A wealthy man offers to give his estate to a city-dwelling couple, looking for a fresh start. However, their dream home comes with one unusual condition: they must never open the cellar door. A film by Vaughn Stein, starring Jordana Brewster, Scott Speedman, Addison Timlin, Chris Conner, Katie O’Grady, Randy Sean Schulman, and Laurence Fishburne.

John Winter (Scott Speedman), an architect, and his wife Sera (Jordana Brewster), a mathematics professor, are a happy couple expecting their first child. Sera wants John to help her pick the right shade of yellow for their baby’s room. However, John mentions that it would be helpful if he knew whether they’re having a boy or a girl. Sera tells him they’ll know in a few months. Ultimately, they agree on Parisian Gold as the color for the nursery.

One day, while John is showing a client the Scarsdale house, Sera suddenly experiences an unusual, extreme abdominal pain. She attempts to call John several times, but her calls go straight to voicemail. Determined, Sera manages to get herself to the hospital. When John finally checks his phone, he finds multiple missed calls and messages from Sera. He races to the hospital and learns that Sera has had a miscarriage. Devastated, Sera becomes deeply saddened and mourns the loss of their baby. She confides in John that she can no longer bear to stay in this house, and he agrees they should relocate from the city to the suburbs of Portland, Oregon.

In vitro fertilization (IVF) is a widely recognized assisted reproductive technology (ART) designed to help individuals and couples conceive. It is a method where eggs are retrieved from a woman’s ovaries and fertilized with sperm in a laboratory setting, rather than inside the body. This technique allows for controlled conditions that can enhance the chances of successful fertilization and implantation. The term “in vitro” translates to “in glass,” indicating that the fertilization occurs outside the human body. IVF can be expensive, with costs averaging over $15,000 per cycle in the U.S., not including medications and related procedures12. Many insurance plans do not cover these treatments

This decision by Sera seems illogical, as she is a mathematician and should be well aware that they had spent all their savings on IVF. Yet she demands they relocate, even though moving away every time she suffers a miscarriage doesn’t make practical sense. However, for the sake of the narrative, it appears the couple must leave their apartment and move to the suburbs. Presumably the writers felt this relocation was necessary to drive the story forward, even if Sera’s motivations seem questionable from a logical standpoint.

Realtor Jeannie (Susannah Mars) has taken the couple to see dozens of houses over the past month, but they still haven’t found the perfect home. Everything is either completely out of their price range or a teardown. Jeannie suggests she could pull listings from the nearby town, but Sera insists this particular town feels right for her. Recognizing Sera’s fixation on finding a house in this specific town, Jeannie recommends they speak to her friend Emmett. Emmett has been in this town for a long time and, according to Jeannie, knows everybody and every property. She asserts that he’s the one who can help the couple find the home they’re looking for.

As they arrive at Emmett’s grandiose estate, John makes a jokingly sarcastic remark that it feels like the beginning of a horror movie. After all, they’re visiting a man they don’t even know, with a big, scary house in the middle of nowhere. John questions what could possibly go wrong in this scenario.

The couple meets Emmett Claymore (Laurence Fishburne), who is impressed by John’s architectural knowledge. Emmett promises to help them find the perfect home. He invites the couple to stay for dinner and overnight, believing he may have the ideal house for them and wanting to discuss it further in the morning.

The next morning, John and Sera find that Emmett has already left. On the dining table, they discover a letter from Emmett. In the letter, he explains that he wishes to give them his estate for free, stating that this house represents a past he wants to leave behind. However, Emmett has one simple condition: they must not open the cellar door. He warns that if they break this contract, the house will immediately revert to him. John becomes suspicious – a normal human reaction, as Emmett’s offer seems too good to be true. Why would he simply give them this estate for free? Something doesn’t feel quite right. But after Sera persuasively urges him to accept the unbelievable offer, John eventually signs the contract.

After settling into their new house, the couple hosts a housewarming party, inviting their colleagues and friends. John’s colleague Zac (Zachary Feiner) arrives with Alyssa (Addison Timlin), John’s coworker and ex-girlfriend. We learn that John had ended his relationship with Alyssa to marry Sera, but Alyssa still harbors feelings for him and hopes to win him back. Though John tells Alyssa to move on and reminds her that he’s married, it’s revealed that he has been secretly maintaining an affair with her throughout his marriage to Sera. Interestingly, none of the guests appears to be Sera’s friends. Doesn’t she have any?

