In THE CELLAR, Keira Woods’ (Elisha Cuthbert) daughter mysteriously vanishes in the cellar of their new house. She soon discovers there is an ancient and powerful entity controlling their home that she will have to face or risk losing her family’s souls forever.
For thoughts on The Cellar, please check out our discussion on The Video Attic:
Video Quality
The film debuts on Blu-Ray with a 1080p presentation in its original aspect ratio that captures the film pretty well. The movie itself is not replete with color with its muted palette that does not pop off the screen, but at least you have a fine amount of detail and clarity. The steely blue of the “other” space radiates quite nicely in its own subtle way. There is slight loss of detail in some of the panning shots, but it is not a major issue throughout. The movie relies on darkness to build tension, so it is a good thing that the transfer provides deep black levels that do not crush. Objects hold up pretty well in the shadows and retain their depth with only slight banding. There is no damage or digital noise detectable in this transfer. There are not very many moments that are going to scream “reference material”, but this is a solid video presentation overall.
Audio Quality
The Cellar comes to Blu-Ray with an active DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track. The experience is quite precise and effective, and will be appreciated by horror fans who pick up this disc. Dialogue and sound effects are appropriately balanced with the score where nothing gets muddled in the track. The movie does not provide the most intense workout, but environmental sounds provide a very creepy, immersive atmosphere for the story. The low end of the track provides some nice texture when more horrific territory is being explored. Surround channels get some nice activity with the house ambiance during any lead up to an unsettling reveal. There are optional English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles provided.
Special Features
- Audio Commentary: Writer/Director Brendan Muldowney and Producer Richard Bolger provide a pretty solid commentary track in which they take you through the adaptation of the narrative from the short film, finding the right house to shoot in and how they adapted it for their story, the performances, the research that went into the original idea, how they both embraced and tried to subvert established tropes, the sound mix, how COVID impacted some of their larger creative ambitions and more.
- Interviews with The Cellar Cast & Crew: A five-minute featurette in which the cast and creative team discuss the plot of the story, their roles in the production, shooting during a pandemic, learning about the history of the house and more.
- The Cellar VFX Before & After: A three-minute look at some of the special effects implemented in the film and how they were accomplished on a practical level.
- The Ten Steps Short Film: The 11-minute short film that served as the inspiration for the film is provided here, and it honestly works a bit better as a complete experience.
- The Ten Steps Director Commentary: Writer/Director Brendan Muldowney provides some insight into the short film including inspirations from other classic horror films and more.
Final Thoughts
The Cellar is a horror film that has its fair share of creepy moments, but the experience struggles to sustain itself over a feature-length runtime. The performances are not the most dynamic, but the creatives do a good job of compensating with a strong atmosphere overall. While you may have a decent time with this one in the moment, I cannot imagine it is a feature that will stick with you for longer than a couple of days. RLJE Films has released a Blu-Ray featuring a good A/V presentation and a pretty solid assortment of special features. If you want a taste of the best part of the film, see if you can track down the short film that is also included on this disc.
The Cellar is currently available to purchase on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital.
Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.
Disclaimer: RLJE Films has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.
Dillon is most comfortable sitting around in a theatre all day watching both big budget and independent movies.