THE BASEMENT (1989)This schlocktail satiates my tastes in two ways, as it falls under two subgenres that I have a thing for. To begin with, it's an anthology. Seeing Creepshow at a young, impressionable age planted a propensity for omnibus genre nuggets deep within my Cimmerian soul (wow, a reference to Greek mythology...I'm on a roll tonight). The Basement was also shot on Super 8. As a teenager, I couldn't digest anything that wasn't filmed on either 16mm or 35mm, but here lately, I've developed a hankering for no-budget horror. I'm talking SOV titles. While this economical spooktacular wasn't captured with a camcorder, it does appeal to the same frothing crowd of fright fanatics. It's driven by the ardent zest that fueled SOV classics like Sledgehammer and Truth or Dare: A Critical Madness.
We get four vignettes and a limp-wristed wrap-around story (four strangers mosey around in a basement...why, where and how are fair questions that are never answered). The segments touch on swimming pool serpents, broomstick-mounting witches, tongue-eating mummies, fake zombies, real zombies, a haunted house and a J.R. Bookwalter cameo. Robert Z'Dar would approve. The make-up effects hold up rather well, and once you advance past the first story (it's dry toast, if you ask me), there is plenty of grisly fun to be had. A blithe, loving homage to Amicus anthologies. Seek it out.
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