Cellar Dweller

source: Cellar Dweller

Trailer—Cellar Dweller

Cellar Dweller

This is a cheap horror flick with TONS of gore. I seen this one on @ 3 AM again - had to see it only because the title itself drew me in. Actually , I wasnt too disappointed. I love all horror flicks. Has a totally late-80s horror genre feel to it. I wish I could find this VHS also. Rare stuff. PEACE

An Interesting film, beginning in the 1950's. A Cartoonist (Colin Childress) finds inspiration from a book of magic spells. Whilst creating his latest comic he accidentally unleashes a creature of pure evil created by his own imagination. Luckily the creature is slain but only at the cost of its creator. 30 years later a fan of the cartoonist (and his series Cellar Dweller) arrives at her idols cottage in the woods, to become part of a remote art community. She soon sets up a room in the basement. Later finding the same book Colin drew inspiration from, only to release the creature for the second time. An awe-inspiring movie that can drag at times, most would lose interest. But at the end it does make one think. Ok graphics for the time and a wonderful performance enacted by Jeffrey Combs.

Cheap and trashy, this film didn't scare but thrilled me with its sense of camp. Yvonne De Carlo is such an underrated actress and is always worth taking a look at. The film is low budget and apart from De Carlo doesn't have any other well known names. The story is very simple a man writes a story about a scary monster. The monster comes to life and kills him but of course that is not the end of the monster. It waits round for more victims... This film may turn up late at night on TV, if it does turn off the lights curl up on the couch and enjoy the next hour or so. The plot cant be taken seriously so just enjoy the absurdities of it. I saw this film on VCR several years ago and cant wait for it to be released on DVD. Yvonne has made several low budget shockers over the years and this has got to be one of the best.

Cellar Dweller is a nice surprise for horror fans because it has a mixture of winning elements. The only thing it lacked for me was gore - but it does have a funny severed head scene. The storyline is quite interesting and keeps you watching, and the acting is decent enough to carry it. I quite liked Yvonne De Carlo, but then I've been a fan of her since watching American Gothic. I do however feel it lacked a little "something" to make it a great b-movie, and that something is gore. The severed head scene is good, but not enough. I also felt that the ending wasn't a good enough conclusion, and this is because the producers obviously wanted to leave room for a sequel. Overall, Cellar Dweller is an above average b-movie that is not perfect but definitely worth a watch.

John Carl Buechler in my opinion is one of the best special effects artist. John is the original creator of Harry Potter. Check out the cult classic Troll. I first saw this in the late 80s on a rented vhs. Revisited it recently. Found it to be a good horror/creature flick then. The movie is very cheesy n in no way bearable by today's standards. Most of the blame here should go to the bad script, which has no consistency or logic. It has a good decapitation scene n has a bit of nudity. The writer is Don Mancini of Child's Play fame n there is Jeffrey Combs in a tiny role. A big goof - Amanda does the reaction of slipping n says ooh before her foot lands on the banana peel.

John Buechler proves again, two years after "Troll", that having good special effects in your film DOES NOT automatically mean you have a good film. He may be very good at his main craft (makeup effects for horror pictures), but his storytelling abilities are limited, to say the least. Actually, most of the blame here should go to the bad script, which has no consistency or logic; for example, at first the monster (which looks mostly like a werewolf) is brought to life by the drawings of a cartoonist and can do only what is depicted in her pictures, but later it can move and kill freely and the comic book pages are drawn by themselves! At another point, the old lady that runs the mansion inexplicably turns into the monster! The mansion itself is supposed to be a place for young aspiring artists, yet a would-be private detective also lives there! Ah, forget it. (*1/2)

Cellar Dweller (1988) was an 80's horror classic in my book. It was good fun, it had an interesting plot and it's short running time meant that it never outstayed it's welcome, i love 80's horrors and this was one of the memorable ones, for it had a really cool monster, and it starred Jeffrey Combs, and thats a big plus indeed!!! If you like cool low budget monster movies then i highly recommend this fun classic from the late 80's, so if you haven't seen it then i suggest you get on ebay and see if there's any copies on there, if so then go for it!!!! I also recommend Monster in the Closet, that was another fun 80's horror with a cool monster. My score for the Cellar Dweller: 8/10