“I’ve seen the industry change in positive ways for sure”: Elisha Cuthbert on The Cellar

Just landed on Shudder is nightmarish new horror The Cellar from Irish writer-director Brendan Muldowney, based on his short film The Ten Steps. It stars scream queen Elisha Cuthbert (The Girl Next Door, House of Wax) as Keira Wood, whose daughter mysteriously disappears into the cellar of their new home in rural Ireland. As Keira desperately tries to discover what has happened to her daughter, she begins to realise something dark and powerful has a hold over their home, and the fate of their souls are at risk.

The movie plays on classic genre tropes of the haunted house, while taking its story into dark and disturbing new corners and infusing it with contemporary elements of familial relationships. It also represents the next step in Cuthbert’s career: the model and actress rose to fame in the 00s with her turn as an ex-porn star in The Girl Next Door and was often typecast and objectified as the “sexy” female, with much attention from the lad mags that dominated at that time, but now, 18 years on, as she has matured and the industry shifted somewhat in its treatment of female characters, the actor is able to take on more varied roles. Playing a mother in The Cellar, in particular, reflects where she is in her own life now as a mother of two.

The Upcoming had a fantastic chat with the film’s star about the making of the movie, the appeal of the horror genre, themes of family plus her past roles and label as scream queen.

Sarah Bradbury

The Cellar is released on 15^th April 2022.

Watch the trailer for The Cellar here: