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  • Alternate Character Interpretation:
    • Is Jud really the cliché action-hero he seems to be, or is he a thrill-seeking sadist who uses his bounty-hunting vocation to justify the killing and maiming of acceptable targets in such a way that society would brand him a hero? Donna might have a type...
    • While we're on the subject, is Donna a Broken Bird who has had her spirit crushed from years of abuse by Roy, or does she suffer from Hybristophilia, with an inability to acknowledge the consequences of her actions? For instance, she left Sandy all alone to have sex with Jud, knowing full well that Roy was at large.
    • Did Sandy's Heel–Face Turn come about as a result of Stockholm Syndrome, or has she always secretly resented her mother for waiting until Roy molested her before calling the police.
  • Broken Base: Its fans love it for its vivid and horrific mythology, its brutally fast-paced action scenes, and its "Anyone Can Die" reputation. Its detractors hate it for its over-the-top sexual horror and thinly drawn characters.
  • Complete Monster: Roy Hayes from The Cellar is a psychopathic rapist who was sentenced to prison for raping his own daughter and regularly beating and raping his wife, Donna. After being released, Roy wastes no time in butchering an innocent couple, then kidnapping their child daughter, Joni, using her as his personal Sex Slave while traveling to get revenge on his family for locking him away. Unable to locate Donna, Roy tortures the woman's sister to get information on her whereabouts, promising to let her and her husband go once she tells him; he proceeds to kill her husband after raping and murdering her even after she told him what he wanted. Murdering another couple to steal their car, Roy tracks down Donna and takes up residence in a teen girl's suite, raping her then trying to kill her along with Joni for defying him. In the end, Roy plans to rape and kill both his wife and daughter, and dies begging for the mercy he never sought to give. Despite appearing in such a dark setting with actual beasts and monsters, Roy still made his mark as the most evil figure throughout the story.
  • Fridge Horror: Imagine being 9 years old, having your parents murdered before your very eyes and their killer forcing you to have sex with him. Not aggressively like a typical rapist, but in a way that would normally imply affection. For that poor little girl, any physical contact is going to remind her of the day her life was destroyed.
  • Fridge Logic: Shouldn't the offspring of beast/human be hybrid rather than just another beast?
    • Makes you wonder how different we really are...
  • Nightmare Fuel: The titular beasts are described as being ape-like, but pale and hairless. They're also much stronger than the average human and are sexually insatiable. If one gets you, you're done for.
  • Narm: It's 80s splatter-punk horror-fiction. Narm is guaranteed.
  • Referenced by...: At least three other Laymon titles:
    • All Hallow's Eve: One of the characters is revealed to have dated Donna in high school right before she met Roy. Donna was seemingly the only person who didn't realise Roy was bad news until it was too late.
    • Funland: A stuffed animal that's described as being a pale, hairless humanoid.
    • In The Dark: The protagonist muses over reading about the Beast House while exploring an abandoned house.
    • Amara: A subplot involves random people being kidnapped and kept as sex slaves. One of the prisoners refers to their prison as the "Beast House".
    • Your Secret Admirer is a YA novel Richard wrote under the pseudonym "Carl Laymon." At one point in the story, the main character, Janice, discusses going to the movies with a boy. He mentions a horror double feature consisting of the fictional titles The Keepers and Beast House.
  • Squick: Incest, pedophilia and bestiality.
  • The Woobie: Joni. See Fridge Horror.

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