The Girl in the Basement
Like most teenagers, Sarah (Stefanie Scott) wants to do the things she wants to do. But that's hard to do when your father is as strict and domineering as her father Don (Judd Nelson) is. Defying him, she slips out of the house to meet her boyfriend Chris (Jake Etheridge) to go to a party together. However, her father is waiting for her when she returns and he is angry. One day he overhears Sarah talking to her mother Irene (Joely Fisher) and her sister Amy (Emily Topper) about how she plans to leave as soon as she turns 18, get out from under her father's controlling thumb. Don realizes he needs to act fast.
In basement, hidden behind a bookcase, is an old bomb shelter built by a previous owner. While Amy is off at college and Irene at the store, he tricks Sarah into going down to the basement under the pretext of helping him to carry something. She is surprised to see the bomb shelter but enters it nonetheless - big mistake. Don locks her in immediately and life as she has known it is now over.
The Girl in the Basement is based on a real life horror story that happened in Germany. Josef Fritzl locked up his daughter Elisabeth, whom he had been molesting since about the age of 11, and held her hostage for 24 years. She bore him 7 children, one of whom died, three she raised in the basement, and 3 he "found" on the doorstep, claiming Elisabeth had left them there. The movie is pretty accurate on the basic details and it is horrifying. Judd Nelson plays a darker character than any I've ever seen him play. The really horrifying thing is that this is probably far from being an isolated incident.
The movie itself will keep you watching with horrified wonder, asking yourself how low can he go? The answer is pretty low. It was once a Lifetime movie and as such you can still see the cuts for the commercial breaks. I'll give this film 3.5 Stars.
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