in the case that you are haunted with something like a cellarphobia it may be a different matter). The movie got a few okay dark atmospheric moments, acting and production are also okay, but really, there is no real reason for the movie's existence or why you should watch this one - but The Cellar may be useful if you need some background noise while writing your next novel masterpiece or surfing thru the sales of some online shop of your choice. The "occult" in this movie is also rather just a melting pot of very superficial cliches. Verdict: meanders somewhere lost between below average and average. Exact rate: 3.5 points.
  • Warning: Spoilers
    I am a sucker for a GOOD scary movie. Overall the story was good but then it dragged on. I kept wondered why the parents did not think to keep the one child they had left safe. I would say for a scary movie it was good, not really a jump out BOO! Type movie. Really just a creepy what if kind of story. Acting was good, the girl in the movie was not great. But the rest of the cast was believable. I miss stories with happy endings but if your into creepy slow burns this one was just good. I won't watch it again, but I would recommend if you have nothing better to watch and love shudder movies like I do.
  • Warning: Spoilers
    This is a terrible film. Perhaps the worst film I have seen in 2022. The writer didn't put an effort into writing a cohesive film. The family in the film could have avoided most of their problems if they used a door stop to keep the cellar door open since it tends to close every single time someone walks into that room. (facepalm).

    How can a busy professional know precisely how many steps from the first floor to the cellar floor. How can this mother waste time with her daughter counting the steps when there is an important meeting she needs to be in as the call is taking place. Why on earth would a mother send her daughter down the stairs into a creepy dark cellar without lights with only a candle to light her way? Didn't she think her daughter might fall down the stairs?

    Wow, this is pretty darn bad.
  • begob16 April 2022
    Warning: Spoilers
    When her daughter disappears in the cellar of the family's new home, a mother suspects the arcane symbols left by the previous owner are the key to finding her again.

    Ambitious horror that feints toward sci-fi through quantum physics but ends up in metaphysics. The quantum idea is brought in through the touching use of Schrödinger's Cat as a metaphor for the plight of mother and daughter, but it doesn't really inform the story. Instead, we're presented with mathematical language as a means of imposing order on chaos, but which opens the door to an evil from another world. The evil has to be confronted on its own terms, which takes us into the other world, where we find the opposite proposition: mathematics shows the way to an eternal reality - the ideal form of what we only perceive in our world as shadows, but a horrible ideal.

    It's Plato according to Lucifer. There is some internet-research guff about alchemy and the Knights Templar, when direct reference to Pythagorean mysticism would have been more interesting, but the guiding motto Dissolve and Coagulate is an application of the theory of forms, in which a thing is mirrored back from the other world in its real essence - in this story, the essence of evil.

    That's how I read it, and the intrigue grows as the plot unfolds, but getting there is a mixed experience. One mark of a good horror is how we're taken through the looking glass, from safety to mortal danger, and here the trick is pulled off with chilling simplicity during a phone call - excellent bit of sound design. The climax heaves into view with twenty five minutes to go, but its energy builds with style into a grand vista of eternity in hell. Whew!

    On the downside, much of the screenplay is cliche, from the sullen teen, to ye-olde-house (ludicrously over-sized), to the marketing babble of the irrelevant boardroom scenes. Underlying all is the fact this story is a retread of Poltergeist, so confining itself to a variation rather than presenting something fresh. Also a few threads that should have been snipped off: the reference to anarchism, which seems to become conflated with the nihilistic ankle tattoo, and the gratuitous Hitler quote right before the explanation of the Hebrew letters. (I hope it's gratuitous, because it does chime with Plato's view of democracy.) They made the same mistake in The Exorcist. And is direct police involvement really needed? Entia non sunt multiplicanda.

    The biggest problem is with the orchestral music effects, which overwhelm the experience. Perfectly good for the grand climax, and I'm complaining not about the manipulation but about being made conscious of it. So for the first twenty minutes it's all squealing violins and moaning cellos, even playing over the spooky old voice recording - why ruin one sound effect with another? I recently came across the same problem in The Golem, and it grinds my teeth.

