Photo courtesy of SHUDDER / RLJE Films.

As a current Californian, I cannot remember the last time I walked into a basement. While in my home state of Michigan, every home is equipped with one. Some are fully furnished living areas and others are just extra storage spaces. Luckily, none have ever been portals to hell, unlike the Woods’ family home in writer-director Brendan Muldowney’s latest horror feature, The Cellar.  

Based on his short film The Ten Steps, The Cellar is an anxiety-inducing horror about matriarch Keira Woods (Elisha Cuthbert), and the search for her missing daughter, Ellie (Abby Fitz). Clues quickly lead Keira to the cellar of the recently occupied home whose sinister history is rooted in evil.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Muldowney about the project in which time we discussed everything from using icons in the script thanks to Final Draft’s image tool, to transitioning from writer to director on the set.

“I use Final Draft to write my scripts,” says Muldowney. “I put pictures of the demon, the equation…I used a lot of imagery in this script for the first time ever because it wasn’t available to me before and this script really needed it. It was great for readers because they were able to visualize what I was trying to describe.”

This version of The Cellar, out April 15 in theaters and streaming on Shudder, is an extension of a short film Muldowney made in 2004.

“It was basically the opening of the feature. You can watch it on YouTube," Muldowney explains. “It won awards at genre festivals and I would always see in the comments from people asking 'What Happens Next?' Then it was a long journey from there just with writing, but it wasn't until the financiers started to tell me 'you’re not really hitting characters here' that, finally, I came upon the idea of a mother looking for her missing daughter. It even helped explain why someone would go down these stairs.”

Without spoiling anything, the ending of the film really sells the story and these characters. But it wasn’t always the first choice for Muldowney.

“I thought about pulling off the ending of the short, which ends audibly, but this time visually. I still knew that wasn’t enough. One day, I saw the [SPOILER ALERT] painting and just had a eureka moment.”

In regards to transitioning from writer to director on set, Muldowney considers himself lucky with this project.

“I was lucky enough that everything we shot made it into the film, I was quite pleased. I don’t overwrite directions in my script and yet I am very aware people are reading it. I write very sparingly. I think that was very helpful for my directing it, and the actors reading it—to have it mapped out, but still have it easy to read.”

When asked what advice he would give his younger writer self, Muldowney had this to offer:

“This is an obvious one: Keep writing and read other scripts because you will pick up other stuff. The main thing I will say is determination. But you can't be determined and do nothing. Someone said to me once, 'You won't be successful until you can wallpaper your wall with rejection letters.' Never give up, never get demoralized, and keep putting stuff out there."

THE CELLAR will be in Theaters and will stream on Shudder April 15.