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The Beast in the Cellar

Play trailer Poster for The Beast in the Cellar R 1971 1h 27m Horror Mystery & Thriller Play Trailer Watchlist
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17% Tomatometer 6 Reviews 19% Popcornmeter 50+ Ratings
Two spinster sisters attempt to protect the outside world by locking their homicidal brother in the cellar.

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The Beast in the Cellar

Critics Reviews

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Time Out Staff Time Out 03/17/2020
Familiar stuff with the addition of a bit of nastiness and gore; very average. Go to Full Review
Vincent Canby New York Times 03/17/2020
The ladies spend most of their time in the parlor, drinking tea and talking the plot over and out. Go to Full Review
Margaret Hinxman Daily Telegraph (UK) 03/17/2020
The chemistry of quality, partially in James Kelly's script and direction and largely in the ladies' performances, transforms the crude shocks into something approaching genuine compassion for lives spent in the grip of memory. Go to Full Review
Alan Jones Radio Times 03/17/2020
1/5
Quite what induced Beryl Reid and Flora Robson to get involved in such a pointless exercise is a mystery, but they are the only reason for watching this forgettable nonsense. Go to Full Review
Dilys Powell Sunday Times (UK) 03/17/2020
Two quiet elderly ladies (Flora Robson and Beryl Reid) and something nasty under the floorboards -- it is a good recipe for a horror film, and The Beast in the Cellar begins teasingly and well; a pity that it should tail off into tame explanations. Go to Full Review
TV Guide Staff TV Guide 04/25/2012
1.5/5
The potentially interesting premise is undone by an extremely chatty script. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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SICKS6SIX 11/18/2022 average of 15%. They must have watched another film to me. Kitcsh at its best. Bmagnificent. Her antidotes are years ahead of anyone in 71. The constant nods to the future makes you wonder is this the original dialogue or CGI. See more Demented N 10/09/2022 Well Acted but too chatty and gossipy for a horror movie. Could work at a push but it's not a good m1ovie and answers the age old question can big starts save a bad movie and the answer is no but they do add star quality. See more 12/27/2015 Despite its short comings, this cult horror is quite tense at times. Two sisters keep their mentally disturbed brother locked in a cellar, but he gets out..... See more 12/30/2012 Produced by Tigon British Film Productions, and directed by James Kelley, (from TV's Bootsie and Snudge and Our Man at St. Mark's), this is a very schlocky horror that is quite slow moving and takes it's sweet time in getting going. It promises a lot, but most of it's suspense doesn't begin until it's nearly too late. Which is a shame, considering it has a good cast and all. At an Army base in Lancashire, there have been killings of soldiers by what appears to be an animal, Sgt. Young (John Kelland) brings in Superintendent Paddick (T.P. McKenna) to investigate. At a house on the edge of the army base perimeter live two elderly sisters Ellie (Beryl Reid) and Joyce Ballantyne (Flora Robson), who live quiet lives, and keep to themselves. Ellie is always nostalgic for the good old days of their childhood, but Joyce is domineering, claiming their childhood wasn't as good as she remembers it. They're visited with groceries by Corporal Alan Marlow (John Hamill), but the sisters have a dark secret... It's a very silly and grainy horror film, the only good thing going for it are the performances, but something like this is screaming to be gorier and nastier, but it isn't, it's suggestive but that's it. Oh, and look out for Chris Chittell (Eric Pollard off Emmerdale.) See more 10/27/2012 not very good to be honest, not scary at all See more 05/19/2012 Ok, I'm going to say straight off the bat, this is, in my experience, the most difficult film in the world to watch...ever. This is not because it had challenging concepts, or a complicated plot. Nor was it because it was sh*t the bed scary, or horrifically brutal (I'm guessing this film was supposed to be a horror by the way). It was purely because the film is painfully dull. In fact, the only thing scary about it was the fact that it made its way onto a videocassette, and as for concepts and plot... err yeah. I don't want you to think at this point that I'm just moaning because my blood-lust was not fulfilled, this hatred for the film goes much deeper. I am not talking your regular Hammer Horror dull; I'm talking old women on a bus discussing the price of ham dull! Believe it or not, that's not far from the synopsis of this torture of a film, just replace the bus with a house, and the price of ham with a lack of celery and you've got it. I know I'm telling you this is a sh*t film (it is by the way), but I feel I must say - you have to see it to believe it, I'm sure the first twenty minutes was actually a conversation about celery. To make matters worse, both characters in true old lady fashion repeat the frustratingly tedious lines "we appear to have no celery" "no celery?" "no celery" "we should get some" "get some?" "yes we should get some celery" (not actual script) Basically, it plods along like that for the duration, with a couple of mildly amusing murders, and a few other laughable scenes - all funny for the wrong reasons of course. I don't blame the writing in so much as I think it achieved what was intended, likewise the performances from the leading ladies were spot on (capturing two dithering old bats perfectly). You just have to question the disturbed mind that would want to create this bordomiser they call 'Beast in the Cellar' - Oh yeah, there is a 'beast' (well a man with long hair) in the cellar, but that's more of a sub-plot. See more Read all reviews
The Beast in the Cellar

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Movie Info

Synopsis Two spinster sisters attempt to protect the outside world by locking their homicidal brother in the cellar.
Director
James Kelley
Screenwriter
James Kelley
Production Co
Tigon British Film Productions Ltd.
Rating
R
Genre
Horror, Mystery & Thriller
Original Language
British English
Release Date (Theaters)
Apr 14, 1971, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
May 23, 2017
Runtime
1h 27m
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