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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
To contemplate evil is to ask evil home, August 25, 2007
This review is from: Cellar Dweller (Amazon.com Exclusive) [VHS] (VHS Tape)
At first glance, Cellar Dweller looks like a rather nondescript, neglected B-horror movie, but this film has several things that most of its cinematic peers do not: a cameo by cult icon Jeffrey Combs alongside the casting of Dynasty veteran Pamela Bellwood and Yvonne De Carlo (TV's Lily Munster). This was 1987, of course, so De Carlo had aged and put on some weight, but she definitely adds class and character to the film. Cellar Dweller also features a decent story that distinguishes itself from the crowd and takes a nice little twist at the end that plays wonderfully.
Cellar Dweller was the name of the gruesome horror comic brought to life by Colin Childress (Jeffrey Combs), who died thirty years earlier after reportedly going mad and murdering an innocent young woman. He still has his fans three decades later, including one Whitney Taylor (Debrah Farentino), who has come to the place Colin worked and died (which is now an arts institute) to create a new Cellar Dweller comic of her own. Mrs. Briggs (Yvonne De Carlo), the head of the institute, oversees an interest group of artists: an abstract painter played rather annoyingly by Brian Robbins, a horrible female dancer, an ex-P.I. turned writer, and Amanda (Pamela Bellwood), a video artist who just happens to be Whitney's long-time nemesis. Finally conniving her way into the cellar room that Colin Childress called his own, Whitney finds the dark tome that inspired her idol and sets out to bring the Cellar Dweller back to life. Boy, does she bring him back to life. That's bad news indeed for all of our characters.
The biggest complaint I have with this film is the fact that we witness several murders through the panels of a comic strip rather than up close and personally. At least we are usually party to the Cellar Dweller's post-killing snacks. About that Cellar Dweller, though - he's not the most terrifying monster you'll ever see. Still, after seeing one of his eyes yo-yo up and down out of his mask during one scene (which I suspect is just a happy accident), I couldn't help but love the ugly guy. And no one can say he doesn't do good work.
As I mentioned, there's something of a twist at the end that earns the film extra kudos in my book. I'm really not sure why this film has been allowed to languish over the years, especially considering the way Jeffrey Combs fans flock to anything he's associated with. Cellar Dweller is much harder to find that it should be, but it is definitely worth tracking down.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Nostalgia trip., June 23, 2010
This review is from: Cellar Dweller (Amazon.com Exclusive) [VHS] (VHS Tape)
Cellar Dweller (John Carl Buechler, 1988)
John Carl Buechler has made his name mostly as an effects guy. He's done makeup and/or special effects for the Freddy, Jason, and Indiana Jones franchises, as well as such low-budget cult classics as From Beyond, Gingerdead Man, and Deathstalker. But like everyone else in Hollywood, John Carl Buechler always wanted to direct. And his first full-length theatrical release actually hit one out of the park, though no one knows why to this day. It was called Troll, it's absolutely awful (and is only remembered these days as the first big-screen role for Julia Louis-Dreyfus), and somehow, it managed to open on a thousand screens in 1986 and gross four million back when four million actually meant something. So someone gave Buechler a script he didn't write this time and said, "film this." This script was written by a first-timer named Don Mancini who would, a couple of years later, go on to found one of horrordom's more successful franchises, Child's Play. Which is better than anything Buechler's ever done, including this mess. Buechler borrowed Jeffrey Combs from his pal Stuart Gordon for a cameo, assembled a cast of nobodies, and went to town.
Thirty years before the main action takes place, we see cartoonist Colin Childress (Combs) in his basement, feverishly working on a story (no doubt for some sort of EC clone) about a huge beast that likes to eat people. All well and good until the scene he's working on comes alive before him. He manages to banish the best back to wherever it come from, but not before setting the entire house on fire and perishing in the resultant blaze. Fast-forward to the present and the house has now become an art school run by the domineering Mrs. Briggs (The Munsters' Yvonne DeCarlo). As we open, Whitney Taylor (Earth 2's Deborah Farentino) is entering the school on a recommendation from an alumnus. Mrs. Briggs isn't happy about this, and takes an immediate dislike to Whitney. We soon come to find out that this is because already in residence is Amanda (Dynasty's Pamela Bellwood), an art school classmate of Whitney's. There's bad blood between them, etc. Still, one of the other students, Phillip (Head of the Class' Brian Robbins, now a mega-successful producer), takes a liking to her. In any case, through various machinations, she ends up having her studio in the basement, and one night while she's working on a panel...
It's a very, very cheesy movie, and there are a lot of eighties horror fans who like it for that very reason. I am certainly a huge fan of cheesy movies, but this one didn't quite get there for me. There's a fine line between just plain bad and so bad it's good. This one's just plain bad. Most of the acting ranges from the hammy to the horrific, as is to be expected when all your leads come from the world of television. The special effects are cheap, but not quite cheap enough to earn the cordial despise that comes with watching such bad-fx classics as It Happened at Lakewood Manor or Shriek of the Mutilated.
Nostalgics only. The rest of you can safely avoid this one. * ½
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4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Chills, January 1, 2006
This review is from: Cellar Dweller (Amazon.com Exclusive) [VHS] (VHS Tape)
Not your typical horror movie.Should have been 1988 horror picture of the year! Must see movie! I rate this movie (NTBWA) not to be watched alone!Never heard of it!Well now u have ? Someone needs to make this picture on DVD,please? All over you chills.Two thumbs up!
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