PLOT SUMMARY: After a family moves into a new home, the daughter goes missing in a cellar during a blackout. That is when the family learns a dark secret about the house.
When we first go and look at houses, what is the first thing we take into account? The price for sure. We are all searching for a good bargain, aren't we?
The next would be the rooms, how big or small they are and if they suit our purpose. And then perhaps next would be whether the wiring and plumbing is fine. Then maybe if there is a vermin problem, and if the house has a garden or not or a basement or an attic.
So when do potential buyers get around to asking if something terrible has happened in the house? A murder or a disappearance?
When you're getting a good bargain, would you even ask that question? As pointed out by many side characters in several horror movies, someone has always died in some house or another. So who cares, right?
Now, imagine you find a good house at a good bargain, what are the chances that you will inspect it properly before signing the papers? Pretty good right?
I mean, one would definitely notice the odd symbols on top of doors, right? Or on the entrance of the house?
If a character is going through the trouble of counting the steps to the cellar, wouldn't that person also notice weird symbols all around the house and the numbers on the stairs and the equation at the bottom of the stairs?
Well, someone would but not Keira when she moves into a new house with her family.
THE CELLAR Movie Plot
The movie begins with Keira driving her daughter Ellie to their new house. Ellie is the typical moody teenager who thinks it is cool to spout expletives and act like nothing is worth her time.
When she sees the house she yells out "Holy Shit!" Her mother thinks her daughter has found the house impressive. But of course, she should have lowered her expectations because Ellie goes on to point out how shoddy the house looks.
Keira grimaces, something she does throughout the movie. Inside, her husband Brian and Steven are already marvelling at the house and Keira is glad that at least one of her kids is behaving.
The next on the "tour of the house" list is the cellar. Ellie promptly goes in and the door suddenly slams behind her. She is possibly claustrophobic because she begins to scream to be let out. The door of course doesn't open. The house has wasted no time in selecting its first victim. She's a girl first and foremost, not that young of age as it would have preferred but, at least she's a girl.
Brian tries to struggle with the door. It is obvious to everyone that there is key hanging right beside the door but no one sees it. Yet. Ultimately, five minutes later, Keira does notice it. Brian uses it and finally lets Ellie out. It seems this scene was important and not because it has to be established to there is something evil in the cellar. Instead, it hints at the fact that the family is that oblivious to things around the house. They didn't see the big shiny key right next to the door. So obviously they didn't see the carved symbols around the house, nor the carving of Solve et Coagula on the doorway.
Ellie gets pissed off and says she won't stay in the house. The next second she's in her room, setting it up. This shows that Ellie is really not committed to anything she says.
Life goes on for the family as normal. Brian and Keira work together. They do something about setting up ad campaigns. Keira is the one who seems to be in charge and changing the colors of bracelets on the models.
One night, while the parents are working, Ellie is babysitting Steven and bored. They listen to the gramophone and then hear weird sounds.
Later, after Steven is put to bed and Ellie is roaming about, the lights go off. Ellie's phobia kicks in and she calls her mother. Keira doesn't care how important the meeting is. She always takes her children's call while Brian watches on impatiently.
When Keira learns the lights have gone off and Ellie wants to leave, she reminds her that she has to be there for her brother. Ellie sighs and decides to buck up for her brother. Keira promises to be there for her Ellie as she finds the fuse box.
Ellie has to go down the cellar and Keira tells her it is only ten steps and her fear will dissipate if she counts each step as she goes down. She counts each steps and when she reaches number ten, Keira tells her she's going to find the box in front of her.
But Ellie has just seen something astounding and to Keira's surprise, Ellie keeps counting the stairs. Her voice also sounds different.
Keira rushes home with Brian and they search the whole house for Ellie but can't find her. They reach the cellar and search but still can't find her. The police, and Brian too to some extent, think that Ellie has run away.
The police inform her that Ellie was being bullied on social media although she did give back as much as she got. Keira feels horrible that she didn't know about her daughter's bullying issues.
When later she checks her social media page, she finds pictures of her daughters tattoo on her ankle. Keira is surprised she didn't even know about that.
