Basements don’t often get a lot of love, which is unfortunate. In horror movies, basements can range from being a generic creepy backdrop to being a horrifying scene with a lot of thought put into it. There are some basements in horror movies that really stand out, especially when positioned against basements that just seem to have a little bit of a scary vibe. Here are some of the most interesting and terrifying basements from horror movies.
A Quiet Place: Makeshift Soundproof Basement
The protagonists in A Quiet Place are hiding from a very unique type of monster that hunts using sound. When the family has a baby, they need a place where the baby can hide without potentially alerting these monsters, who could be anywhere at any time. The basement in the movie is a safe place where sound can’t escape — that is, until a pipe bursts, flooding the area with water and removing the soundproofing they rely on.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Sci-Fi Laboratory Basement
The Rocky Horror Picture Show is more about camp and over-the-top excitement than it is about horror; it’s one of the reasons this movie has become a cult classic over the years. However, that doesn’t mean it’s completely free of scares. In the basement, Dr. Frank-N-Furter keeps his laboratory, including the Medusa Transducer, which can turn people into statues. Clearly, this doctor had to do a lot of work on his basement to turn it into such an intriguing location.
Psycho: Fruit Cellar With a Secret
Of all the movies on this list, Psycho may have had the most significant impact on the world of film as a whole. Many of the filmmaking concepts that Psycho invented or popularized are still in use today. One of the most terrifying scenes in the whole movie occurs when the main character takes a trip into Norman Bates’ underground fruit cellar. Though having a fruit cellar is itself a relatively significant undertaking, what’s even more terrifying is the fact that she discovers Norman Bates’ mother’s mummified corpse.
Get Out: Consciousness-Transporting Laboratory Basement
One of the reasons that Get Out is so terrifying is because it crafts a scene out of well-known tropes, then subverts those tropes to create something horrifying. The home that most of Get Out is set in looks very austere from the outside. However, when you take a trip into the basement, you realize that the horrific intricacies of the house extend into the basement as well. This basement functions as a laboratory for transporting consciousness, and it sends the main character to the Sunken Place.
The Silence of the Lambs: Serial Killer Basement
There are some absolutely terrifying basements on this list, but the basement from The Silence of the Lambs may be the scariest of them all. That’s because one of the serial killers in the movie utilizes his basement as a place for torture and murder. In Buffalo Bill’s basement is a dry well, which is where the serial killer traps women to starve them before he kills and skins them. The horrors of the basement are almost as significant as the intricacies required to maintain the dry well.
Conclusion
Basements can be horrifying just by their very nature. Because basements are typically dimly-lit and not well-trafficked, they can be a scary scene, especially when used as a backdrop for something else terrifying. That’s why these intricate basements are even more scary to many people than a scary scene that just happens to take place in a basement. These scary scenes require the intricate fascinations of the basement in which they take place, and that can make them even scarier. Consider these scary basements for maximum investment in the horror story you’re watching.