In April, the streaming service Shudder released the horror film The Cellar. Have you watched a horror movie but still have a lot of questions? Then do not waste your time and read the detailed description, analysis and explanation of the plot and ending. Beware, there are spoilers in the text!
What is the movie “The Cellar” about
Kira Woods and her husband Brian move into a huge old house. The couple has two children – the youngest son Stephen and the eldest teenage daughter Ellie. And the main characters are sure that children will be better off far from the bustle of the city. Steven is excited about the move and dreams of turning his room into a real toy museum, while Ellie is angry because she had to leave all her friends.
In the new place, strange events begin to occur almost immediately. First, the house is full of the previous owner’s belongings – and Brian even discovers cryptic symbols. And secondly, in an incomprehensible way, the door leading to the damp and dark basement slams and locks after Ellie is inside. The girl is very scared, and her parents do not understand why they could not open the “broken” door for so long.
Then the situation begins to gain momentum. The point is that the kids have to stay at home alone as Kira and Brian have to go to town for work and have a work meeting to promote a new business on social media.
What happens next? Ellie tries to get Steven to bed early, but her brother instead shows his sister a goat skull found in a secret room. Inside, the guys discover a lot of old things. As well as mysterious carved symbols and a gramophone with a record. Ellie and Steven turn on the tape and the voice begins to monotonously read out an incomprehensible mathematical equation.
Then the lights go out in the house and the old building plunges into pitch darkness. Frightened, Ellie calls her mother and she asks her to check the fuses in the electrical panel in the basement. Kira and Ellie count the girl’s steps together as she descends. But the bottom line is that Ellie stops paying attention to the words of her mother and continues to count as if she is under hypnosis. Parents hurriedly return home and find that their daughter has disappeared without a trace.
What is shown next? Kira and Brian go to the police, but no trace of Ellie is found: the police are looking at surveillance footage in all public places. It turns out that Ellie was bullied by her peers at school and her life was rather difficult. In the meantime, Kira discovers that the steps in the basement are numbered – from 1 to 9. And it turns out that there are no tenth and subsequent steps on the stairs to the basement…
In the middle of the night, Kira begins to wander around the house, as she hears a woman’s voice from the bath. It seems that the stranger is just counting. The main character begins to wander around the house and looks into the basement. Then accidentally knocks Steven’s ball down – and hears how long it falls. It begins to seem to Kira that not nine steps lead down, but many, many more… In the darkness, she cannot understand how deep the descent into the basement has actually become.
Then Kira begins to carefully study the house she so thoughtlessly bought – and takes pictures. It turns out that the mysterious carved signs are the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and together they add up to the word “Leviathan” (in the Old Testament, this was the name of a huge sea monster that looked like a snake).
In addition, more and more strange things happen in the house. The abacus in Steven’s room starts to move on its own, and the boy goes into a trance and begins to count – just like Ellie did shortly before disappearing. Yes, and Kira herself, having gone to the basement, is locked up and feels the presence of either a monster, or an unknown disgusting creature. And her husband Brian saves her from the inevitable.
It turns out that the Woods couple bought the house for next to nothing – at an auction, the funds from which went to pay the medical bills of the former (and very elderly) mistress. Then it becomes known that even earlier the house belonged to the famous mathematician John Featherston, a colleague of the legendary physicist Erwin Schrödinger (the one with both a living and dead “cat”).
The point is that one day, in an incredible way, the entire Featherston family disappeared without a trace right from the house. And only his daughter survived.
Kira then shows the mathematics professor the discovered equation, and he explains to the woman that it is more related to alchemy. And in general looks like an unfinished spell. It turns out that a similar set of symbols was also found in Belgium – in a house in which an entire family also mysteriously disappeared without a trace.
Kira shares her findings with her husband, but Brian is furious. He does not believe in all the supernatural devilry – and breaks with a sledgehammer the last rung of the stairs leading to the basement. A strange vibration occurs in the house – the gramophone turns on again and the voice recording tries to lure Stephen into the basement. But the parents save the boy from evil in time.
Next, the Woods join forces: Kira goes to meet the daughter of a mathematician Featherston, and Brian looks for similar symbols on the Internet. Together, the spouses find out the following: the house they bought is actually the gate to another dimension, which is inhabited by the nightmarish demon Baphomet, who kidnaps (and possibly devours) people. And a long time ago, the brilliant mathematician Featherston, using his equation, opened a portal to a parallel world in order to make a deal with a demon: in exchange for curing his son, he agreed to turn the house into a devilish trap portal for new souls.
Meaning of the movie “The Cellar”
At the end of the horror movie The Conjuring: Descent to the Devil, this is what happens. In the end, we are shown that the demon still lures Stephen into the basement with the help of his toy. Parents rush to help their son, but the electricity goes out and the house is plunged into darkness again. Kira and Brian then discover the boy as he descends into an endless dark abyss.
At the end, Kira tries to save her son, but Brian also falls under the influence of demonic forces – he falls into a trance and begins to count. Then the monster itself appears – Baphomet. The games of cat and mouse and hide and seek begin, Kira eventually falls into the clutches of a monster, but by some miracle escapes from the demon and escapes from him to the basement.
In the finale, it turns out that the stairs down are indeed very, very long – almost endless. Kira descends to the mysterious door and learns the terrible truth: the house actually serves as a gate to Hell, in which dead people always go forward and count all their steps. In the crowd of the dead and captives of the demon, the main character tries to find her daughter, but pretty soon she starts to panic and seems to get lost herself.
Kira then notices a familiar leg tattoo on one of the demon Baphomet’s captives and discovers her daughter. With difficulty, she brings Ellie to her senses and drags after her. away from the damned hellish basement.
What is shown in the finale of the horror “The Conjuring: Descent to the Devil”? Well, it is important to understand that the creators of the horror film have no happy ending for the audience.
It seems that the danger has passed. The house lights up again, the family is reunited. Ellie comes to her senses – the girl seems to be fine. Brian and Stephen also seem quite pleased. Kira is sure that she must take her family as far away from the nightmare house as possible. She opens the front door… and sees an almost endless staircase leading up. Looks like a basement door.
And here is the main plot twist for you: the whole family falls into a trance and begins to count. And it turns out that Kira, Brian, Stephen and Ellie have become the next captives of Baphomet. And their house turned into a real demon trap.
It is difficult to call the plot of the horror film “The Conjuring: Descent to the Devil” intelligible or logical. But it can be assumed that those inhabitants of the house who do not delve into the essence of what is happening have a chance to escape from the evil demon devouring souls. But as soon as potential victims solve the riddle and learn the terrible truth, they find themselves in an endless loop.
Is there a part 2