The Cellar Door
The Cellar Door
| 01 June 2007 (USA)
The Cellar Door Trailers

Having developed an uncontrollable obsession with the beautiful young Rudy (Michelle Tomlinson), crazed serial killer Herman (James DuMont) kidnaps her and locks her in a cage in his basement. The only way for Rudy to survive this nightmare is to outsmart her psychopathic tormentor. But Herman has experience on his side: He's entrapped and tortured other women before, playing sick and twisted mind games with his frightened victims.

Reviews
2hotFeature one of my absolute favorites!
Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible
Teddie Blake The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.
Griff Lees Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.
artpf he girl next door, having coffee, lunch with a friend, shopping, unaware she is becoming an obsession. She has been chosen. A young woman awakes to find herself imprisoned in a serial killer's basement. She is not the first to be entrapped in this diabolical torture chamber. She is not the first to captivate his perverse affection, Herman has been searching for the perfect girl, but all he's collected are pieces - a chunk of hair; a severed finger; a jar of blood - and now, the alluring and beautiful Rudy. Imprisoned in a wooden cage and yet refusing to play along in his twisted game, she has only her wits to use against his savage and murderous insanity. Will she win the desperate, hallucinatory game of cat and mouse and escape through the Cellar Door, or die trying?Whatever. The film actually opens with a bloody chick who escapes and runs through the streets but no one sees her. She gets recaptured and croaks.There's one huge problem with this movie which could have easily been solved -- the director is incompetent. It appears as if the entire movie is films with an over shaky jumpy hand held camera. After about 30 seconds of watching the frames jump around, you want to throw up.Did he think he was being creative? I think he didn't know what he was doing.It's could have been a fun diversion in the hands of another filmmaker. Instead, 6 full stars are removed for sheer incompetence. Next time buy a $20 tri-pod. The chopping belongs in the story, not on the film, sherlock. Better yet. Give up. You suck.
Claudio Carvalho In California, the psychopath Herman (James DuMont) stalks the young Rudy (Michelle Tomlinson) and her mate Christa (Heather Sconyers) along a day and a night and finally he chooses Rudy to be his next victim. He breaks in their house and uses ether to kidnap Rudy, bringing her to the basement of his house. When she awakes, she discovers that she is imprisoned in a wooden cage in a cellar and subjected to sick games of the deranged Herman. Rudy decides to play the game looking for a chance to escape from Herman's claw.I do not know how many times I have seen the storyline of "The Cellar Door"; maybe the original version of this theme (a man that abducts a woman for his own pleasure) is William Wyler's masterpiece "The Collector", which has become extremely violent and sadistic as years go by. I recall recently watching at least the franchise "Saw", "Captivity", "Broken" and "Sportkill" that are rip-off of the classic storyline. However, I liked "The Cellar Door" because the writer Christopher Nelson and the director Matt Zettell were able to make an extremely low-budget theatrical movie supported by a solid screenplay and mostly by top-notch performances of the unknown James DuMont and Michelle Tomlinson. Their mouse-and-cat game is great and in the end it was worthwhile watching this simple but effective film that works perfectly on DVD. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "O Porão" ("The Cellar")
phantasmda I really, really wanted to like this movie and for the first hour it wasn't that bad. Kind of a cheapo version of Captivity with some half decent acting. Then came the last 20 minutes, OH MY GOD!!! Who wrote this dross?? Christopher Nelson needs to be locked up and never allowed to pen another movie script ever again. I lost track of the amount of times the two captured women had the Psycho down on the floor and then left him to get back up again to attack them, eventually killing one of them. The two women have knives, bats and other weapons at their disposal each time they knock him to the ground but each time seem oblivious to the fact that if they don't finish him off, he'll get back up and come back after them. At one point, the main female has a huge rack of knives in her hands and knowing that the killer is still inside the house, she discards them and proceeds to wonder through the house with nothing to protect herself with, it's pathetic. Then her friend attacks him with another weapon, and leaves him helpless but still moving on the kitchen floor whilst she then discards the weapon and runs into the bathroom, where he races in and stabs her to death WHAT?????? I'm sorry but the woman deserves to die if she is going to be that stupid. All this film insinuates is that women are helpless and extremely thick whenever they are in a life and death situation such as the one they are in in this film.How this movie has won awards is beyond me, it's absurd!
dgos17 This is a really wonderfully acted and directed film. Lots of intensity keeps you interested the entire film. I highly recommend this film. Great story. Superb acting. Wonderful horror/thriller. Nice strong female characters for a change. Pretty creepy too. Makes you think twice about the average guy walking the streets. The Horror genre needs more strong women like this film portrays. I produce the horror film festival Shriekfest and this film took audience choice award, Best Acting Performance Award, and the Pretty/Scary award for strong representations of women in horror! Gritty fun! Go check it out. The chocolate cake scene is not to be missed.