Cellar Dweller (1988)

A mysterious monster haunts a school for artists.
Starring:  Debrah Farentino, Yvonne DeCarlo, Pamela Bellwood, Brian Robbins

Link to IMDB

In the prologue we see comic book writer Colin Childress working on his newest story. When he accidentally awakens demonic forces from an evil grimoire, the monster he created with ink and paper becomes a reality! Childress is able to destroy it by burning his art, but he also gets himself trapped in the blaze and dies.

Whitney

Thirty years later, and Childress' house has been turned into a small art academy for unconventional artists. Arriving to enroll is Whitney, a young woman that is inspired by Childress' old Cellar Dweller comics. She's eager to create her own horror series and wants to revive the forgotten works of her idol. The other students are a handful of eccentric painters and writers; Lisa, Philip and a past rival of Whitney's named Amanda.
All these characters are cliches, doing nothing but shuffling around in front of the camera, having pointless conversations and being goofballs. Whitney's the only person that feels real and is interesting, and luckily she gets the story going.
She heads down into the off-limits cellar and finds Childress' office full of all his belongings that survived the fire, including that spooky grimoire that we've seen before. She decides to work in the old office, inspired by the atmosphere of drawing in the same room that Childress died in.
This isn't a very long movie, but it still takes 30 minutes before the predictable scenario finally gets into motion...


Whitney starts drawing her own horror comic, and the beast from the past comes creeping around again. Whitney is annoyed by her rival, Amanda, so she draws her being killed by a monster, not realizing that the monster truly exists and it's going to act out everything she draws!
Wow, maybe things will get exciting now? Nope...
No one seems to be aware of the murder or the creature itself, so daily life continues at the school. At least Whitney really enjoys drawing people getting killed, so the monster always has a new murder to commit, but all these bloody deaths feel disconnected from everything else in the movie.
No one is afraid, no one notices people missing, and nothing happens to create tension or suspense!
It doesn't make any sense! How can this crazy premise be made to feel so utterly pointless?

"Aren't you a little old for comic books?" - Phillip

It's not until the last 15 minutes that Whitney starts to realize something terrible has been happening, and that the beast from her art needs to be stopped. The evil comic even seems to be drawing itself now, so there goes the one plot detail that still made sense!!
How can Whitney kill something as powerful as her own imagination!? Oh, wait, we already know how it will end because we watched the prologue... But comic books love a good twist!

This really feels like a bad episode of an anthology show, like Tales from the Crypt, and it actually would have worked better in that half-hour format because the pointless characters and subplots about art school could have been removed.
It's not all terrible, though. The monster is a rather impressive work of animatronics, and there are a few nice gore moments. Even the boring scenes of the students have some absurd charm to them, but they just don't fit into the creepy paranormal vibe that the movie is aiming for.
Overall, the missed potential makes it feel like a rather clueless movie.

Be sure not to miss:
- Is that a poster for Troll I see? (From the same director.)
- The old "slip on a banana peel" gag... Is that the best they could come up with?
- Jeffrey Combs plays Colin Childress, but unfortunately he's only in the prologue.

Internet review:
"It kinda bums me out." - D.Ceased

Should I watch it?
It's mostly unexceptional. Take it or leave it.

Where can I find it?
Here on YouTube

Cellar Dweller gets...