Film / Girl in the Basement

This is what happens to ungrateful little girls!

Girl in the Basement is a 2021 Crime Thriller Made-for-TV Movie that premiered on the Lifetime Network as part of the Ripped from the Headlines series. Directed by Elisabeth Röhm, the film stars Judd Nelson, Stefanie Scott, Joely Fisher, and Emma Myers.

Based on true events, the film tells the horrific story of Sara (Stefanie Scott), a vibrant teen girl who was looking forward to her 18th birthday so she could move away from her controlling father, Don (Judd Nelson). Her entire world takes a dark turn when her father imprisons her in the basement of their home for the next twenty years.

Like Room, the film's story is primarily based on the Fritzl case.

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This Film contains examples of:

• Abusive Parents: Don. After imprisoning Sara in the basement, he spends the next twenty years abusing her with beatings and sexual assaults. He routinely rapes her throughout her captivity, which inevitably gets her pregnant multiple times, resulting in her giving birth to several kids in the basement. Meanwhile, he is mentally abusive towards Amy, who tries her best to not be around the family home as much as she can.
• Alone with the Psycho: In her first year of captivity, Sara is left completely defenseless against her father's gruesome punishments, which include aggressive beatings and sexual assault. This becomes averted when she eventually gives birth to several children after being raped by him multiple times during her captivity.
• And I Must Scream: Upon being locked in the basement with no way out, Sara is reduced to screaming for help while begging her father to let her out. Even after being informed that the room is soundproof, she still tries to shout for help during the next few days of captivity, but eventually gives up when it becomes clear that no one will hear her
• Archnemesis Dad: Don is this to Sara. He imprisons the poor girl in the basement, now free to "discipline" her without interference from Irene and Amy.
• Awful Wedded Life: During her imprisonment, Sara plays the role of Don's wife after she gives birth to their kids. Because of how Don treats Sara, her two oldest kids view their relationship to be like this. At one point, Marie even suggested to Sara that the two should get a divorce when they get out of the basement.
• Bald of Evil: Don is depicted with a receded hairline.
• Barefoot Captive: Sara was not wearing any shoes during the first month of her imprisonment, as she was relaxing at home when her father lured her down into the basement.
• Beard of Evil: Don sports a full beard, and commits a number of heinous acts against his daughter.
• Berserk Button:
  • For Don, it’s a number of things: Disobeying his orders, not cooperating with him, or whenever he sees Sara attempting to escape or try to signal for help.
  • For Sara, the first instance that she shows visible anger towards Don is when she sees him making inappropriate looks and compliments towards their daughter. Her response to this is to tell her two kids to get ready for dinner before quietly, but firmly telling Don to not touch their daughter.
  • For Michael, he flips out when Don keeps insulting Sara.
• Big Little Brother: Because he grew upstairs with the opportunity to be in the sun, play sports, and eat a lot of food, Sara's younger son Thomas grows big and strong, even though he is a couple years younger than his two older siblings, whose growth was stunted due to malnourishment and the lack of Vitamin D. Don would use this as a way to taunt Michael when he tried to stand up to him.
• Bitch Slap: After delivering his speech regarding how things are going to be done now that she is trapped in the basement, Don immediately slaps Sara across the face when she doesn’t answer him.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Don has shades of this in how he treats Sara. In his head, his actions towards Sara in the film (which include beatings, rape, incest, pregnancy, starvation) is all just part of his method of teaching her how to respect him as a parent.
• Bluffing the Authorities: Don uses Sara's plan to travel across the country to see all 50s states as an alibi to the police for why she could have disappeared.
• Bratty Teenage Daughter: Don seems to think that Sara is this, even labeling her as an ungrateful brat when she is actually not anywhere close to this trope.
• Break the Cutie: It takes some time, but Sara's spirit starts to deteriorate after Don starts to routinely rape her during her first year of captivity.
• Breaking the Cycle of Bad Parenting: Sara tries to do this with her kids.
  • Unlike her mother, who did little to nothing to stand up for her children, Sara is not afraid to go at Don for not providing enough for their children, and defends her own daughter from him.