In the meantime, Keira also keeps forgetting to pick up Steven as she's busy stapling her daughter's photo under lost dogs.
Brian doesn't want to help for some reason and finds it conveniently shrug and say that his daughter simply ran away. She was a moody brat anyway.
Keira also doesn't look too heartbroken about this incident but appears plenty distracted. Finally she notices the lettering on the doorway: Solve et Coagula and rushes off to search online. Her search leads her to some serpent of the abyss.
She then roams around the house and sees a portrait of the former owner who is holding up two fingers. She also (finally) notices the symbols on the doorway although she hasn't put it all together yet. That she leaves it to her assistant to do during work.
Her assistant manages to collect all the information in a matter of minutes and relays it to Keira. The lettering is in Hebrew. Individually the symbols mean nothing but together they form meaning.
Steven later tells Keira that Ellie and he were playing the gramophone. She plays it too and it is the former owner's voice counting numbers.
Steven, who is in another room, begins counting with him and heads to a door beyond which there is nothing but darkness.
Keira hears him and puts an end to the sound just in time. Steven doesn't remember being a zombie for a few seconds.
Keira conducts a search in the cellar and accidentally kicks a ball Steven was playing with earlier. She expects the ball to stop after ten steps but when she hears in bouncing on, she grows concerned and turns on the light. The ball is gone and there are not extra steps. Did she consider that perhaps the stairs appear only in the dark?
The next step is to convince Brian that something black magicky is going on in the house. He scoffs, thinks Keira is being desperate but then is intrigued by the symbols too.
The police can't find or can't be bothered to trace Ellie's phone. This case isn't important to them because, in their mind, they have solved the case already: Ellie was being bullied, and she couldn't take it anymore and ran away even though it is clear she had no problems at home. But according to the police that is what moody teenagers do. Case solved.
So of course it is up to Keira to press on with the investigation all by herself. This time Brian finally manages to help. He figures out the serpent of the abyss is just a distraction. The real problem they must deal with is the Baphomet. The symbols around the house all have triangles under them which when put together, forms a pentagon.
Keira tracks down the former owner's daughter who has never spoken a word in years. Keira manages to get her to speak when she tells her that Ellie is missing. She tells her that her father who was a mathematician and physicist managed to find a way to summon the demon because he believed there to be a different dimension. The owner was never found and is believed to be alive in another dimension. Several cases in other countries have also taken place where people have gone missing and the symbols are left in their houses.
The woman tells Keira that it isn’t the cellar that is an evil place. It is the whole house. Time to change the title of the movie? Not only "the cellar"?
THE CELLAR Ending Explained with Spoilers!
Meanwhile, Steven hears noises and is once again drawn to the dark closet where he sees Ellie. She drops her phone before returning to another dimension. This happens when Brian tries to use the hammer on the equation at the bottom of the stairs. The family does not try it again.
Soon enough, Steven is lured to the other evil dimension and he begins counting. Keira asks Brian for help but finds him later in another room counting as well.
Keira finds herself face to face with the Baphomet and she runs around the house until she manages to take the stairs of the cellar.
She finds herself in another dimension with really tacky sky and wasteland effects. People are walking in lines, counting. Some of them are in their thousands showing how long since people have been trapped there.
Keira is almost in despair because just how is she going to find her daughter in this crowd? Luckily she spots the tattoo and grabs her daughter and brings her back to the house.
Ellie is saved and although has a lot of dust on her, is back to speaking coherently, as are Brian and Steven.
Keira decides to run out of the house and opens the door only to see a long staircase.
Oh no! She had never escaped the other dimension but is trapped in it. At least she has a house, unlike the others. Her family begins to count immediately. Keira takes her time to get over her shock before she joins in the counting too.
The end.
The movie had the potential to be genuinely thrilling and certainly, the first part of the movie is attention-grabbing. Sadly, that's how long your attention will last. The second act goes downhill as quickly as the ball that rolls down the stairs.
The effects are disappointing and the ending is as clichéd as it can be.
Scare Scale: 2.5/5
Check out this movie on Amazon Prime Video
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