In rural Lancashire in the north west of England, two elderly sisters played by Beryl Reid and Flora Robson have kept their younger brother locked up in the cellar for thirty years and as a result he has been driven right out of his mind. He escapes and starts killing soldiers from a nearby army camp in frenzied attacks.

"The Beast In The Cellar" is a "Tigon" produced shocker that went out as a double bill with the company's own "Blood On Satan's Claw" (Dir: Piers Haggard). Although most critics have condemned it, one called it an "Idiotically boring farrago", it isn't really that bad although there is quite a lot of laughably melodramatic chit chat between the leading ladies and the low budget does show at times. However, the success of this film is through the lighting of Harry Waxman and Desmond Dickinson (one of my favoured cinematographers) who use the rural setting to the full and there is one set up at the end which stands out in the memory long after the movie is over. The sequence in which the beast is seen creeping up a staircase in the middle of the night during a thunderstorm rather recalls the earlier horror movies of the 1930's through it's sinister use of shadow.

This transcends the basic story which is by no means bad, but it would of worked much better as a short story segment in a portmanteau horror film.