Stay Out of the Basement

I had never heard about this 2023 horror movie titled "Stay Out of the Basement" from writer and director Ryan Callaway prior to sitting down and watching it. However, I have to admit that my expectations to the movie were slim, given the movie's rather amateurish cover. But still, I opted to give the movie the benefit of the doubt.

Turns out that my initial gut feeling was right on, and "Stay Out of the Basement" was not worth the effort. The storyline and narrative in the movie was dull and rather uneventful. And as for this being a horror movie, well let's just say that you shouldn't get your hopes up, unless you consider a bland and monotonous storyline as being horror.

The acting performances in "Stay Out of the Basement" were sluggish, amateurish and wooden. Needless to say that I wasn't familiar with a single actress or actor on the cast list, and after having sat through 71 minutes of this ordeal, I can honestly say that nor did I take notice of any performance, as no one stood out as being memorable.

Visually then you're in for 71 minutes of nothing. There was nothing worthwhile on the screen in terms of special effects or anything that would even spruce the narrative up to anything resembling a horror movie.

"Stay Out of the Basement" was a swing and a miss from writer and director Ryan Callaway. And it is not a movie that I would recommend horror fans to waste their time, money or effort on. Some of us suffered through this ordeal, so you don't have to.

This looked and felt like writer and director Ryan Callaway had gotten together friends and family and shot an amateur home movie in less than 24 hours.

My rating of "Stay Out of the Basement" lands on a two out of ten stars.

As is typical and familiar with Ryan Callaway's other entries, there's really nothing here to bring about a cult following or viral spread to horror fans. Nothing daring or exploitative, no blood, no uncomfortable or eye-opening moments. I've been waiting for this from Callaway's work, but it seems to be staying G rated, and missing opportunities that make other no budget horror shine a little brighter. We do see several of the usual young female cast members, and that is not a bad thing.. but it's very.. scholastic. I do have to give a shout-out for Emma Pearson being quite adorable and probably the most on-screen charismatic of the bunch. Cheaply made, but not poorly made, it's just not in a category of service that will attract a horror audience. Not yet.

So yeah pretty bad acting, but still a bit tense. At first I was curious about what was going on in the basement, but then it became more boring later on. You can see the low budget spent on the film, but films are not always about the very big stars or a film that cost several millions. Many have good ideas out there. I think the ending was way too flat and that ruined a lot of it. They could come up with something better, and a better explanation, but it was entertaining enough. But you have no doubt at all that it is not a professional film, but that also makes it a little creepier, I think. It could be a situation you could be in yourself.

It's definitely a low budget film, and the story started off a little bit interesting, but the ending was very messy and confusing. It definitely needed better editing. So a much clearer ending could have been presented. I've seen much worse, and this film certainly tried.

The beginning of the film was slow paced, and a lot of build up, but it didn't really pay off at all. Again this film definitely needed better editing, and script writing. I think by far was the biggest problem, bev the potential was there for a really spooky story. I think more explanation to what was actually going on would have helped too.

Let's see , let's put two tons of make-up on a seven year old , since she's going to be the next child star ?

Noooot !!

Nice Home Depot shop lights , lighting woods , gzzzz at least put sum gels on them ? There cheap ?

The basement looked like a storage room at goodwill ?

I couldn't get scared because I was looking at all the crap down there .

Maybe that white dressed ghost was an employee of goodwill ?

Going down the stairs to bring up items for sales floor ?

Liked ghost lady pulling a rusted radio flyer though . Although why does a ghost need a wagon full of crap ?

My new rule is don't watch any horror flick after 1999 .

Thx folks !

Stevydvd ( I will return )