Carl Roberts 
“Dark, chilling, disturbing and totally engrossing, The Man In My Basement is a great double-hander from Corey Hawkins and Willem Dafoe.”
The Man In My Basement is a horror-thriller film. It is directed and co-written by Nadia Latif in her feature directorial debut. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Walter Mosley, who co-wrote the screenplay. Starring Corey Hawkins and Willem Dafoe, the film is chillingly disturbing almost throughout. Additionally, starring Anna Diop and Tamara Lawrance, the film does more than enough to keep us guessing. But is the film worth going to the cinema for, or should it be left in the dark?
PREMISE
Charles Blakey, an African American man living in Sag Harbor, is stuck in a rut, out of luck, and about to lose his ancestral home when a peculiar white businessman with a European accent offers to rent his basement for the summer.
THOUGHTS
The film is genuinely creepy and disturbing, almost from the start. The mystery starts early when Dafoe makes his first appearance, causing the audience to begin to wonder what is going on. By the midway point, we are completely creeped out as the story starts to reveal itself. By the climax, we don’t have all the answers we expect, leaving us to make our own minds up as to what has really occurred, and what the film is all about. However, we are disturbed by what we have seen, leaving a lasting impression on us as we leave the cinema. Some frightening and disturbing imagery assaults our senses, accompanied by jump scares.
COREY HAWKINS
Corey Hawkins plays Charles Blakey. From the start, we dislike Charles intensely. Despite his financial woes and mounting problems, he comes across as mean, nasty and vindictive. Even when Anniston Bennet first arrives, he is openly hostile. As his problems mount up even further, he reluctantly accepts Bennet’s offer to earn the money he so desperately needs. As the intense battle of wills increases, Charles starts to mellow, seeing horrifying visions and suppressed memories come to the surface. Charles even turns the tables on Bennet, subjecting him to mental torture that leads to some disturbing consequences. Hawkins plays Charles superbly, making us hate him one moment, pitying him the next, before we start to revile him completely.
WILLEM DAFOE
Willem Dafoe plays Anniston Bennet. There are not enough words to describe what a gifted and superb actor Dafoe is. I think we’ve actually run out of words to describe what a talent he really is. He once again proves it here in a more restrained performance than we think. Is he the villain? Is he an innocent? What are his motivations, and why is he doing what he’s doing inside Charles’s basement? We never really learn the answers to these questions, apart from one: he isn’t innocent. But then again, neither is Charles. While Charles’ actions are revolting at times, it is Bennet’s that we don’t see that are worse. We don’t see much of Bennet’s past; we only hear it. But that is enough to turn us off to his character. Bennet, at first, appears kindly and unassuming, but his smile hides a truth that we can only guess at.
Bennet spends almost all of the film locked inside a cage he has built inside Charles’s basement. This is his own choice. He spends his time locked away, reading, only asking for his meals to be delivered to him by Charles three times a day. But why has he isolated himself like this? What is he so afraid of? Willem Dafoe gives a remarkably human side to someone whose inner darkness is immeasurable. The way he attempts to justify his past actions can be considered in two ways: either he did what he needed to do, to sacrifice one life to save others. Or he is nothing but a cold-blooded murderer. It is up to the audience to decide.
VERDICT
Dark, chilling, disturbing and totally engrossing, The Man In My Basement is a great double-hander from Corey Hawkins and Willem Dafoe. The rapport the pair have throughout is weirdly engaging, despite the evil and despicable nature of them both. With half of the film set inside the basement and the rest outside, the film occasionally adopts a claustrophobic nature. While the supporting characters lend their weight to proceedings, this is Hawkins and Dafoe’s film entirely. The pair play jailer and prisoner for almost the entire runtime of the film, lending it a sadistic nature that we wouldn’t expect. And it is disturbing.
The Man In My Basement is a disturbingly superb horror thriller. It features an outstanding and terrifying performance from both Hawkins and Dafoe. The film grips you at every turn before building to a shattering climax. Set entirely in Sag Harbor (which appears periodically, the rest of the film was shot in Cardiff, Wales), it raises the tension that builds throughout, never allowing us to feel comfortable. With the imagery of a lake and the woods haunting our imagination throughout, it leaves us shaking in our seats. This exposes the worst of human nature, something we want to turn away from. This is a top-notch horror thriller that deserves to be on the highest shelf, and not languishing in the basement.
The Man In My Basement opens in cinemas on September 12th.
Introducing Carl! As the News Editor at Future of the Force, Carl has been an invaluable member of our team since early 2016. His expertise and dedication have made him an integral part of our editorial staff. Beyond his professional role, Carl is a fervent supporter of Liverpool F.C. and an avid follower of pop culture. He has a deep passion for Halloween, Friday the 13th, and the iconic movie franchises Star Wars and Star Trek.
He can be found either at his neighborhood cinema, enjoying the latest releases on the big screen, or at home streaming the newest blockbuster movies.