    The performances are OK, but I felt the lead didn't convey enough terror in her search for the daughter - too composed. Nothing remarkable about the camera work, although the depiction of the other world is impressive. Surprised that mirror imagery wasn't used to support the central idea.

    Overall: Valiant failure to overcome early problems.
  • Warning: Spoilers
    I though the last 10 minutes of this by-the-numbers horror film were OK, but it certainly wasn't worth the wait. What you have here is a very pale imitation of 645 other horror films involving spooky old houses, creaking doors, dusty cellars, strange previous owners, pictures of demons in books, strange symbols, flickering lights and people searching for answers. In fact that is 90% of the movie. Nothing really scary happens, and most of it isn't even explained by the end. The actors do what they can but are asked to do so little. How is someone looking at a computer screen a dramatic moment ? This is incredibly tame which is a shame because the last 10 minutes are pretty good and I loved the ending. Would never watch this again and will soon forget I ever saw it, but this is one you can skip.
  • I'm a sucker for creepy houses steeped in unique lore. Let's talk about what it got right.

    1. The atmosphere - Not many horror movies create it properly. Anyone can take an old dilapidated house and make it spooky. With very few shots, they make the house an oppressive force, with a life of its own. It only helps they create unique lore infusing an added punch to the thing.

    2. Cinematography - We have some Kubrick influence. The shots with the stairs. The shots moving through the house. I've always enjoyed when they turn the camera into an invisible enemy. You can tell the director has an eye for setting up shots. They absolutely nail all the visuals.

    3. The audio - The audio couples together with the visuals nicely. Ratcheting up the tension slowly. It's actually one of the few movies, where the chanting seems to work well. Maybe it's because it's very soft and in the background. When the sound rushes in, you really can feel it. One thing that gets overused is the counting. I get why it's there, but by the end you are like ok ok, get it. Besides that small detail the audio is top notch.

    4. The Lore - Notice how I didn't say story. The idea of a building as a gateway, whether by modified means, or built from the ground up, has been underutilized in horror for the most part. We have some examples, but not many. They inject enough originality to keep you interested. The best kinds of horror lore, is the kind that gives you just enough to fill in your own blanks. They do a good job with that....

    5. The Horror - If you have been a fan of the genre for a while, you will pick up all the nods to other movies and/or styles of movies. The crew that made this are fans, and you can tell. Is anything completely new? No. But, they nail just about everything when it comes to the horror. It's creepy and unsettling. It's gothic. Its lovecraftian? In everything but the lore, it's very much a kind of story you would expect from the man. I guess maybe with a nod to hammer horror as well.

    And now for what they got wrong

    1. The pacing - Things happen over and over again. It all seems to drag out for no apparent reason. I mean, what they do is done well. You can only take so many of the same scenes until you say, " get on with it". The characters and their actions at times make no sense. The initial thing happens, and there is a big effort in fixing it, then all of sudden, it's like the characters kinda just move on. I mean they still show they care, but they don't do a hell of a lot in the meantime. Things pick up towards the end, but the common viewer would have already turned off by this point anyway.

    2. The characters and the story - Cuthbert really shines. She has the most character development and screentime. She is believable and pulls it off here. That being said, all the other characters either are there as plot devices, or are just bare bones as can be. The daughter hating her mom and having bully issues.... It was just filler, it had no relation to the story other than to make the character seem real after the fact. The husband was just a cookie cutter guy who played the disbeliever role. The little kid was a typical gets caught up in everything kid. They filled the characters like they would fill horror movie tropes. Mother trying to solve a mystery? Check. Disbelieving husband? Check. Weird little kid? Check. And the next one really got me. They had the one role that could have made the movie better, the mathematician. This is the character that added and could have added more, but they just decided to forgot about him towards the end of the movie. I mean, they even made it seem like he was in the process of solving this weird mathematical riddle, and then nothing, you never here from him again.

    3. The ending - Maybe it makes more sense to say the third act. Now I think this where it all comes together in a good way, but it also becomes completely predictable here all the way until the end. With a movie that moves slow......the payoff has to be great....and while some visuals are done well, it ultimately becomes formulaic at the wrong time.

