{"id":5976,"date":"2018-09-10T14:08:51","date_gmt":"2018-09-10T21:08:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=5976"},"modified":"2018-09-10T14:08:51","modified_gmt":"2018-09-10T21:08:51","slug":"review-the-basement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=5976","title":{"rendered":"Review: THE BASEMENT"},"content":{"rendered":"

Armed with a bargain basement budget and access to an actress with a following, co-directors Brian M. Conley and Nathan Ives deliver contained, gruesome horror that is hampered by a largely inert script.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"\"\"Former \u201cThe O.C.\u201d star Mischa Barton receives top billing in \u201cThe Basement,\u201d but she is hardly even in the film. The attractive actress spends most of the time in a modern mansion making phone calls and pining away for her musician husband. The real stars here are Jackson Davis and Cayleb Long, who do their level best with the often laughable material.<\/p>\n

When rich musician Craig Owen (Long) is kidnapped by the Gemini killer Bill Anderson (Davis), he\u2019s taken to a rough, cement block basement, where he\u2019s tied to a school desk and tortured. We are made to believe that Bill suffers from a multiple personality disorder. The various \u201cpersonalities\u201d manifest themselves as unconvincing characters from a very bad one-man show. Over the course of an evening, Bill appears to Craig in various costumes starting out as a clown and ending as, well, I won\u2019t spoil what little punch \u201cThe Basement\u2019s\u201d ultimate reveal might offer. And for gore fans, there\u2019s a blowtorch decapitation teased.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Co-directors Conley and Ives were clearly limited in resources but had access to Barton, whose name recognition guaranteed them a distribution deal. And by restricting the locations, they kept costs low. The \u201csupporting\u201d cast is strong, with Davis and Long up to the challenge, carrying a film that consists mainly of two actors engaging on inane conversations with random shots of nasty violence. The banal dialogue is often leaden and unintentionally amusing.<\/p>\n

Davis tries in vain to convince us that Bill\u2019s personality has truly altered from character to character, playing a police officer, a doctor, a prison inmate, and even a woman. But let\u2019s face it, this isn\u2019t \u201cKiss of the Spider Woman,\u201d and certainly not on the level of M. Night Shyamalan\u2019s \u201cSplit.\u201d Davis, who clearly has talent, just can\u2019t lose himself in any one of the characters he\u2019s asked to inhabit. The fault isn\u2019t all his, the screenplay partially written by the directors builds zero tension into his entrances and exits. And the inside-outside story, featuring Barton chatting on the phone, isn\u2019t the least bit engaging.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Basement\u201d is shot flatly but competently by Kenneth Stipe, who does employ an interesting Snorricam shot, that is, unfortunately, quickly abandoned. But, while there is a uniform consistently to his shots, Stipe is an experienced veteran, after all, there\u2019s little verve or spice to any of his compositions. Color is very good, but the image is a little too clean in places.<\/p>\n

Barton\u2019s scenes were likely shot in one or two days. One sequence, possibly done in very few takes, relies on an awkward wide angle that does not match the relative craftsmanship of the rest of the cinematography. Frankly, if Barton is going to be called the lead here, the least that the producers could have done is shoot her with some attitude and energy. The shapeless camerawork featuring Barton makes the already lifeless role even more inanimate.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

And it has to be some kind of crime to waste Barton in this way. Why not involve her more throughout the movie? We are forced to watch her talk on the phone, with no one depicted on the other end. It\u2019s tedious and boring. It\u2019s unforgivable. After taking this one in, I challenge you to think of 10 different ways that Barton could have been put to better use in this narrative. It won\u2019t be hard, I assure you.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Basement\u201d is a stab at capturing the torture\/gore sub-genre, but it lacks a coherent and entertaining storyline outside the confines of the dirty, dangerous bunker referenced in the film\u2019s title. If you want to see a much better use of this idea, watch Lou Simon\u2019s \u201c3\u201d instead. And Barton fans should just binge on old \u201cO.C.\u201d episodes, because this is not her film.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not enough Barton and an inert script leaves this limp blowtorch\/gore tale wanting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[768,769,770,105,771,772,773,774,775],"class_list":["post-5976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-cayleb-long","tag-confined-horror","tag-gore","tag-horror","tag-jackson-davis","tag-kenneth-stipe","tag-mischa-barton","tag-the-basement","tag-the-o-c","no-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5976\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}