History Main / CreepyBasement

* In the ''Series/{{Cheers}}'' episode "[[Recap/CheersS4E5 Diane's Nightmare]]", Diane dreams that characters in the show one by one go down into the bar's basement and disappear, presumably murdered by the homicidal character Andy Andy.

* ''Videogame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'':
** A lesser example, because the basement is none too different compared to the others apart from the presence of (completely legal in universe) enchanting table is Anise's hut basement. What seems to be a "poor old woman" turns out to be in cohorts with [[WickedWitch Hagravens]], and planned to turn her sister into one of its kind. Unsurprisingly Anise didn't take it well, and surprisingly, you can easily cut her down, more easier than the bandits inhabiting the mines or the barrow nearby.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* “[[https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/593yys/i_found_a_hidden_door_in_my_cellar_and_i_think/?utm_source=amp&utm_medium=&utm_content=post_title I found a Hidden Door in my Cellar and I think I've made a big mistake]]” by v0ids from r/nosleep. The narrator while cleaning up his basement with his wife discovers a door hidden by wallpaper. The wife looks through the keyhole and sees that there's steps leading down, they get the door open and go down the stairs and find another door with an ornate ring handle. The wife is anxious so goes to ask the neighbour but the narrator is curious, so he opens the cellar to investigate with a torch... what comes next and what he finds is nothing short of NightmareFuel.

%%* England's basement in ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers'' ''definitely'' qualifies as this.
* ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'' has a few of these. The Tower of Rebirth has a particularly terrifying one with the lowest level being where Griffith was kept and tortured for a year in pitch darkness. There’s also Albion the Tower of Conviction which has an outright TortureCellar as its basement.
* In ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', the creepy basement of Dr Gero’s already creepy lab contains Gero’s super computer, little Cell in his tube and according to the seventh NonSerialMovie [[Anime/DragonBallZSuperAndroid13 Androids 13, 14 and 15]]. Trunks and Krillin destroy it, to make doubly sure no more of Gero’s creations can appear to seek revenge.
* In ''Manga/FullMetalAlchemist'' the Elric house Resembool is a charming house... its basement however is much less so. It becomes especially narly when Ed and Alphonse unwisely perform abhorrent Human Transmutation alchemy [[spoiler: to resurrect their mother]] with catastrophic results. Worse still is Shou Tucker‘s basement, [[spoiler: where he performs horrifying BodyHorror experiments, including merging his own daughter Nina with her dog.]]
* A staple of Creator/JunjiIto’s work -- ''Manga/{{Tomie}}'' chapter 3 "Basement", "A Deserter in the House", "Fun Summer Vacation", and "The Scarlet Circle" from ''Manga/MimisTalesOfTerror'' (just to name a few) all contain super-creepy basements. Ito even admitted walking through his cellar as a child inspired his career in horror fiction.

* ''Manga/OnePiece'' has a few of these like Level 6 of Impel Down “Eternal Hell” where all the worst criminals are kept on deathrow. Whole Cake Island arc reveals [[spoiler:Sanji]] spent a portion of his childhood locked up in one. The creepy basement of Mariejois, contains a massive and mysterious Straw Hat.

* In ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'', Randall keeps a terrible machine called the "Scream Extractor" in the company's basement, complete with steel and metal surroundings and pipes that release steam every so often. (He frequently spends a lot of his time down there as well.)

* In ''[[Film/Parasite2019 Parasite]]'' as part of the HalfwayPlotSwitch [[spoiler: the Kim family discover beneath the Parks’ house there is a secret creepy underground bunker where the previous housekeeper Moon-gwang has been hiding her husband Geun-sae unbeknownst to the Parks for years. Only their son Da-song saw the “ghost” Geun-sae emerge from the basement and had a fear-induced seizure. In the climax when the Kim family try to trap Moon-gwang and Geun-sae in the basement so the Parks won’t find out they’re fakers, Moon-gwang dies and Geun-sae leaves the basement to go on a AxCrazy rampage, [[KillTheCutie killing Ki-jung Kim]] and creating chaos at the house party. In the epilogue Ki-taek finds himself trapped in the underground bunker after he stabbed Mr Park for reacting in disgust at the “low class” smell of Geun-sae and ran away.]]

* In ''[[Film/WomanInBlackAngelOfDeath The Woman In Black: Angel of Death]]'', a number of pivotal scenes take place in the very, very creepy basement of [[OldDarkHouse Eel Marsh House]].

