I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

9.Insanely good.Thought this would be the usual run of the mill B-seventies horror movie set in an insane asylum but was pleasantly (for lack of a more appropriate word haha) surprised. I would definitely watch it again given the opportunity it was that good.

This is a film that if you watch it today and you have seen a more than a couple of horror films, you are going to know exactly what is going on. By the title of the film and by the description on the box I figured out what was going to happen before I even saw a minute of the film, and if it is not obvious then it will be during the first five minutes of the film. There are no real surprises to be had here, suffice to say. It does play out somewhat interestingly in areas and there are a couple of pretty good kills, but it is simply too obvious what is going on and how it is going to play out. I see the original title of this one is apparently, "The Forgotten" and perhaps that would have made for a better title, because as I have said, you read the description for this on and you will probably figure out what is going on or if you do not, you will still know how it is all going to go after you watch about five minutes of it with its title of, "Don't Go Into the Basement". Still, there are a couple of surprises as I was not quite expecting the way it ended and there was even a rather funny scene involving a phone repair guy, so I would say while not a particularly good film, it is not terrible either.The story has a house for those who are crazy in the middle of nowhere. At this facility, the doctor in charge allows the patients to roam free and employs some very questionable methods to help his patients. A nurse there has had enough as the only one she seems to like is Sam, a man who has the innocence of a child. The others are getting on her nerves and after she is threatened by one of the patients she is ready to leave! The doctor doesn't take this news well, and he takes what is coming to him next even less well as he is hit with an ax. A new nurse is soon seen coming to the place and a new doctor has taken over saying the previous one has been killed. Well the new nurse is quickly warned to leave the place by one of the patients, but she sticks with it, but things begin to unravel quickly as the patients start losing control!Like I said, it has its moments, but just not enough for me to really say it was an okay film. Some things were cool in it, but at other times things going on were a bit perplexing, such as the new nurse being unable to find the exit to the house. The people being treated did okay for a low budget film my favorite being the super sexed up woman who simply wanted the love of a man and was stuck in a place where the guys all seemed to pass on her despite her being rather attractive. The one dude who would just scream and grab stuff was my least favorite as he just seemed to be doing a stereotypical crazy person. One thing that also surprised me was that during the course of the entire movie, no one told the nurse to no look in the basement...I was kind of expecting that within the first few moments she arrived.

DON'T LOOK IN THE BASEMENT may be an ordinary-looking exploitational grindhouse movie, but it's actually worth a look for fans of cult cinema. It's entirely cheap with a scuzzy look, but it's also actually a pretty interesting look at mental illness and it doesn't just rely on gore shocks and axe murders to make it work. It has more plot than that, including a fine ending which is something of a mini-classic.The setting is a cheap, run-down old asylum populated by a group of distinctive characters: there's a the girl who cradles a doll and thinks of it as her child, the former judge who goes around dispensing law, alongside a handful of sympathetic characters. Soon enough a series of gore murders are taking place, and it's up to the pretty young heroine to solve the crimes before she herself becomes the next victim. Director S. F. Brownrigg gets the most out of a clearly non-existent budget, and the film becomes most impressive at the Grand Guignol-style climax, which has something of FREAKS about it.

"Don't Look in the Basement" (how's that for a gimmicky title?) has an attractive young nurse taking a job at a remote insane asylum that is known for its experimental approaches to psychiatric treatment (such as letting the patients simulate their own delusions, no matter how demented or dangerous). Upon her arrival, she is notified that the head doctor was murdered by one of the inmates, and is geared to run the asylum with the help of the head nurse, but finds herself receiving increasing hostility from the patients.Also known as "The Forgotten," this deceptive and dreary grindhouse flick was apparently a staple of drive-in horror in the mid-1970s, and has been put through the shredder by audiences online. The truth is that this is actually not nearly as bad a film as many reviews would lead you to believe.Make no bones about it, this is a low-budget production on all counts— it looks as though it were filmed inside a large farmhouse haphazardly made up to appear as a hospital, and the special effects are definitely minimalist, but there is something about the low-budget awkwardness that makes this film strangely effective. The narrative is admittedly slow-going early on and the film does feel a bit like a psych ward drama throughout the first forty minutes or so, but some well-played sequences and decent and sometimes disturbing performances from the inmate cast and the foxy, likable heroine elevate the proceedings from potentially dull to surprisingly engaging. Add to that a clever narrative twist that may or may not be easy to read between the lines, which may be the film's greatest asset.Overall, "Don't Look in the Basement" is an effective and atmospheric low-budget horror offering that aspires to greater heights than its budget could clearly afford. In spite of this, the quirks resulting from the production's monetary shortcomings add a raw edge to the film, and it boasts a decent cast of unknowns playing up the hysterics of a '70s psychodrama. What the film does well, perhaps inadvertently, is weave a drab and unsettling atmosphere that infects the entire production, up to its uncompromisingly gruesome conclusion. 7/10.