John Carl Buechler is a name I became quite familiar with growing-up. If he wasn't creating the effects for the numerous low-budget flicks I watched he was taking a turn behind the camera and Cellar Dweller is proof of how erratic his output is. Made the same year he'd helm the seventh Friday the 13th movie, Buechler and screenwriter Don Mancini (credited as "Kit Du Bois") were given the task by Empire Pictures honcho Charles Band to head to Italy and quickly throw together a monster movie. As with most Band efforts, I'm going to assume the prolific producer came up with the title and set the duo loose. The resulting flick, while suffering from its limited budget, is a dopey homage to old EC Comics with fairly decent creature effects, a bit of naked skin, and some chintzy gore.

Thirty years back cartoonist Colin Childress (Jeffrey Combs, Re-Animator) is working on his latest horror comic book and ends up giving his monster creation, a hulking, fur covered best with a pentagram carved in its chest, life after reading a passage from a spell book. Soon realizing his mistake, Childress sets fire to his illustrated pages burning himself, and the creature, alive. It's an enjoyable kick-off to the proceedings and has the added bonus of the presence of cult favourite Combs who I'm sure, much like his co-star Yvonne De Carlo, only had to show-up for about a day's worth of work.

Fast-forward to present day and Childress' home has been converted into the Throckmorton Institute for the Arts. It's here, on a dark and stormy night (of course!), that aspiring artist Whitney (Debrah Mullowney) arrives with a curious interest in Childress' work and a desire to resurrect his Tales from the Crypt-like comic series. This gets under the skin of the school's bitchy head mistress Mrs. Briggs (De Carlo) but soon Whitney's moving into his old digs in the basement and learning from his work. This eventually leads to our gigantic beastie being brought back to life and it proceeds to spend the rest of the flick's running time knocking off the cast members in various ways - all of which are announced by Buechler by having its shadow loom up behind them.

Shot using minimal locations and actors, Cellar Dweller really isn't a very good movie. It's already brief 78 minutes is padded with various extended shots of Whitney hastily sketching out comic panels leading up to the kills, there's a few pointless scenes where her fellow students show off their poor art and acting skills, and it tends to feel like Mancini wasn't sure how to end things considering there's about three different twist endings on hand. Buechler keeps things as basic as possible behind the camera but he also designed the title creature and even though its facial movements are a bit limited, the animatronic creation could've been a lot worse - remember he also concocted the crappy looking Ghoulies. It was also pretty fun to check out all the posters for other Empire films posted on the wall behind Whitney's drawing board.

Apart from Combs nobody here really makes much of an impression but the cast also handles the material fine. Mullowney is merely "okay" as the heroine and De Carlo (of "The Munsters" fame) is snappy enough in her limited screen time. Even Brian Robbins, making this during a break from his reoccurring sitcom role on "Head of the Class", as Whitney's love interest Phillip is pleasant. I guess what I'm trying to say is that nobody was taking this seriously and it shows.

After doing this Buechler has kept busy in the effects game and has been planning on remaking his directorial debut (1986's Troll) sometime in the next few years. Mancini went on to pen all of the Child's Play movies and, he too, is set to be involved in the original's upcoming remake. The Cellar Dweller has not been heard from since. (Chris Hartley, 8/16/10)

Directed By: John Carl Buechler.
Written By: Kit Du Bois (Don Mancini).

Starring: Debrah Mullowney, Brian Robbins, Vince Edwards, Cheryl-Ann Wilson.