* In ''VideoGame/BaldursGateII Shadows Of Amn'', the player must venture into the lower reaches of Rejiek Hidesman's home and workshop after outing him as the Skinner Murderer. They find several flayed and rotting corpses, a shirt made of GenuineHumanHide under one of the beds and, [[ForWantOfANail depending on player choice]], [[CopKiller the body of the good Lieutenant Aegisfield]] crammed into one of the containers.
* ''VideoGame/ChzoMythos'': In ''5 Days a Stranger'' the basement hidden behind a wall in the Defoe Manor is extremely disturbing, being the place where the deformed antagonist John Defoe aka the Welder was kept by his father when he was alive. If GentlemanThief Trilby has young Jim following him, Jim will refuse to go down the stairs, understandably freaked out. The basement of the Clanbronwyn Hotel from ''Trilby's Notes'' is also quite creepy, but in the dark nightmare version utterly terrifying.

* The {{Arc Villain}}s' lair in the first two chapters of ''VideoGame/{{Deltarune}}'' contain a level below the rest of the area that is dimly lit and accompanied by unsettling music. Both areas also happen to have the hardest bosses of their chapters.

* The Anvil Lighthouse Cellar in ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion''. Not terribly dark, but damn is it scary.

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' the basement of the already unnerving Shrina manor in Niblehiem is extremely scary with its spiralling wooden staircase, dungeon-like stone walls and creepy laboratory where Sephiroth would GoMadFromTheRevelation and Cloud got experimented on by Hojo. In another room there’s even a vampire-like HumanoidAbomination sleeping in a coffin... his name is Vincent Valentine and he’s a NiceGuy who can join the party.
* In ''VideoGame/FishingVacation'' you can explore the cabin's cellar if you find all three keys. [[spoiler:It has a creepy, crude statue of [[spoiler:the goddess [[Myth/InuitMythology Sedna]]]] made of mud and fish bones, the start of a long dark tunnel dug into the wall, and bottles filled with notes revealing the grisly fate of [[spoiler:your friend's aunt and cousin]].

* Variation in ''VideoGame/HauntingGround'' the heroine Fiona literally starts the game naked only covered by a sheet inside a cage in a creepy castle basement where raw meat is getting chopped up by the hulking mentally disabled groundskeeper. She soon gets out of the basement and up onto ground level where she soon discovers the rest of the castle is just as horrifying.

* The SNES and Game Boy adaptations of ''Film/HomeAlone'' feature this at the end of every stage.

* The titular Dark Room in ''VideoGame/LifeIsStrange'' episode 4.

* Plays a big role in ''VideoGame/{{Scratches}}''.

* In ''VideoGame/UntilDawn'' the Washington lodge has a massive basement which is very creepy. First time Sam and Josh go down there they’re attacked by hooded and masked man -- who just turns out to be Chris pranking them. Later however when the Psycho is attacking the characters the basement becomes truly horrifying. There’s also the basement of the Sanitarium Mike explores [[spoiler: and is attacked by the {{Wendigo}}.]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'': The True Lab in the Pacifist run is entire creepy basement lab level. It’s also where the player meets the BodyHorror Amalgamates and other unexplained horrors.

[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* ''VisualNovel/CookingCompanions'': The cabin's basement has a notable deadbolt, and the Companions hesitate checking out what's down there. [[spoiler:The answer is dead bodies, including your Companions after they "leave".]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* ''WesternAnimation/MuppetBabies'' has the babies braving the horrors of the basement -- magnified by their super imagination -- several times, usually when searching for Animal.

* A staple of Creator/JunjiIto’s work -- ''Manga/{{Tomie}}'' chapter 3 "Basement", "A Deserter in the House", "Fun Summer Vacation", and "The Scarlet Circle" from ''Manga/MimisGhostStories'' (just to name a few) all contain super-creepy basements. Ito even admitted walking through his cellar as a child inspired his career in horror fiction.

* These appear in the ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'' books (and corresponding [[Series/{{Goosebumps}} TV episodes]], when applicable) ''Literature/VampireBreath'', ''Literature/ILiveInYourBasement'', and ''Literature/StayOutOfTheBasement'' -- in the last, the protagonist's father grows evil mutant plants down there. Kids find unfinished basements scary, so it makes sense to include them in a kids' horror series.

