When Rudy goes to her friends house for a 'girls night in' they both end up passing out drunk.
She wakes up in a wooden crate, in a basement, as the prisoner of a socially awkward man, named Herman.
All Herman wants to do is keep her happy in her box, but sometimes she says mean things to Herman, or won't co-operate with him, and when she upsets Herman, she makes him do bad things...
The movies prologue sees Herman's previous obsession escaping, and her subsequent murder. I get that they wanted to give the movie a dramatic lead-in but later, when Rudy realises she is not the first woman that Herman has 'kept', it's a big thing for her, and it's lacking some of its punch for us as we already know. Another small thing is that his previous victim was blonde, whereas Rudy is a redhead... To me, I'd have liked to have seen Herman always kidnap a similar looking woman, but again, it's a minor gripe.
After the prologue, the movie wastes no time interdicting out characters, we see the girls already drunk, then we see Herman go into the house where they are passed out. Ordinarily, I like to see a little more character setup than this, but here I didn't find it necessary; we are about to spend the best part of an hour and a half watching Rudy held captive in a box; it isn't a situation that requires much setup to be sympathetic, and any clues as to how she may act or react may well have taken away from the situation.
Herman is a brilliantly written sick little fuck, who seems (as far as he is able to) to love the women he captures... Taking advice form a store clerk on "what girls like", buying boxes and boxes of chocolate cake mix after Rudy says that she likes it, and so on. He even saves her nail clippings and the contents of her chamber pot (sorted into liquids and solids) because he doesn't want to part with any of her. You'll also see in Herman, more than a shade of the abusive partner; when he loses his temper with Rudy, his horrible actions are prefaced by words like "you've made me angry, what happens next is your fault".
Rudy is an intelligent woman, who keeps her cool and (baring the occasional slips when it all gets too much for her) does everything right. Usually in these kinds of things, the prisoner seems to go out of her way to belittle and enrage her captor, leaving the viewer to scream "just play along and wait for an opportunity you idiot!!!" Whereas here, Rudy has the presence of mind to repeatedly try exactly that.
The acting isn't great, and parts of the film look a bit cheap, but overall it's a solid enough affair; the only real complaint I have is the ease with witch Herman gets away with kidnapping and occasional murder, in the open, often in broad daylight. Also I have no idea why this film is called The Cellar Door - if Rudy were held loose in the cellar, it would make sense, as the door would be the unstick she had to overcome, but she's kept in a crate... As far as I know the cellar door isn't even locked! A small thing, but it bugged me.
It's not a perfect film, but I thoroughly enjoyed it, and would recommend it.
I may check this one out. I like how you say the female victim isn't ridiculously stupid as they usually are. Will add it to my list.
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