    Final Thoughts

    Ok I loved it too much to hate. I'll admit it. As a horror fan, it will pick off many boxes. I loved how there was zero CGI, and even at the end when you finally go to that place...it's practical. The scene in the depths of the cellar, that scene reminds me of The Beyond. Another world that looks all too similar to your own, that can be scarier than any alien world. Another thing to mention, this originally was a short horror. The director tried really hard to add lore and flesh this out into a feature. It works and it doesn't. I think if you are a longtime horror fan what works will outshine what doesn't. If not, the shortcomings will have the opposite effect, especially with the pacing....
  • wlevyiii14 May 2022
    Whoever rated this higher than a 5 is lying! The acting in the movie is fine. But the story and the ending is just stupid. Might as well been watching "Celluar" from years ago. These movies that just leave things with no real explanation are so tiring! STOP already. I highly recommend you skip this one and watch a tried and true older movie that does this much better.
  • Warning: Spoilers
    What a pity. The first half was very interesting, moody, never boring, (mostly) not stupid. Top-notch sound effects and soundtrack, good direction... And a lot of this obviously influenced by Kubrick.

    What Kubrick lacked however were Swiss-cheese scripts. It is unfortunate that so many logic holes undermine what could have been a classic horror film. I have no idea why the writer couldn't make a bigger effort in making this an intelligent film as well as "just" interesting. Naturally, all of the blame falls squarely on the writer-director, because he failed to realize that he is primarily a good director, not a great writer. A little modesty goes a long way - plus delegation.

    Hiring a proper writer is a decision less and less directors opt to make, preferring to let their megalomania run wild, imagining themselves to be adept at everything... Typical delusional dictator mentality. There are a LOT more writer-director films in recent decades than for example during the 60s-90s period, and there are a lot less great movies now. In fact, in the last few years there haven't been any great films at all. This drastic downfall in cinema isn't solely caused by hog-all-the-glory directors who get too excited over the word "auteur", there are other factors too. But the fact that so many directors now fancy themselves competent writers definitely doesn't help. (This is especially hilarious whenever an inept director gets the urge to write as well as direct. Ed Wood, anyone?)

    After 30-40 minutes the manure started piling up:

    1. The husband experiences the cellar door getting shut and locked on its own, 3-4 times, yet he never wonders how this is possible - nor does he even try to FIX it. Very daft.

    2. Elisha, who had just received news from a renowned mathematician that someone else had answered her phone and that the voice was counting 11 to 30, just like her daughter, FAILS to relay this crucial information to her husband. Instead, she blathers on about Leviathan and the symbols, which predictably doesn't leave much of an impression on him. Stupid.

    3. As she catches her son counting to ten, she knows she'd potentially stopped him from endangering himself - yet she actually fails to notice the open door (or cupboard) toward which he was going, as if hypnotized. Baffling.

    4. Despite overwhelming evidence that remaining in the house is dangerous for her whole family, she stays. Reminiscent of Eddie Murphy saying "those whi$e people, why don't they just LEAVE the eff-in house! It's haunted? Get the e$$ out!"

    5. Elisha's son FAILS to inform her of the weird record player. He only mentions that the two siblings listened to it on the day of her disappearance, but he doesn't mention that there was a voice on it instead of music. Given that he isn't a small child, but around 12-13, I find it unrealistic that he would be this stupid, this lazy. Additionally, it takes Elisha way too long to finally play the bloody thing, which considering how desperate she was for answers should have been a given: just play the bloody thing. How much energy does it take to start a record-player? What's she got to lose by playing it? Daft.

    6. Despite all the weird and nasty things revolving around the cellar, the couple never once instructed their son to stay away from it. Really, movie? But I guess this must be millennial upbringing, millennial parenthood. And that's why they all perish in the end! (Stricter upbringing increases the odds of your brood's survival - let alone helps them become better people.)

    7. Despite already once initiating her son's hypnotized counting by playing the record, she yet AGAIN plays it - but without checking up on him. Absurd. This scene really sealed the deal for me: these people are beyond dumb.

