Cellar Dweller (1988 film)

Cellar Dweller (1988), AKA Underground Werewolf, Ork,

Summary

"The shape of nightmares to come!" A comic book artist is doomed to repeat history in a most grotesque way when she unleashes a demon after drawing it.

Details

Cellar Dweller (1988 film)

• Release Date: 1988
• Country/Language: USA, English
• Genres/Technical: Horror, Fantasy
• Setting: 1980s California
• Runtime: 1 hr 17 min
• Starring: Yvonne De Carlo, Debrah Farentino, Brian Robbins, Jeffrey Combs
• Director: John Carl Buechler
• Writer: Don Mancini (as Kit Dubois)
• Producer/Production Co: Empire Pictures,Dove Corporation Ltd., Charles Band, Bob Wynn
• View Trailer: (link)
• Wikipedia: (link)
• IMDB Page: (link)

Ratings

MPAA Ratings

• Rated: R (mild Violence, Profanity, and Nudity)

Tentacle Ratings

A rough measure of how "Lovecraftian" the work is:

• S____ (One Tentacle: Debateably Lovecraftian; has almost no direct connection to Lovecraft's work)

Not very much Lovecraftian going on in this movie, other than the cellar-dwelling Ghoul-thing, and shout-outs to the infamous feature Re-Animator film adaptation.

Note: This rating is not intended as a measure of quality, merely of how closely related to Lovecraftian "Weird" fiction the work is.

Reviews

Review Links:

• Review by Keith Bailey at The Unknown Movies (link)
• Review by Burl Cummings at Ha Ha It's Burl! (link)
• Review by Andrew Pragsam at The Spinning Image (4/10 Stars) (link)
• Review by J. P. Roscoe at Basement Rejects (3/10) (link)

Synopsis (SPOILERS)

 Spoiler Section (Highlight to Read)

A highly successful comic book artist gains inspiration from a mystical book of horrific drawings, and inadvertently summons an evil spirit into his basement studio. Decades later, his house has become a small art institute where a student goes rooting around the sealed boxes in the cellar and releases the supernatural forces trapped there.

Notes

Comments, Trivia, Dedication

• In a scene where the character Whitney Taylor is in a room you can see a Reanimator movie poster behind her. Jeffrey Combs, who plays Colin Childress in this movie, stared in Re-Animator (1985 film).
• All comic art done in this film was drawn by Jack Kirby (uncredited).

Associated Mythos Elements

• tome: killer comic book art
• race: Ghoul