User Reviews

Ther Cellar isn't brilliant but it does have its good points. It starts off very slowly and for the most part of the first half, it's boring. Things start looking up in the second half though, as we are introduced to the monster. The cellar setting is very effective, as are the tunnels where the monster lives. There is a suspenseful scene close to the end where the father locks his son in the kitchen to prove that "there's no monster". Of course, the monster comes out to attack the boy.

I wouldn't urge anyone to seek this out, but fans of cheap 80's horror might want to add it to their collection.

Never had a proper release on DVD or Blu Ray, it's outthere, on renatl VHS so a bit hard to find nowadays but if you want to see it, it's a rather bad and cheesy flick.

It takes until the mast 10 minutes before the creature really shows its face and attacks. But by then it's to late. It's all blah blah about Indian rituals and cemeteries. Of course one comes in contact with the creature, no one beleifs it until the end of this flick. And what about the ending, explain it please.

Not frightening, a bit boring and a creature that doesn't look frightening at all except it jaws.

The Cellar, still a hunt for many due Kevin Tenny took over direction from John Woodward

Gore 0/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 1/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 0/5

I had the opportunity of sitting down today, in 2021, and watch the 1989 horror movie "The Cellar". I remember having seen it back in my teenage years, after having sat through it again today. But it was a movie that I had fully and wholeheartedly forgotten all about. So as I stumbled upon the movie in 2021, of course I took the time to sit down and watch it.

It should be said that "The Cellar" is definitely everything you'd expect from a late 1980s horror movie, for better or worse. I grew up watching a heap of horror movies in the 1980s, so this was definitely right up my alley. And I must admit that I actually enjoyed "The Cellar" from writers John Woodward and Darryl Wimberley.

The storyline told in this movie, as directed by Kevin Tenney, is pretty straight forward. And it follows that very unique formula that was being used over and over back in the time when it was made. But I found it to be enjoyable and watchable. It was definitely a trip back in time for me to watch "The Cellar". Sure there were plot holes and aspects to the storyline that just made zero sense, but hey, it is a movie after all.

The acting in the movie was adequate. Nothing outstanding here actually. But don't get me wrong, because it wasn't as if people were doing poor jobs or anything. Not at all. But it was just fairly standard acting performances for a late 1980s horror movie of this caliber.

Now, I will say that the creature effects were actually quite good. And still were passable even today. So the visual effects, special effects, make-up and props departments really delivered in this movie.

"The Cellar" is a movie that is well-worth taking the time to sit down and watch. And should you be presented with the opportunity to do so, I would recommend that you do it.

My rating of "The Cellar" lands on a well-deserved six out of ten stars.

This is your run of the mill monster in the basement film that has absolutely no surprises. Not that its a bad film but why do something that has been done so many times before and offer nothing that we haven't seen already? The film stars Patrick Kilpatrick (Minority Report) who is bald in real life and you'll notice that he's wearing a hair piece. His character has anger issues and by the end of the film you have to think that his wife will have second thoughts about staying with him. He gets very violent at times. His son who has seen the monster is going to try and convince everyone of what he has seen and sets out to try and kill it himself. The film is hokey and predictable but even a bad monster in the basement flick is watchable. So is this one.

You've read the plot summary, so I'll skip that part. Let's open the show with a few glaring flaws.

First off, the family moves into a house in the middle of nowhere, opens a sealed door they find hidden behind a cabinet, and discover they have a basement. None of that's so incredible, but Dad apparently has no problem with the fact that there's a gaping, monster-sized tunnel in one wall.

Secondly, monster mobility. The thing can apparently only manifest itself in three places: the house's cellar, a water-filled sinkhole that connects to its basement warren, and a dry oil well. It's allowed to come into the house by the rules of the film, but apparently only if someone opens the cellar door for it. What prevents it from crawling up out of the sinkhole or out from under the oilwell platform to wreak havoc in the open is never explained (my guess has a lot to do with the FX budget). And that cellar door? The one hidden behind a cabinet and ritually sealed by the Indians? Well, it also has a storm door leading right up into the yard, which isn't even locked.

