The Creepiest Basements in Highly-Rated Horror Movies

Basements have become a sort of shorthand for creepy areas in movies. It may be because few people ever go into their basements except to store things, and basements tend to be dry, dark, and devoid of life. That leaves them free to function as very creepy backdrops. If you’re looking to watch a movie with a creepy basement, consider these horror movies with creepy basements, all of which have over an 8.0 rating on IMDB.

The Exorcist – 8.0 IMDB, 0.4 Basement Evil

Of all the movies on this list, this is the one with the least scary basement. The Exorcist doesn’t largely take place in a basement, but there is a moment where the basement get its creepy chance to shine. Toward the beginning, the 12-year-old protagonist of the movie discovers an old Ouija board in the basement, which sets off many of the events of the movie.

Parasite – 8.6 IMDB, 2.2 Basement Evil

In this Oscar award winning movie, a South Korean basement apartment, or banjiha, sets the stage for many of the scenes. Though the banjiha isn’t the cause of the horrors of the movie, the dim living conditions the main family has to struggle through are indicative of many horrors that South Koreans struggle through every day — horrors that the movie’s director intended to spotlight.

Stranger Things – 8.8 IMDB, 5.0 Basement Evil

There are all sorts of terrifying and heartwarming moments in Stranger Things. The series’ decision not to stick to either the horror genre or the drama genre has allowed it to weave its way through both, which is probably a major reason that it has such a high IMDB rating. Every night, one of the characters calls another from his pillow fort in the basement.

Psycho – 8.5 IMDB, 6.6 Basement Evil

There are a variety of ultra-horrifying moments in this movie — it all but invented the slasher genre of horror movies. One of the scariest moments, however, happens in the basement. The main character enters the underground fruit cellar to discover that Norman Bates has been keeping the mummified corpse of his mother around for years.

The Silence of the Lambs – 8.6 IMDB, 10 Basement Evil

Possibly the most evil use of a basement is in the movie The Silence of the Lambs. That’s because the basement plays into what makes the serial killer antagonist so scary. Buffalo Bill’s basement includes a dry well, which is where he traps women and starves them so he can skin them later. The movie offers both a high IMDB rating and an ultra-scary basement.

Conclusion

The basement has long been seen as a terrifying place by people watching horror and drama movies alike. These basements tend to dish up some horrors that are a little scarier than most, but even setting a movie scene in a basement can create a pretty scary sequence. From the relatively tame basement scene of The Exorcist to the jaw-dropping horrors in The Silence of the Lambs, there are basements all over cinema that serve up some scary sights.