Cellar Dweller

There are many great examples of midnight monster cult classics, but Cellar Dweller is one that I pretty much never hear or read anyone talking about. C'mon guys, get with it. Right when I placed the dvd in my player and saw Jeffrey Combs on the screen drawing some comic book frames, I already knew that this was going to be an enchanted ride full of dark magic, attractive women and a decent helping of gore on the side. The make-up, costumes and special effects are amazing as well and sucks the viewer right in. Now the print I have on dvd is pretty dark in some spots and makes me wonder if Scream Factory just used a transfer from a beat up VHS of this film they had just lying around-I am also aware that this has been put onto blu-ray, so hopefully the transfer on there is cleaner and brighter so you can see everything the way it was meant to be seen. Basically, J. Combs plays the famous comic book cartoonist Colin Childress who ended up burning up his home and his studio in an attempt to kill off the Cellar Dweller whenever he used the book of magic he had to make it seem more real or authentic. Some-odd years later, the property is transformed into the strangest art institute and the cellar where he did his work is closed off because it's "haunted by Childress' spirit". That's where Whitney comes in. That's where you come in.

Man, Jeffrey Combs is everywhere.

Being a comic book artist would be killer.

Heavy is the axe we wield against the foe of daily life.

Concierge's always creep up on you.

Dark art is still art. Art is still dark. She doesn't get it.

Angst? It looks like you took some water colors and slopped them on a piece of printer paper.

What the hell kind of art institute is this?

I have more fun drinking than screaming at the wind.

Never seen a mop wetter.

"I'll hang you up by your eye lids and wrench out your fingernails one by one." Damn, that's some brutal shit.

Give me a break, give me a break-break me off a piece of Amanda's arm!

Cellar Dweller is for sure a great entry into the horror genre from the late 80's. It's a tad lighter on the gore side of things (there still is some, just not as much as you would expect) and probably one of the best scenes in here is when the cellar dweller just outright smacks one of the art institutes students heads off. Great fun. There's the annoying Phillip played by Brian Robbins who, somehow becomes the love interest of Whitney by the end (why do the annoying, ugly guys get the hot chicks?) and the arch enemy of Amanda. Her and Whitney have a past and there is a sub-plot of her and the woman that runs the art institute are trying to ruin her reputation by way of making a fake tape of her plagiarizing Amanda's art. Even though she's not a comic book artist. Once this boiled head stew finally simmers down, you get a pretty fantastic 80's monster flick that warrants the cult following that it has garnered. There's always a cellar to be a dweller in-except killing people, I'm just going down to get some wine. Bring the cheese and crackers. This party is going to be out of control.