Explore horror cinema’s top 10 most terrifying basements, from those designed to house horror to those where evil simply comes home to roost.
My basement is pretty standard; it’s where I game, it’s a storage space, and it’s not much more below the surface. However, this isn’t always the case, and the standard storage room is sometimes anything but standard. We’ve been hiding secrets below ground for years, and basements are a dark refuge away from the prying eyes of the public and even those dwelling in the house on occasion.
I’ve compiled a list of ten recent horror basements that set the stage for some of the most frightening, well-crafted, bone-chilling scenes that will make you want to stay upstairs under the covers. From intricate dungeons and nesting grounds to the most intricate plots of revenge, I’m counting down these underground rooms that seem innocuous to us but sometimes harbor the most chilling secrets.
10. Fright Night (2011)
With a star-studded cast and sleek stylings, Fright Night wasn’t a bad remake overall. The basement we are discussing isn’t revealed until the film’s final act. Jerry, the neighborhood vampire, has kept his victims in a makeshift nest in the basement under his home. After being led downstairs, Charley is swarmed by vampires, including his newly turned girlfriend, a nightmare scenario where he might join the undead. With everything on the line and with a stake given to him by renowned vampire expert Peter Vincent, Charley lives or dies in this basement.
As you may have guessed, this basement is earthy and less refined. It is more for victim storage and sun blockage than anything else, with bodies buried here and there. It is a creepy but entertaining scene, and that basement will certainly need a contractor.
9. The Cabin in the Woods (2011)
An ode to many a famous shocking basement while reminding me of The Evil Dead, The Cabin in the Woods made the basement a playground for curious college students.
In a game of truth or dare, as things get heated, the door to the basement flies open, startling the group. Dared to enter as her challenge for the game, Dana descends the stairs to find a treasure trove of old and antique items. With her friends now inside with her, they’re all taking turns playing with, trying on, and reading through the surprise finds. After reading a diary entry written in Latin, the group unknowingly summons a pain-worshipping undead family to hunt them down.
While the basement itself is creepy, everything in it appears haunted; it’s what we find out about it later that makes you nearly saddened. The basement is a tool to see if people will transgress or not, each item singing its own siren song to whoever goes below. By choosing an item and interacting with it, the group members seal their fate, unbeknownst to them.
While I’d love to look around at every item attached to a gruesome fate, this basement gets filed under the “no looking, no touching” mantra.
8. The Black Phone (2021)
One of the more tragic basements on the list, this room was designed by a madman to withstand every type of escape attempt.
The Grabber, as he’s known, is a man that has been systematically abducting and murdering young boys. His latest pick-up is young Finney, who knows the names of every other boy taken. The basement is as bleak as you imagine, with an unplugged phone, a mattress on the floor, vast concrete walls, and a single open toilet. Finney begins to hear the phone ring and finds that even death can’t stop these kids from not only getting their revenge but also making sure not one more of their own falls into the hands of pure evil.
The Grabber makes the basement so oppressively hopeless that you admire the spirit and passion of the boys to make one final attempt to break free. This basement was home to the heartbreaking final moments of many young men. Barred windows, steel doors, combination locks, concrete walls, and a guard dog all stand in the way of freedom. This basement didn’t arrive this way; it was carefully crafted by a man who had thought of all the desperate angles his prey would take to get away and closed every option.
Perhaps in the sequel slated to be released this year, we will discover more about how the devastating dungeon was conceived.
7. We Are Still Here (2015)
The basement, hotter than hell, has made the list.
Anne and Paul have suffered a tragic loss, their son, Bobby, and are looking to make a fresh start in a new home in a sleepy town in New England. Their arrival comes with the sense there is a presence in the house believed to be the couple’s deceased son, but there are many more restless spirits in the house that have been seething for centuries. The house Paul and Anne have chosen belonged to the Dagmar family many years ago, who were supposedly run out of town for selling corpses and swindling townspeople.
In the present day, the basement is now a sauna, and no one can seem to figure out why. Only when you see the fiery embers of the Dagmar’s eyes do you realize they’re still burning, able to tear through flesh with their searing hands.
An already questionable-looking basement, old and beat up with a crumbling foundation, the lingering presence of the Dagmar family’s rage is palpably scalding, their insatiable lust for revenge dwelling below, but which couldn’t remain buried forever.