Third, monster power. The thing's strong enough to overpower grown men with one paw and nearly pull limbs off trees, but it can't break down a flimsy cellar door to get at the goodies in the house?

All that being said, they did design a pretty nasty-looking beast, one that looks like a long-nosed version of the Terror Dogs from Ghostbusters (I call it Slime Rat). Unfortunately, they didn't have enough money to make a whole monster. Only the front half of it interacts on-screen with the actors, and it comes up looking pretty rubbery in close scenes.

It's okay for a cheap jump-at-a-body monster movie, and I didn't see the pacing problems that other reviewers have commented on. I think the key to enjoying this film is to be willing to let it scare you. Either that or ridicule it to death.

So the film was an okay B-budget horror movie, not one of the best from the 80s but certainly not one of the worst. However, the main reason for me writing my first ever review on imdb is because an error needs to be corrected. The young actor that plays the character of the little boy Willy is listed on imdb as Chris Miller, born in 1968, the guy who does voice performances and directs such animated films as Shrek and The Penguins of Madagascar. In actual fact Willy is played by Chris J. Miller who was born in 1983, a child actor. The fact that this error has been made is really quite unforgivable considering that if it was the Chris Miller listed on imdb he would have been 21 yeaes of age when he appeared in this film, the character of Willy is quite clearly not 21!

A family moves into an old house in the desert.There is a long commentary at the beginning that talks about an evil spirit that dwells in a tunnel below this house.The Indian creature occasionally manifests itself to frighten the little boy staying in the house and to pick off a stray secondary character.I remember seeing "The Cellar" several years ago and was highly unimpressed.There is no gore and nudity in this suitably dull monster feature from usually uneven Kevin Tenney.The script is silly and the direction lacks enthusiasm.The performances are passable,but they can't save this film from fading into obscurity.A generous 5 out of 10.

This isn't a bad movie. It's a little slow, but it has a good plot. It's about some evil creature which is resurrected by a young boy. If you're bored, and want to see something different, this movie is for you.

"The Cellar" is an intolerably dull and overly child-friendly 80's cheese parade, directed by Kevin Tenney (creator of the much better films "Witchboard" and "Night of the Demons") and starring the incredibly untalented Patrick Kilpatrick, supposedly depicting a guy with feelings. The pacing is really slow, the plot feels far too familiar, the monster-effects are all but petrifying and the film opens and ends with tedious narrative ranting that somehow feels unrelated to the actual subject matter of the film. The voice-over keeps on nagging about wind and creatures riding on wind, but what the hell, there's no wind in the plot? Like so many 80's horror movies, "The Cellar" handles about cursed Indian landscapes and all-too-real mythical monsters hidden in basements and quagmires. Mance Cashen and his family move into a house build on what once was the home of Native Americans, but then white people came and turned the land into oil fields. Half of the script is wasted on explaining the origin of the monster, but I can easily summarize it for you: an ancient Indian witchdoctor summoned the creature (which looks like an over-sized paper-mâché rat) to annihilate the white people overflowing his land but he buried it again because, and I quote, the SOB kills Indians as well. Mance's hugely irritating son accidentally awakens the beast and naturally can't convince his parents about the big hungry rat in the cellar. The allegedly emotional family situation (daddy constantly wants his son to love him) is very pathetic and redundant and the film badly needed more bloodshed; kids' movie or not. The youthful hero (Chris Miller) is quite annoying, but we've definitely seen worse kid actors in the 80's. "The Cellar" is very much not recommended, unless of course you're a fan of cheesy and typically 80's monster designs. The big dodgy rat-thing is a real hoot to see.

Mediocre at best. Slow, but probably more entertaining to the younger viewers. A young boy(Chris Miller) is haunted by an Indian spirit and horrid monster in the cellar of his father's new home. Also in the cast are Patrick Kilpatrick, Suzanne Savoy and Ford Rainey.