  • Unlike Don, who was an abusive asshole to his children, Sara has nothing but love for her children, who she considers to be her whole world, despite the gruesome circumstances surrounding their conception.
• Breeding Slave: It’s unclear if this was a part of Don's plan, but Sara is forced to give birth to several children after he routinely rapes her throughout her imprisonment.
• Broken Bird: The amount of abuse and trauma Sara endures at the hands of her father reduces her into a broken and fragile woman who cooperates with his cruel demands just to get through another day.
• Bunker Woman: Sara is reduced to this after her father locks her into the bomb shelter connected to the basement.
• Calling the Old Man Out: Once she learns that Don lied to Chris about Sara running with a childhood friend, Amy finally projects her suspicions to her father, who merely shouts at her. She lashes back, saying his aggressive behavior is what drove Sara away.
• Calling Parents by Their Name: During her captivity, Sara is instructed to call her father by his name from now on. After giving birth to his children, she has gotten into the habit of doing this, especially because calling him dad would clue her children to the truth about their conception.
• Child by Rape: Sara's three children Marie, Michael, and Thomas are all products of Don raping her during her captivity.
• Clean, Pretty Childbirth: Marie's birth is the only one depicted on-screen, and is portrayed in this fashion.
• Cool Bike: Chris rides a motorcycle, which he takes Sara out on. Even Don admits that it is a nice bike when Chris comes over looking for Sara.
• Creepy Basement: Not really a basement, rather a soundproof bomb shelter that is connected through a hallway to the basement. The basement itself does have a creepy vibe.
• Dating What Daddy Hates: It's clear that Don doesn't want Sara dating anyone.
• Death Glare: Don has a tendency of giving these to just about everyone in the film. Sara gives him one when she sees him eyeing their daughter.
• Defiant Captive: Sara starts out as this during her few days of captivity, which includes screaming for help, and making several attempts to escape or harm her father. Over time, Sara loses her will to keep trying after her failed attempts are met with beatings and sexual assault by Don.
• Despair Event Horizon: Sara crosses this after she is raped by her father for the first time.
• Dirty Business: While he is the one who caused Sara to miscarry her fourth child after beating her in a moment of rage when she disobeyed him, Don nonetheless shows a little bit of remorse upon seeing the deceased baby in the next scene.
• Disposing of a Body: After causing Sara to have a miscarriage by beating her in a fit of rage, Don would later take the body out of the basement, and bury it in the backyard.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Don sees Sara as a problem for being a normal teenager who wants to have a life of her own and isn’t afraid to stand up to him. His solution: Lock his daughter in the basement for 20 years, so he can physically and sexually abuse her, which results in her giving birth to several children.
• Domestic Abuse: According to Amy, Don had once put Irene in the hospital for two days after striking her. And this is before he trapped Sara in the basement so it is possible that he abused her and Sara sometime in the past, hence why she herself wants to put distance between herself and Don as much as she can, and why Sara was so defiant towards Don.
• Doting Grandparent: Don is this to Thomas, who is also his son. He has almost no care for his two older children that are kept in the basement with Sara, and actively puts down Michael for not being as big and athletic as Thomas.
• Due to the Dead: Don caused Sara to miscarry their fourth child by kicking her repeatedly in the stomach for trying to signal for help. That said, he at least has enough decency to properly bury the baby’s body in the backyard.
• Earn Your Happy Ending
  • Marie makes a full recovery from her asthma attack, Michael is brought out of the basement. While Don is imprisoned for life for his crimes, Sara’s children are reunited together, and Sara is finally free of her 20 year captivity.
  • Sara reunites with Chris, who held out hope that she would return, and he gives her the present he had planned to give her for her birthday.
• Even Evil Can Be Loved: It is shown that Don is very close to his youngest son/grandson Thomas. And despite his domineering and borderline violent temper, Irene still sticks with him throughout the twenty years that Sara was in the basement.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Over time, Don developed genuine fondness of his youngest son Thomas, who had become the son he never had. Sara uses this to convince him to take Marie to the hospital, saying if he loved Thomas, he wouldn’t let the boy’s sister die.
• Evil Is Petty: Don shuts off the power and lights when Sara tells him to never touch their daughter, as she noticed him eyeing Marie in an inappropriate manner.
