The Basement is a 2018 horror film about a seemingly innocent man who is abducted by a notorious L.A. serial killer, forcing his victim to switch roles with him so that he can enact his own capture, torture and murder.
Movies are a carousel of copycats, films ‘influenced’ by and ‘homages’ to bigger and better hits, tapping into a trendy or original theme and wringing it dry. It’s certainly nothing new, and occasionally inspire some slight freshness into the mix. With directors Brian M. Conley and Nathan Ives‘s latest The Basement, it’s not too far a line to make in connecting it to a recent box office winner, even as it does offer some new twists, the results though a curious misfire that showcases a notable lead performance in a film that just doesn’t find its footing.
Thinking he’s starting a night of intense passion with his lovely wife Kelly (Mischa Barton), wealthy and arrogant musician Craig Owen (Cayleb Long) drives to the local shop on a champagne run, only to get kidnapped in the parking lot. He awakens in a dreary basement, tied to a chair in the company of what he soons learns to be The Gemini Killer, his real name Bill (Jackson Davis). Obviously, Bill isn’t all that stable, afflicted with dissociative identity disorder, burdened by twelve distinct personalities, nearly all of them wholly off their rockers. Informed that Craig is sentenced to die for various crimes, he becomes witness to a revolving number of increasingly bizarre appearances from Bill as he puts on an impressively deranged show, leaving Craig to try and outwit his captor. Back at home, a distressed Kelly paces in panic, finding company with friend Bianca (Bailey Anne Borders), who has a secret of her own.
It’s a little hard not to draw a line to M. Night Shyamalan‘s Split, and James McAvoy‘s career-defining tour-de-force as a kidnapper with a string of twisty personalities, yet Conley and Ives makes a few worthy attempts to keep this completely out of that film’s shadow, most notably the use of the singular titular setting. The Basement is also much more physically violent, lending a lot of time to torture as a partner to its mental manipulations, leaving some scenes almost unbearable to watch. However, having the first personality on display be a whacked out clown feels like the first weak link as it feels all too obvious what the filmmakers are trying to do.
Interestingly, it’s the underdeveloped story that has the most going for it, with Craig accused of being a serial killer, keeping place in his chair while Bill re-enacts his own past, playing a cop who catches him, a detective who interrogates him, a cellmate in prison and so on. With Craig catching on to what’s happening, it gives him an opening to play into the madness, but at great cost as Bill gleefully does some work on Craig’s body, pulling out teeth and chopping off fingers.
Unfortunately, this is never really given any weight, the gore more important and the chance for some real mental mind games to have any effect. Davis is great fun to watch and surely pours his actor’s heart into the role, making it perhaps the only reason to give this a try, while Barton, who’s barely in the film, listfully does what she can.