That evening, Steven (Randy Sean Schulman) searches for John and finds him talking with Alyssa in the kitchen. He urgently asks John to come outside, as the guests have become unsettled by a stranger (Chris Conner) who has appeared in front of the estate holding a red jerrycan, presumably filled with gasoline. When Sera suggests calling the police, John insists he can handle the situation himself. John approaches the stranger and asks if he needs help. The man appears vacant, responding only with a cryptic warning: John must burn the house down before it’s too late. He adds that the house isn’t worth the price and will destroy John. Without another word, the stranger turns and quietly walks away.

The next morning, as Sera leaves the estate, she encounters a woman jogging nearby. The woman introduces herself as Kathryn Conrad (Katie O’Grady), who lives in the neighborhood with her husband. After welcoming Sera, Kathryn invites the couple over for drinks. Before Sera and Kathryn part ways, Kathryn adds that she hopes “they will stick around” – implying that previous residents didn’t stay long for mysterious reasons.

At work, John faces a serious allegation when Alyssa files a sexual harassment complaint against him. The company temporarily suspends him pending an internal investigation. John becomes frustrated and concerned, realizing it’s her word against his with no concrete evidence. Steven reminds him that he has an even bigger problem to worry about: how to explain his suspension to Sera.

While contemplating whether to tell Sera about the allegation and temporary suspension, John decides to keep it a secret after learning that Sera is returning to teach at the university. This gives him the opportunity to stay at home without arousing her suspicion. However, with nothing but time on his hands, John becomes fixated on the cellar door, wondering what lies inside that Emmett so desperately wants to keep hidden.

Instead of explaining his situation to Sera, John decides to contact Alyssa, despite Steve’s advice against it. He hopes to persuade her to drop the sexual harassment complaint. John becomes mysteriously obsessed with the cellar door, to the point where even Sera cannot change his mind. She points out that if he opens the cellar door, they will lose the estate and everything they have.

John eventually visits the local building department to request the estate’s floor plans. He is surprised to find that the department already has a set ready for him. The administrative clerk (Allen Nause) mentions that the copy was requested by the previous owner Paul MacManus last year, but he never picked it up. John becomes a bit confused and tells the clerk that he thought Emmett Claymore lived there. The clerk is startled and reveals that he hasn’t heard that name since the incident 25 years ago when Emmett’s wife and daughter mysteriously vanished. Rumors suggest they suddenly left in the middle of the night, and nobody has seen them since.

Directed by British filmmaker Vaughn Stein from a screenplay written by Sam Scott and Lori Evans Taylor, CELLAR DOOR is a slow-burn psychological thriller. It starts as a drama that eventually turns into a suspense thriller, but the pacing drags and the narrative feels muddled, without any clear direction or major twist to satisfy viewers by the end of its 93-minute runtime.

The film is filled with clichéd dialogue and uninteresting characters who make illogical decisions and actions, making it difficult to believe they are actually an architect and a mathematician.

At times, it gives the impression that something sinister is at play – perhaps their minds are being controlled by a supernatural force, compelling them to do terrible things or make poor choices again and again. However, it turns out there is supposedly nothing supernatural, aside from some strange past events that the film never bothers to explain.

It’s possible that the filmmakers and writers intended to leave the ending open-ended, allowing viewers to interpret it as they wish. However, the film never explicitly explains who Emmett is or his true purpose in giving his estate to other people, since the Winters couple are not the first to receive it.

Additionally, it’s unclear why Emmett eventually gives them the key to the cellar door, as the lock was already broken when John smashed it with a crowbar, and how Emmett knew they had not already entered the cellar.

In the end, we still don’t know what is actually inside the cellar. We can assume there is nothing, as their dark secret is hidden on the other side of the steel gate. The conclusion is incredibly unsatisfying and not worth the time and patience required to sit through the film.

CELLAR DOOR received a limited theatrical release in the United States on 1 November 2024 and was simultaneously made available on VOD on the same day.