• Extremely Protective Child: Michael becomes this to Sara upon learning the truth about Don. In one instance, he lashes out at Don for repeatedly talking down on Sara for her appearance.
• Family Relationship Switcheroo: To Marie and Michael, Don is Sara’s husband, albeit an abusive one. When the two are old enough, Sara finally reveals to them that Don is not just their dad, but also their grandfather since he is her father too.
• Flipping the Table: Sara does when she has a complete breakdown that is triggered when she gets overwhelmed wuth her two kids shouting to be let out while blaming her for not standing up to Don.
• Forced Miscarriage: Sara endures a painful one after Don gives her a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown for trying to signal for help.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Don wears glasses and does a lot of horrifying actions throughout the film.
• Friendless Background: According to Irene, Sara doesn’t have a lot of friends, most likely due to her father.
• Give Him a Normal Life: After giving birth to her third child, Sara wants Don to bring the baby upstairs to be raised by Irene, as she does not want another child to be locked up in the basement with her.
• Go-Go Enslavement: On her 18th birthday(in the basement), Don gifts Sara red lingerie, which he told her to put on. Once he's sees her wearing it, he tells her she looks nice. He would force her to wear the lingerie whenever he is about to sexually assault her. At one point, Sara would willingly wear it so she could lower his guard down enough so she could attack him, which he sadly saw through.
• Good Parents: Despite the situation she is in with her children, Sara is shown to be a very loving mother to Michael and Marie. She manages to persuade her horrible father to take Thomas upstairs to be raised by Irene, wanting the child to have a normal life outside of the basement.
• Gruesome Grandparent: At one point, Don starts to eye his daughter/granddaughter in a creepy manner that makes Sara intervene to tell him to not touch her.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: It doesn't take a lot to anger Don.
• Hates Their Parent: According to Don, Sara has spoken about running away from home since she was 11 years old, implying that she has a hatred and fear of her father for quite some time. Amy also clearly has an extreme dislike for her father. At the beginning of the film, she would rather spend spring break at her college dorm instead of at home, despite Irene suggesting she should stay longer. Later, she makes it clear to her father that she blames him for Sara running away.
• Honor Thy Abuser: Sara is expected to honor her father during her captivity while he continues to mentally and sexually abuse her.
• Hope Spot: A few throughout the film. Sara’s first attempt to escape involves knocking her father aside as he enters the bunker so she can run out, only to be stopped by the door behind the bookcase. She gets another one when the rain washes away part of the ceiling so she can signal for help. Unfortunately, the only neighbor who notices this goes to the house to tell Don instead of investigating the light source himself.
• How Dad Met Mom: When her kids start asking questions about Don and how Sara met him, she simply tells them that she has known him for practically her whole life. Once the kids are older, Sara finally tells them the truth about Don also being her father, and how he trapped her in the basement so he could rape her. Her two kids are absolutely horrified by this revelation.
• It's All My Fault: Sara eventually comes to blame herself for the predicament that she and her children are in, scolding herself for not having listened to her sister’s advice sooner.
• Kick the Dog
  • As if raping her isn't bad enough, Don would force Sara to wear red lingerie, partly to humiliate her before he does the deed.
  • When Chris comes to the house to check if there's been any word about Sara, Don lies to him, saying that Sara ran off with a childhood friend to Florida, and even feigns sympathy by promising to let him know if she calls. Clearly, he did to break the young man's heart while also creating a reason for him to not stop by anymore.
  • Don boasts about how strong and good at sports Thomas is, while giving Michael a baseball glove that he can’t even use while they are locked in the basement.
• Lies to Children: Sara keeps the illusion that she and Don are married to her two children, only saying that she knew Don most of her life when they ask how they met.
• Love-Obstructing Parents: Don is extremely opposed to Sara's boyfriend upon seeing him safely bring her home from a party. His reasoning being that Chris drives a motorcycle. Averted with Irene, who appears to be very open about Sara's relationship with Chris, as shown when she excitedly asked Sara if she was on the phone with Chris before going to the market.
• Mama Bear: Unlike her mother, Sara is quick to defend her children, specifically Marie, considering that Don at one point made creepy glances at her when she tried on makeup for the first time.
