The Cellar is the feature length directorial debut of Jamie Langlands, someone I knew more for their acting roles in films such as C.A.M and P.O.V. This was a film of two distinct halves, while I thought the first part was much better than the second this still all combined to make for a good horror.
Abigail (Meghan Adara) wakes up to discover herself locked in a room deep underground. Managing to escape her confinement she finds herself in a huge labyrinthian network of cellars in which a masked jailor roams (Langlands). Having to hide from the man who is searching for her, Abigail slowly discovers evidence that the whole alcoholics self-help group she was a part of have been captured, for reasons unknown.
The first half of this movie was near perfection, doing a lot while having minimal dialogue. The film is focussed on Abigail and her quest for freedom, and wisely she remains silent for the majority of the run time, the only noises coming from her being shocked intakes of air. From the cruel prologue in which a woman attempts and fails to escape from similar confinement I was hooked for this first forty or so minutes. My heart was frequently in my mouth following scared Abigail as she sneaks around, frequently only just managing to avoid discovery. I got the strange vibe of this feeling a bit like a video game, with locations that felt straight out of a survival horror game like Resident Evil or Outlast. This also came into effect with the neat way of showing flashbacks. Whenever Abigail comes across a 'missing' poster or discovering a corpse of someone we are then shown a flashback of that person talking at the church based support group. These parts set up who the antagonist likely was, while also adding to the mystery, using a similar idea that was in Halo: ODST to intelligently give a reason for the flashback sequences to play out.
The second half of the movie sadly is not as sublime as the first, with the story almost being a re-tread of the first forty minutes, but moved to a different (no less amazingly detailed) location. This one introduced more supernatural elements such as Abigail's reflection in mirrors not matching her own movements, demonic eyes appearing on characters faces, and some arthouse style dream sequences. With her captor injecting her with mysterious drugs it is easy to assume those parts are not actually real and in the scared woman's head. This second part wasn't as good purely for the story seeming to reset rather than building on what had come before. It leads up to an unexpected finale that leaves it to the viewer to piece together in their own mind what had occurred over the course of The Cellar.
Mainly the acting is good, Adara in particular felt very believable, able to act a lot by her actions and facial expressions rather than dialogue. Much of the other cast members also gave good performances, a couple of duds that were possibly more down to the lines they were reading than their acting, but mostly it was all good.
The Cellar had atmosphere in spades, as well as some really effective locations that created the feel of the protagonist being trapped in a never ending maze of rooms and corridors. Adara's strong performance meant she was able to carry a lot of the film on her own shoulders without this ever becoming dull. While the second half wasn't as good as the first, it was still good, and Abigail's quest for freedom kept me glued to the screen, a solid feature length directorial debut.
SCORE:
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