The Forgotten (1973)

User Rating:

4.8/10   

Director:

S.F. Brownrigg

Writer:

Tim Pope (writer)

Release Date:

September 1973 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

The Day The Insane Took Over The Asylum!

Plot:

A young psychiatric nurse goes to work at a lonesome asylum following a murder. There, she experiences varying degrees of torment from the patients.

Plot Keywords:

Patient | Nurse | Asylum | Psychiatric Nurse | Murder

Cast

Bill McGhee	...	Sam (as William Bill McGhee)
Jessie Lee Fulton	...	Jane St. Claire
Robert Dracup	...	Ray Daniels
Harryette Warren	...	Jennifer D.
Michael Harvey	...	Dr. Stephens
Jessie Kirby	...	Danny
Hugh Feagin	...	Sergeant Jaffee
Betty Chandler	...	Allyson King
Camilla Carr	...	Harriet
Gene Ross	...	Judge Oliver W. Cameron
Annabelle Weenick	...	Dr. Geraldine S. Masters (as Anne MacAdams)
Rosie Holotik	...	Nurse Charlotte Beale
Rhea MacAdams	...	Mrs. Callingham

Also Known As:

Death Ward #13 (USA)
Don't Go in the Basement (UK) (video box title)
Don't Look in the Basement! (USA) (reissue title)
De sinnssykes redselshus (Norway) (video box title) [no]
Non guardare in cantina (Italy) [it]

Runtime:

89 min | Australia:92 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:R | Iceland:(Banned) | Norway:18 (video premiere) | UK:X (1977) | USA:R | UK:15 (DVD rating)

Filming Locations:

Tehuacana, Texas, USA

Company:

Camera 2 Productions

Trivia:

The UK cinema version was cut by the BBFC to remove a closeup shot of an axe blow to a woman's body and the film later found itself on the banned list of video nasties. The cut version was released on the UK HHO label in 2005 and the full uncut version (now rated 15) was released on the Stax label later the same year.

Quotes:

Nurse Charlotte Beale: Do you get out much, Mrs. Callingham?
Mrs. Callingham: You're the one who needs to get out!

Movie Connections:

Featured in Dusk to Dawn Drive-In Trash-o-Rama Show Vol. 3 (1996) (V)

Surprisingly Good!

Some can call it cheap, others can call it stupid and some may even call it pointless, but these are all adjectives once attributed to classics such as Night of the Living Dead, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Last House on the Left. As the latter was also distributed by Hallmark, they obliged to reproduced the same tag line here - `To avoid fainting keep repeating: ‘It's only a movie…only a movie…only a movie'.'

Don't Look in the Basement tells the story of Charlotte Beale (heartstoppingly gorgeous Rosie Holotik and Playboy covergirl, April, 1972), a young nurse whose arrival at her new position coincides with a dramatic change within the Stephen's Sanatarium for the mentally insane. The unusual treatment here involves allowing patients to roam free around the hospital, allowing them to express their repressed inhibitions to cure their madness. The patients are a truly frightening gathering. One girl shuffles around with a doll she believes is her baby and if you offend her you'll die; A chap believes himself to be a judge, constantly preaching courtroom jargon; A nymphomaniac wanting love from anyone who lunges at all men; An ex-Vietnam vet watches over the premises, assuring nobody escapes…etc. Soon, poor Charlotte realizes that all is not as it should be and '...a sense of unease creeps over her...' Will she solve the mystery of the Sanitarium before she too is driven insane?

If you allow yourself to get with the flow of this low budget horror film, then you might even see the twist in the tail. I won't spoil it for you here…