There’s nothing quite like a creepy basement, especially when that basement contains Willem Dafoe as a seemingly nefarious, perhaps unhinged character who’s insisted on haggling his way into someone else’s home. The first teaser for Hulu’s upcoming feature film The Man in My Basement promises exactly that, along with some extra layers of eeriness. For example, a girl standing in the woods wears a particularly off-putting dog mask and the down-on-his-luck protagonist—played by Corey Hawkins, who you may know from The Walking Dead—is seen digging outside in the dead of night … searching for something? Hiding something? Nothing suspicious to see here.
Based on the novel by Walter Mosley, The Man in My Basement is directed by Nadia Latif—her first time directing a feature film—with a screenplay by Mosley and Latif. The teaser suggests a psychological thriller with maybe a few more intellectual leanings in the vein of Jordan Peele’s Get Out (2017). For Dafoe, The Man in My Basement might fit comfortably next to a few other roles in films that play around in the world of high-minded eeriness, such as Nosferatu (2024) or Poor Things (2023). There’s certainly been a recent harkening for thrillers that aim a bit higher with their scares and frightening atmospheres, and although it doesn’t get much more old school than masks, ancestral homes, and grimy basements sure to be hiding even grimier secrets, one can hope that The Man in My Basement has a new twist in store to shake up a well-trodden formula. In addition to Hawkins and Dafoe, Anna Diop and Tamara Lawrence are also set to star. At the very least, the film should benefit from such a consummate professional as Willem Dafoe in its lead (antagonist?) role.
The Man in My Basement is set to be released on Hulu and in select theaters on a date yet to be announced.
