Don't Look In The Basement (aka The Forgotten) - dir. SF Brownrigg (1973) - This one is set in a sanitorium somewhere in America, and the tone is set within the first 10 minutes as two doctors are bumped off in gruesome fashion. Following this, a new nurse joins the staff, and we get to know more about the inmates. There's the soldier who seems to be always on manoeuvres, a judge who who passes judgment on both patients and staff, a patient who mothers a baby doll, and a would-be nymphomaniac who thrusts her attentions on any passing male. There's further killings/mutilations afoot as the story progresses, and the environment seems to get to the staff, who lose their nerve/minds within the last 15 minutes. The last moments have the patients violently turning on the head nurse, whilst the new nurse gets away into the night, never to return...
Although this is by and large low-budget exploitation fare, the tone set by this film is downbeat and there is a sense of claustrophobia as the action never leaves the sanitorium. Shot on cheap 16mm stock, and lumbered with some rather poor dubbing (the film wasn't shot with sound), the style is pretty rough and ready, and visually the film has a stark, garish feel about it. In general, the acting does leave something to be desired at times, with a couple of actors in particular mugging away endlessly. The characterisations leave something to be desired as well - there's a few stereoypes at work here - though it's notable that the one sympathetic patient in the film happens to be black (shades of "Night Of The Living Dead").
This film played the grindhouse and drive-in circuit in the States, and, perhaps surprisingly, received a (cut) UK X certificate release in 1977. It later appeared on uncertificated video uncut, and ended up on the infamous DPP 72 list (it finally received a UK DVD release in 2005). This film has been criticised for purportedly depicting people suffering from mental illness in a negative light, and it's true that there's not much sensitivity on show here in that respect. However, there's a bleakness about it which marks it out as being different from your average splatter fare, and there's no resolution to proceedings in the final reel - pretty much everyone dies, and the black character is left alone to contemplate his situation at the end.
There's not much known about Brownrigg - he made 4 more films (including the 1974 effort "Scum Of The Earth"), and then pretty much disappeared without trace - an article about him in an 80's issue of "Shock Xpress" offers little in the way of info. I'll have to track down Brownrigg's other films to see whether there's a thematic consistency within his efforts, but on the basis of this film, I reckon that Brownrigg was doing something a little different within the world of 70's exploitation.