The Cellar opens with a load of mystical native American hogwash about evil Commanche spirits that wait to punish the white man. The ancient Indian curse is a lazy plot device that, once established, allows a film-maker to chuck a load of supernatural nonsense on screen with little need for logic or narrative cohesion: occasionally it works (Tobe Hooper's Poltergeist, which benefitted from a decent cast, a big budget, and Spielberg's guiding hand); mostly it doesn't, The Cellar being a prime example.

In Kevin Tenney's film, a savage creature conjured up by a powerful medicine man lurks in the cellar of an old house. The new owners, the Cashen family, are blissfully unaware of the monster that comes with their home, but youngster Willy (Chris Miller) realises the danger when he catches sight of it trying to come up through his bedroom floor. Willy's father Mance (Patrick Kilpatrick) doesn't believe his son's story, so it is up to Willy to try and kill the creature before it eats him, his dad, step-mom Emily (Suzanne Savoy), and baby sister April (Ryan and Anthony Childs).

The pacing of this film is awful: a very dull fifty minutes or so pass before we get a brief glimpse of the creature, when Willy manages to maim the thing in one of his bear traps. Now you might be asking yourself what a young lad is doing messing around with potentially lethal steel traps unsupervised, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. Mance worries about whether his son really loves him: perhaps that's because he doesn't pay him enough attention, which is how the boy is able to make a home-made flame-thrower, give his baby sister a rabbit's foot necklace (a choking hazard if I ever saw one), rig up a high-voltage booby trap in the cellar, and steal sticks of dynamite and detonators to make some bombs -all without being noticed.

As if being totally oblivious to his child's numerous dangerous activities wasn't bad enough, Mance continues to not believe the kid about the monster, eventually losing his temper with the lad and locking him in the living room with the door to the cellar nailed open. Fortunately, Emily breaks open the door just in time to see the creature, at which point Mance realises his mistake and plays the hero. Someone give the guy a 'Father of the Year' award! The final battle with the creature is actually a lot of fun, even though the monster effects are a bit on the rubbery side, and the film ends with a nice big explosion, which is cool.

Actually, scratch that: the film ends with some more nonsensical mumbo jumbo about Native American wind spirits and other mystical guff, which isn't cool.

3.5/10, rounded up to 4 for IMDb.

In THE CELLAR, a boy finds a monster / demon living in the cellar of his dad's new house. It seems that the local natives put a curse on the land many moons ago. Of course, no one believes junior, even when people start vanishing.

The story is clunky, the characters are rather lifeless, and the monster is only shown for about 30 seconds. Still, the creature is just cheeeze-tacular enough to make the rest endurable.

If you enjoy the schlocky horror of the 1980's, then this is a must-see...

A few years ago I bought a movie called The Cellar. I had heard that it was supposed to be a great movie, but it turned out that it was a flop and a B-Movie.

The story is good, but there are no good effects in the movie. (Maybe they didn't have enough money for that on the budget???).

If you choose to watch this movie be sure to watch it three times. The first, only and last time!!!

This Movie is really Boring. The main child actor is annoying but most importantly you barely see the Creature/Monster in this "Creature" Movie.

I guess the Creature has less than 4 Minutes Screentime. My Advice: Skip this Snoozefest.

Strangely, this movie is called "Anthony II" in Germany, refering to the neither existant "Anthony I" (as a matter of fact "The Kindred" directed in 1987 by Stephen Carpenter and Jeffrey Obrow)... Whatsoever, I decided to give it a try ... and I must admit that I did well: Yes, I was positively surprised.

As a matter of fact, even if it isn't the greatest movie of all time, this effort by Kevin S. Tenney (Witchboard, Night of the Demons all in all good horror flicks) is clearly a treet of a B movie: A gorgeous location, an old indian ritual, parents having a hard time and unable to fucus on their child too, a good direction and a cool (puppet)monster... frankly, what's not to enjoy here?

The story is a good allegory about the hidden fears of mankind, and not only those of children!

All in all, I was pleasantly surprised by watching "The Cellar" and don't regret at all having even bought it. So if you can see or find it, don't miss it!

This will be a hell of a B night of the Demon!