Secrets in the Basement

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source: Secrets in the Basement

You pretty much know who the baddie is 15 minutes into the movie, while the characters take an hour or so in to figure it out. As others have said, there are no red herrings, just the obviously shady villain who is shown to be off the first time they are shown. The movie gets very tedious and boring very quickly because of this. Another big issue with the ending, the villain gets whacked straight in the head with a hammer, but is running around after the protagonists 10 seconds later. They didn't even think to whack him more than once or even take away his gun (!?!).

So far, the premise is good. Main characters' acting is fine but the Jay character is way over the top, like he's trying far too hard. The actor looks uncomfortable. I'm guessing the baddie is Jay..... And...why is Delilah suddenly trusting and talking to Jay as though he is her therapist or medical dr?

Sometimes I like that Lifetime has the villain openly terrorizing the protag because then there's less time wasted on trolling the audience. But this movie dragged on. It literally should not have taken to the 90 minute mark for her to realize who was responsible. As someone else mentioned, this movie tries to be similar to Gaslight from the 40s (except it's not the husband and the movie with Boyer/Bergman is actually good). Delilah tried to kill herself and in the process endangered others including another victim we learn about later. First off, it seems to me like a creepy smart house is not what Delilah needs. She has moments where she thinks she's losing her mind (and we eventually learn the cause) and yet she lives in a talking house and is alone for most of the movie? Doesn't seem like the best investment for them until she's better. This house is so cold looking. It's actually something I noticed with Lifetime movies. They all look so empty and unlived in, as if they need it to be easy to change from one production to the next. Reminds me of reality tv where they rent McMansions but then can't afford to truly furnish them. If you watched Lifetime in the 90s, this was not the case. Sean the hubs (who thankfully isn't the cliche bad guy here) goes to the hospital and discovers that Barbara is dead thanks indirectly to the villain. Did I miss where they found out she was even in the hospital? This movie has some dumb plot points. The nurse revealing to him that Barbara was dead all the while saying "I'm not supposed to do this," irritated me. If I were a nurse, I might just assume that it's some undercover agent of the nurses credentialing board or something. Like a secret shopper. I know it was just a way for him to coincidentally stumble across the villain's wife, but still. The wife is assumed dead, but we see her hand move at one point. I'm watching the villain monologue and I'm waiting to learn how the house plays into this ultimately. It makes no sense that from the beginning that when strange things are happening in the house that the first person you don't question is the designer. There was an episode of Eureka around SARAH (the smart house on that show) overriding her programming and trapping the characters in the house. That was a better use of a smart house than this...I guess it was a move by Lifetime to "modernize" but it was unnecessary given the ultimate plot. There's a big fight scene with the villain jumping back to life a la Wait Until Dark. Then the protag has her "I'm not your f-in mommy" moment right before she strikes the villain dead (for real this time). It's seeming to be a trend with these movies lately and sometimes it's a bit cringe. Finally at the end...the nurse is back yet again risking her job to tell the now awake wife about her husband being dead....apparently they have been avoiding telling her and it's been days? ..please tell me this is not a cliffhanger...good grief!

"Secrets in the Basement" (a.k.a., "Designs for Revenge") was a by-the-numbers thriller with especially slow pacing. The premise was clever in the occupation of new, high-tech Florida home by Sean and Delilah Brenner. But the underdeveloped characters and lack of engaging interactions were major liabilities. One of the film's shortcomings was that Delilah Brenner was not a very sympathetic character. A brilliant interior decorator, she made a cost-cutting error with "cheap mouldings" that led to the injury of her client in an ensuing fire. She has subsequently tortured herself with remorse for the human failing. The revelation of the role Delilah played in the fire was too slow, and her guilt in what was clearly an accident seemed strained and unconvincing. The plan of her tormentor in the basement was also too slow in unfolding My favorite character was the kind Barbara Forlan, the bestie of Delilah. Barbara arranged for Delilah and Sean to purchase the home without knowing that the tormentor was residing in the basement. Unfortunately, Barbara paid the ultimate price for her loyalty to her friend. By the end, the film moved into the horror genre with a mad dash through the house culminating in the outdoor pool. It was as if Delilah finally met her Samson in the fatal confrontation. It seemed like there was just as much anguish for the audience as there was for Delilah as the filmmakers strung things out with far too much dithering and not enough action.

Really pathetic.silly script/ridiculous plot. Over-acting by damsel in distress. Any real husband would have had her at a psychiatrist 10 minutes into the movie. Don't know how they got funding for this movie. By the way cheap wiring will cause a fire but the type of molding isn't going to make much difference....they all will burn pretty fast.

The house in this movie freaked me out - just talk to it and it will answer your questions, etc. (Meet George Jetson.....) Comments: 1. You will know who the culprit is fairly early on due to a very visible tattoo. 2. The reason for the culprit's actions for revenge - sad and scary. 3. Pretty violent at times - the fight with the bad guy at the end was over the top. 4. If you are in a coma, don't get out of it at the end of the movie. Have a drink or two and you'll enjoy it.

LMN is my guilty pleasure, but wow. I can't continue....it's like they're reading off of script cards. I've never seen two adults more impressed with a house app. It's 2021 for Gods sake!!! Dumbfounded husband..."uh, gee, that's like...really neat. Like, uh....can I, uh...get it downloaded to my phone?" Stupid wife.....walking around like a fish with her mouth hanging open. "Like, oh my god....like, is this, like...my kitchen??" "Like, what we don't have a basement?" "Are you sure that we, like, don't, like...have a basement?" "Babe, are you...like.....sure, we don't, like, have....a like basement?" Not even 15 minutes in....annnd I'm like, done.

I actually really enjoyed the general premise of this movie, and LMN movies are always cheesy and campy, so I was expecting it - but this one wasn't "so bad, it's good", it was just bad. Numerous issues, including a really frustrating one where the killer's wife was said by a nurse to have passed away, only for her to be completely alive in a later scene. Jay was obviously the killer from the beginning; there weren't even any red herrings thrown in, and he both looked and behaved creepily straight from the beginning. All the cringeworthy minimalism stuff wore thin in less than a second, and there was something off about the dialogue. All in all, not a good one, not even by LMN standards.