The film is set at Stephens Sanitarium, an isolated mental institute where the chief doctor, Dr. Stephens, believes the best therapy is for patients to freely act out their delusions.

" Don’t Look in the Basement " (1973), also known as The Forgotten , is a quintessential piece of low-budget, Texas-shot grindhouse horror. Directed by S.F. Brownrigg on a budget of less than $100,000, it became a cult classic through the drive-in circuit, often double-billed with Wes Craven’s Last House on the Left .

Despite the title’s warning, the basement holds a final gruesome secret: the original Dr. Stephens is still alive down there, though severely wounded. Key Characters & Performances The film is noted for its "eccentric" ensemble of patients:

The new administrator, Dr. Geraldine Masters, reluctantly hires Charlotte but maintains a tyrannical and suspicious grip on the facility.

As the patients’ behavior becomes more violent and erratic, it is eventually revealed that Dr. Masters is actually a patient herself, playing the role of a doctor after the original staff were killed.

Nurse Charlotte Beale arrives for a new job, only to discover Dr. Stephens has been killed by an axe-wielding patient.