* In ''[[Film/Parasite2019 Parasite]]'' as part of the HalfwayPlotSwitch [[spoiler: the Kim family discover beneath the Parks’ house there is a secret creepy underground bunker where the previous housekeeper Moon-gwang has been hiding her husband Geun-sae unbeknownst to the Parks for years. Only their son Da-song saw the “ghost” Geun-sae emerge from the basement and had a fear-induced seizure. In the climax when the Kim family try to trap Moon-gwang and Geun-sae in the basement so the Parks won’t find out they’re fakers, Moon-gwang dies and Geun-sae leaves the basement to go on a AxCrazy rampage, [[KillTheCutie killing Ki-jung Kim]] and creating chaos at the house party. In the epilogue Ki-taek finds himself trapped in the underground bunker when he stabbed Mr Park for reacting in disgust at “low class” smell of Geun-sae and ran away.]]

* ''Series/WandaVision'' has a particularly unsettlingly example in Episode 7 “Breaking the Fourth Wall”. As Wanda towards the end of episode finds herself in NosyNeighbour Agnes’ home and notices her sons are missing, Agnes from kitchen casually informs Wanda, they’re likely playing in the basement. So Wanda walks through Agnes’ surprising messy and ill-lit house and down her creepy basement steps and into a stone passageway with the eerie sound of wind blowing. Given the show has been mostly sitcom hijinks with the occasional disturbing moment, the left turn into horror territory is jarring to say the least. [[spoiler: Then Agnes reveals herself as Agatha Harkness a WickedWitch whom was EvilAllAlong.]]
** Creator/KevinFeige himself was well aware of this trope and urging the cinematographers of the episode to make Wanda’s journey into the basement as unsettling as possible and invoke the feeling of stepping down into darkness and the unknown.

** Andale on the surface seems like a nice and overtly friendly community. But as the resident not-so-senile old man points out to you this is the goddamn ''Capital Wasteland'' there’s clearly something wrong going here. You can learn why if you break into one of the locals’ basements [[spoiler:and discover [[CannibalClan they’re cannibals.]]]]

* “[[https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/5lj3hj/the_basement/ The Basement]]” by CR Jones from r/nosleep on Website/{{Reddit}}. A bunch of friends are having Thanksgiving party in one friend’s big basement. The narrator goes upstairs to grab something, then the lights go out before flickering back on. When he goes back down to the basement, [[NothingIsScarier all his friends have vanished]] and he looks all over for them. Things get worse, when he starts hearing child-like giggling and the lights go out again.
* “[[https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/593yys/i_found_a_hidden_door_in_my_cellar_and_i_think/?utm_source=amp&utm_medium=&utm_content=post_title I found a Hidden Door in my Cellar and I think I've made a big mistake]]” by v0ids from r/nosleep. The narrator while cleaning up his basement with his wife discovers a door hidden by wallpaper. The wife looks through the keyhole and sees that there's steps leading down, they get the door open and go down the stairs and find another door with an ornate with a ring handle. The wife is anxious so goes to ask the neighbor but the narrator is curious, so he opens the cellar to investigate with a torch... what comes next and what he finds is nothing short of NightmareFuel.

* "[[https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/rte8r/the_basement/?st=JA0OXY6O&sh=638e0ed4 The Basement]]" by mordecaix7 from r/nosleeep. The narrator is getting married and in the weeks before the wedding decides to crash at his parents' house and sleep his sister's bedroom in the basement. At nighttime, he feels a "presence" outside his door which comes into the room as he sleeps. TheReveal is so unnerving, it makes the creepy set-up even more disturbing.

* ''LetsPlay/WitchCraftSMP'': There exists a second floor under the meeting/dance party room of Pris' Clubhouse, being a fiery room with lava springs in the corners, with Tiff, Shelby, and Joey's heads inexplicably on an altar along with several loaves of bread. She was completely unaware of its existence until Scott found out about it with his intangibility powers, and its sheer creepiness ends up driving her rivals away in their semi-civil meeting.

** In the [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil2 second game]] the basement carpark, dog kennel and morgue of the police station is one of the most unsettling areas of the game. Especially in the high-res graphics of the [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil2Remake remake]].

* “[[https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/593yys/i_found_a_hidden_door_in_my_cellar_and_i_think/?utm_source=amp&utm_medium=&utm_content=post_title I found a Hidden Door in my Cellar and I think I've made a big mistake]]” by v0ids from r/nosleep. The narrator while cleaning up his basement with his wife discovers a door hidden by wallpaper. The wife looks through the keyhole and sees that there's steps leading down, they get the door open and go down the stairs and find another door with an ornate with a ring handle. The wife is anxious so goes to ask the neighbor but the narrator is curious, so opens he cellar to investigate with a torch... what comes next and what he finds is nothing short of NightmareFuel.