6. The Conjuring (2013)
The sound of creaking rope still sings in my mind, recalling the basement scenes of James Wan’s ever-popular Conjuring series, which is slated to wrap up this year.
As Lorraine Warren inches further towards understanding the malicious spirit haunting a family’s home, she takes a tumble straight to the basement, landing in a supernatural hotspot. Realizing she is not alone, we finally get a glimpse of the spirits of the tortured victims of the haunted home, as well as a full-on assault from the most terrifying ghosts occupying the house.
Bumping around in the darkness, fleeing a floating evil, the basement that started this film franchise burned plenty of memorable scenes in our minds, including the clap that shook audiences as hands playfully appeared from nowhere. Seal that basement back up.
5. IT (2017)
Though IT took Pennywise all over the map to torment children before he took them as a meal, Pennywise came home to Billy in his basement in chilling form: the image of his dead brother, Georgie.
Drawn down from bed to the pitch-black, flooded basement, Billy discovers his little brother is standing in the water, dressed like the day he disappeared, looking alone and frightened. At first, the talk is childlike, gentle, almost fearful. As Billy converses with his brother, the image of his brother, now trying to convince Billy to join him floating, grows angrier and angrier. Georgie’s face melts as we see Pennywise controlling this version of one of his victims.
Keep the lights on, and stay out of the basement unless you want to float, too.
4. Hell House LLC (2015)
The entirety of the Abaddon Hotel is an unsavory place even before it’s made up for Halloween night, but this old, abandoned hotel had a very important basement.
As the Hell House LLC crew jump into action to refurbish the old hotel, their investigating is brought to a halt when they reach the basement. Pentagons painted on the wall, old discarded bibles on the ground, and of course, three clown mannequins that could peel paint with their hideous façade. As tensions rise and the hotel comes alive, visions and apparitions manifest, mannequins seem to jump to life, frightening the crew and prompting some calls to quit the job.
The basement is essentially where we start the movie as throngs of screaming people try and push their way out from below, away from a devilish ritual. Turns out, The Abaddon Hotel with its namesake might have found the closest gate to hell.
3. X (2022)
Another film that began at the scene of the crime, X brought us straight down to the basement, demanding the sheriff take a look at something awful.
As we rewind towards the end of the story, Lorraine and others are trying to regroup when Howard sends her to get a flashlight down in the basement, proceeding to lock her inside. Below, we finally see what had the police so distraught: a dead, nude man’s body is hanging from the ceiling of the basement, discolored and violated. Breaking through the door with a hatchet, Lorraine has her fingers broken as a reward. Though Maxine releases Lorraine, she flees in a frenzy and is instantly shot as she exits the doorway by Howard from the side.
Never trust strangers, don’t go in strange basements, and look both ways before you cross, kids.
2. Don’t Breathe (2016)
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind, but blindness couldn’t get in the way of one man’s revenge for his losses.
Rocky, Alex, and Money are thieves locked in on a new, wealthy, vulnerable target. A blind veteran living alone, he supposedly has a small fortune hidden away after the loss of his daughter in a car accident caused by a wealthy young lady. Nordstrom, the homeowner, kills Money but realizes there are more thieves here. Checking his safe to find it empty, the terrified two survivors make their way down to the basement, never the best option. Below is more terrifying than we could imagine. I won’t spoil it in case you haven’t seen it, but it’s one of the more memorable endings to a modern. horror film.
Only one more basement is a more twisted family affair than this.
1. Barbarian (2022)
A Michigan property that looks completely average is anything but, nestled in a decaying suburb of Detroit.
The basement here doesn’t come into play until later in the film, but Tess and Keith, victims of circumstance, find themselves in a double-booked house. Agreeing to share the space, we face a gruesome death before the basement is revealed by the owner and sexual predator, AJ. When AJ arrives at the home, there are signs of occupants, even though his rental company denies this. Descending into the open basement door, he enters a secret space on the back wall, going deeper into the house. There he finds a bedridden man and videotapes, documenting kidnapping, rape, assault, incest and more.
AJ is horrified, even more so when the man kills himself, realizing the game is over. He then makes an even more terrifying discovery and realizes he’s not alone in that basement of despair and torment.
Heart-breaking and jaw-dropping, Barbarian easily takes the top spot in the basement of horrors.
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