    8. Considering that the old woman sold them the Portal To Hell (for lack of a better term) shouldn't Elisha have smacker her around a bit? I mean, instead of lopping her head off for selling them a one-way ticket to Hell, Elisha begs her like a clown. "Please, please tell me, help me..." If I were in Elisha's place i.e. Asking the person who ruined my life for help, I wouldn't have asked for help, but forced the information out of her. Then I would have tied her up, kidnapped her and dragged her to Hell with me, as punishment. Let's face it: her putting this demonic house up for sale basically makes her a serial-killer, so why was Elisha so nice to her? Not even a bit of resentment? So pacifist...

    In fact, this family is so utterly daft that at some point I started rooting for Hell to kill them all. Four fools less, right? How's that a bad thing? Even the daughter deserved it, because she was an "anarchist" which makes her a buffoon too. Ironically, Hell turned out to be quite an anti-anarchic place...

    Fortunately, that's how the film ends. Baphomet does mankind a service by taking these 4 morons away from our world. If he only collected morons I'd be liable to become a fan. Form my own Baphomet Fan Club.

    Cuthbert hitting Baphomet with a flashlight and slamming the door shut on him (despite him pushing) was definitely a scene we did not need here.

    Unfortunately, this film also falls into the trap of wasting our time with one character trying fruitlessly to convince another of supernatural events. When will fantasy film-makers EVER learn that it is never entertaining to watch one moron character try to convince another moron that the supernatural exists. Why is it pointless? Because we the audience already know that the supernatural is really happening. We want that supernatural plot to develop, but how can it do so when time is wasted on whether someone will start believing or not. Who gives a hoot! I am vested in this story because of the interesting supernatural mystery, NOT because I care whether a non-believer finally understands the truth.

    I am also baffled that it never occurred to the family to invite the mathematician (who was helping them) to the house. In fact, this situation called for a team of scientists (like in "Poltergeist", though those weren't real scientists), not some half-baked DIY nonsense that didn't even involve a concrete plan. A clueless family fighting a demon? Please, where do I place my bets on the family, I want to lose some money...

    This family is so stupid, and their situation so lop-sided in favour of Baphomet, that it was a foregone conclusion that they'd have to lose, logically speaking.

    Despite all these logic holes, this is an entertaining, and even somewhat original film. I like the fact that the director had the balls to portray Hell, because most horror film-makers don't dare to. (Afraid of embarrassing themselves.) It isn't a brilliant portrayal, but it is fun, and interesting.
  • Don't understand the low score here. It was really thought through to not be just another remake with a different name. I can really appreciate that.

    I used to love horror.

    Today's so called horror movies are either just another disgusting zombie movie or some other sort of gore, or my worst pet-peeve a cop-out.

    I liked that this one tried to stand on its own. It deserves a better rating.
  • Warning: Spoilers
    Professional or arm chair (IMDB users)!

    Granted there is nothing new in this tale ripped from the works of H. P. Lovecraft (ancient Gods) and advanced math (symbols for numbers in a formula structure).

    That in itself is new tho, as I have read a lot of Lovecraft (sing that to Led Zep "Whole lotta Love - Craft.... Whole lotta Love - Craft..."), and he never, in my readings, equated mathematics with opening a gateway that ancient Gods can come walking in through!

    Well acted and atmospheric.
  • ersin_2116 April 2022
    I have watched countless bad films in this genre. So I am not surprised or disappointed with this one. The script is boring and even absurd at times. Acting by Elisha Cuthbert is the sole reson of two stars, the rest of the acting is annoyingly bad. Characterization or character development is non-existent.

    I will not comment on the high rating reviews. If you are not familiar with such reviews by now, you do deserve to watch this one.

    Watch only if you have nothing better to do, or have a hobby of wasting your life watching crap movies.
  • The Cellar starts with a worn-out premise, but then kinda loses its way somewhere between mathmatics, leviathans, demons and record players. Along with the awkward writing and ubrupt plot transitions, when the true evil appears, you're pretty much tapped out.
An error has occured. Please try again.