• Morality Chain: Thomas is this to Don. His presence stops Don from going through with his plan to fill the basement with gas to kill Sara and the two older children. It is also because of Thomas that Don is persuaded to take Marie to the hospital when she is suffering from a very severe asthma attack.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: After being caught for sneaking out and being grounded, Sara decides to take her sister’s advice to lay low and not upset her father, as she will be out of the house once she turns 18. A few months later he asks her to help him move something to the basement. Little did she know this one good deed would lead to her being trapped in the basement for the next twenty years.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Sara endures two of these at the hands of her father. The first time happens after she tries to attack him with a makeshift weapon, only for him to stop the attack before tossing her into a pillar, stomping on her arm, and proceeding to rape her as punishment. The second time, he kicks her in the stomach repeatedly for trying to signal for help, when she was pregnant with their child.
• Parental Fashion Veto: Upon seeing Marie wearing makeup, Sara immediately says that she is not allowed to wear makeup. After seeing Don make creepy eyes at Marie, Sara puts her foot down further, demanding Don to not touch their daughter and to take the make up with him.
• Parental Neglect: Don is pretty much this to Michael and Marie. He isn’t shown being present for the births of Sara’s children, and barely gives them enough food, especially once he loses his job. On their last day of captivity, he spent the whole day celebrating Thomas’ baseball game while Marie is suffering an extreme asthma attack
• Pervert Dad: Played with. While he does rape Sara routinely throughout the film, it is clear that Don does it as a means to punish and discipline her, not because he has some sick attraction to her. That said, he thinks Marie, his daughter/granddaughter, looks pretty with makeup. Sara, noticing how the man is looking at Marie, tells her children to go and get dinner ready before quietly demanding Don to not touch their daughter.
• Raised by Grandparents: Thomas, the only child Sara has that does not spend his life in the basement, is raised by Irene after Sara tells Don that there would be no room in the basement for her to raise three kids.
• Rape Discretion Shot: Just as Don rapes Sara for the first time, the camera cuts to outside the door, with Sara’s face being shown in the tiny window of the door. The second time he does this, the scene cuts to an exterior shot of the family house.
• Reluctant Fanservice Girl: For her 18th birthday, Don brings Sara red lingerie to wear. He would force her to wear it before he would rape her. The first time she tries it on, Sara looks particularly uncomfortable wearing it, though she is more likely thinking of what her father was going to do to her.
• Ripped from the Headlines: The film is based on the real life Austrian Fritzl case.
• The Runaway: Everyone believes that Sara most likely ended up running away from home to escape the abusive father.
• Secret Other Family: Due to Don routinely raping her throughout the years, Sara gives birth to several children who are trapped in the basement. Don juggles between being down in the basement with Sara and the kids (which he uses as his time to “relax"), while keeping Irene and Amy from figuring out what was going on in the basement.
• Sex for Services: Everything Sara gets to have in the basement has to be earned as Don tells her during her first few days of captivity. While not shown on-screen, it is very clear this involves Sara letting Don sexually abuse her.
• Sex Slave: Don pretty much reduces Sara to being this, choosing to punish her misbehavior by raping her. As noted above, she was forced to let him sexually abuse her in order to have anything during her captivity. It's not exactly clear however if he is actually sexually attracted to Sara or if he is simply doing it as a method to put her down.
• Suddenly Shouting: Don goes from 0 to a 100 several times throughout the film.
• Time Out: Sara gives one to Marie when she talks back to her because she wants to go outside.
• Time Skip: There are a number of these, as the film covers 20 years of Sara’s captivity.
• Useless Bystander Parent: Irene is this when it comes to her daughters. While she does love them, she is clearly too afraid to stand up to her husband. Sara even complains to Amy that Irene just lets Don walk over her all the time instead of standing up to him.
• Would Hit a Girl: Amy mentions that Don had once struck Irene, which put her in the hospital. Once Sara is trapped in the basement, Don shows absolutely no restraint in physically harming her when she does not cooperate with him.
• Would Hurt a Child: Sarah was still an underage teenager when she is imprisoned in the basement, and Don felt no qualms with abusing her both sexually and physically when she wouldn’t cooperate with him.