(1973)
Directed by S.F. Brownrigg
Starring Bill McGee, Rose Holotik, Annabelle Weenick, Michael Harvey, Gene Ross, Jessie Lee Fulton, Betty Chandler, Robert Dracup, Harryette Warren, Jessie Kirby, Hugh Feagin, Camilla Carr, Rhea MacAdams

When you’re discussing low budget movies, the conversation could go a few different ways. You could be talking about the kind of titles that were being churned out in the ‘80s, when the video market was booming and everyone and their brother had a camera and was trying to make their own little production. Nothing wrong with those.

It could also mean you’re talking about a group of independent filmmakers that were doing the same thing, but back in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, shooting on film, somehow scraping up a budget enough to hire a cast and crew to make their own little feature. And while the ‘80s had the video market chomping for more product, a decade or so before that, it was the drive-ins that were looking for titles to screen.

While most filmmakers were going to California to try and break their way into Hollywood, there were others that stayed in their home state and decided to work there. Florida had William Grefe, North Carolina had Earl Owensby, while Texas had a few of them, but one in particular was a guy named S.F. Brownrigg. While he worked on a bunch of different films in different capacities, when it came for him to direct his own features, he only made five features, three of them being horror, one an exploitation title, and then a decade after his fourth film, he made a comedy.

During the army, Brownrigg was a combat photographer, working on a bunch of military training films while enlisted, which sparked his interest in film. In 1955, he met Larry Buchanan, another Texan that wanted to make films. He worked with Buchanan on several of his features, as an editor, or working in the sound department, on titles like The Eye Creatures (1967), Mars Needs Women (1968), Zontar: The Thing from Venus (1967), or even Buchanan’s first feature film, The Naked Witch (1961). In fact, the actress playing the title character from The Naked Witch would end up marrying Brownrigg!

Brownrigg’s first feature, originally titled The Forgotten was reported to have a budget of $100k and shot in 12 days. But according to author Bret McCormick, in his wonderful book Texas Schlock, Brownrigg told him it was more like $25k. No matter the actual budget, Brownrigg was able to come up with a decent story, a variety of actors that, while not big-name stars, were really good in the roles they played, and made for an effective, and sometimes downright creepy little film. When it was picked up by AIP, they changed the name to something a little more sellable . . . Don’t Look in the Basement.

The film starts out at a large house that is actually a facility for the mentally unstable, run by a Dr. Stephens, who has unusually therapy lessons for his patients, including one with “axe therapy”, which needless to say, doesn’t end well for the doc. This isn’t any real spoilers since it happens pretty soon once the film starts. Later that evening, a new nurse (Rosie Holotik) shows up that Dr. Stephens had hired and was supposed to start right away. After a discussion with Dr. Masters, who is now in charge, almost turns her away. But she decides to let her stay, explaining to her that this is very different than most mental health facilities, that the staff lives in the house along with the patients. As much as she tries to fit into her new role, Nurse Charlotte starts to realize that something is very strange here.

This film has some gore, a nice mystery that we are trying to figure out along with our main protagonist, as well as being filled with some interesting characters, that most importantly, feel like real people. While the quality of the film itself looks like what it costs, it gives off a creepy, almost realistic feel to it, which I feel makes it even more effective.

One of the things that I’ve personally had issues with when it comes to the lower budgeted fair, is the acting. This is usually done by friends and family of the filmmaker, trying to save money, which I completely understand, but it tends to affect the film overall. But what Brownrigg was able to do here is find some actors that not only were good, but made it feel even more real, that maybe we were watching a documentary at times.

While Rosie Holotik does a good job as the new nurse, trying to figure out what the hell is going on here, it is Annabelle Weenick’s performance as Dr. Geraldine S. Masters, who is now in charge, that makes this film really stand out. For the low budget world of films, she is quite a familiar face. Not only did she appear in the 1966 film The Black Cat, she worked for Larry Buchanan several times, appearing in Curse of the Swamp Creature (1968), Creature of Destruction (1968), It’s Alive (1969), and even working as the dialogue director in The Eye Creatures, Zontar, Creature of Destruction, In the Year 2889, as well as in Brownrigg’s Don’t Hang Up (1974), and being production coordinator for Don’t Look in the Basement. This shows you that in those days of having very little money, but a lot of passion and drive to get these films made, some were doing more than one or two jobs.

Bill McGee plays Sam, one of the patients at the facility, a very large but simpleminded man who does seem to like his popsicles. He had worked with Buchanan a few times, such as in Curse of the Swamp Creatures. His character has a nice duality to it because he is a very big guy, but a brain of a child, making him dangerous, but also innocent, and McGee does a good job creating that character.

Gene Ross, who plays the inmate the Judge, is another familiar name and face to not only the low budget films of the ‘70s but also had small appearances in a couple of big-name slashers films. He worked with Brownrigg in three of his films, but also appeared in The Legend of Boggy Creek (1972), as well as in Friday the 13^th: The Final Chapter (1984) and Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988), and even David Lynch’s Lost Highway (1997).

While in a small role, Rhea MacAdams, plays Mrs. Callingham, an elderly patient that seems to know what is going on but pays for that knowledge in a gruesome way. While she’s not onscreen a lot, I felt she did a great job, making the viewer feel terrible about what is happening to some of these patients. MacAdams had only appeared in two films, both for Brownrigg, and was Weenick’s aunt in real life.

While these actors never had huge careers, which is a shame, it does show that they were good enough in their job if they were given the chance.

When you start to delve deep into the world of independent filmmaking of the ‘60s and ‘70s, you will see some names that finally made it to Hollywood, such as Jonathen Demme, Jack Nicholson, or Dennis Hopper. But for everyone one that did make it, you had a bunch that never made it out of that type of filmmaking. Maybe they just never had that chance to move. Or maybe, like Buchanan and Brownrigg, they never wanted to make it to the big time because they knew they’d lose some of the control they had. No matter the reason, what Brownrigg and his fellow filmmakers did was create some cinema that I feel is just as important, because not only does it show the talent of creating something out of very little money, but it also shows their drive, their passion, and the need to make their stories, with the help of other like-minded people.

Not to mention that some of these films are pretty damn creepy and effective. And at the end of the day, the budget, the talent, or anything else doesn’t really matter if the film doesn’t work.

In 2015, Brownrigg’s son, Tony, wrote and directed a sequel, called appropriately enough Don’t Look in the Basement 2, that continues the story 40 years later.

If you want to learn more about Brownrigg, or any of these Texas-based filmmakers, check out Bret McCormick’s book, Texas Schlock, which you can read our review of the book HERE.