Cellar Door (2024) Review: Despite the Subversive Third Act, This Would-Be Psychological Thriller Misses the Mark

The biggest question about Cellar Door 2024 Afdah is: what is behind the titular locked door? According to the enigmatic Emmett Claiborne (Laurence Fishburne), a real estate agent introduces John (Scott Speedman) and Sera (Jordana Brewster), who are looking to start a new life in the suburbs, to an attractive opportunity that they turn down. They are allowed to stay in his McMansion as long as they meet the simple condition that they are never allowed to open the cellar door.

Before the meeting with Emmett even takes place, the film shows us John and Sera's predicament from the beginning. They are from Portland, happily married, and looking forward to the birth of their first child. Both of them have great jobs; John works for an architecture firm and Sera teaches mathematics. But when Sera experiences an unfortunate miscarriage, their hearts are shattered and their blissful life comes to an end. Meeting Emmett seems like fate, not to mention that it's the perfect time for John and Sera to make a fresh start.

While everything is fine at first, her decision to move into Emmett's McMansion later proves to be ill-fated. This is especially true since John has been accused of sexual harassment by his coworker and ex-girlfriend Alyssa (Addison Timlin) and has been suspended from his job until further notice. When Selah decides to return to being a math teacher, John hides from her what is going on at work. The consequences soon spin out of control, putting their relationship at risk.

Cellar Door clocks in at over 90 minutes, but it feels too long, obviously due to a bloated script by Sam Scott and Lori Evans Taylor, which focuses more on John and Selah's marital problems than the mystery of the Cellar Dollar. Not without moments when one of them, especially John, becomes increasingly curious and wants to know what is behind the cellar door. But I can't shake the feeling that it is rather an afterthought, and the so-called thriller aspects of this film are rather unreliable.

The problem here is that the film lingers for too long before it gets to the point, and even more so, misses some opportunities in the process. Case in point: The sexual harassment subplot revolving around John and Alyssa and their past relationship could be used to spice up the story, but the result is disappointingly poor in its execution.
This movie also requires you to suspend disbelief. No, make this a big suspension of disbelief. You have to accept the fact that a highly educated couple like John and Sera would have little hesitation in staying in a big place like Emmett's McMansion for seemingly free, but mind you, that's not the case, even if only temporarily. Stream this thriller on Afdah live.