For many people, basements have an innate air of spookiness. There are many reasons for this spooky feeling — for example, basements tend to be places that homeowners rarely go, which means they’re unfamiliar and therefore even more scary. However, while there are many movies that utilize spooky basements, not all of them are ultra-scary. Here are six of the scariest basements in movies.

The Amityville Horror – 5.8 Basement Evil Score

One of the reasons The Amityville Horror is such a scary movie is because it’s a purportedly true story. Although some people have expressed uncertainty about the supposedly true events of the series, that doesn’t really matter when you’re watching it; it’s scary enough to offer a suspension of disbelief element. An especially intriguing moment occurs in the basement; the family discovers a four foot by five foot Red Room that isn’t on any of the building plans and is painted crimson red inside

A Nightmare on Elm Street – 6.0 Basement Evil Score

A Nightmare on Elm Street straddles the area between dreams and reality. This comes up in a myriad of ways; Freddy can only kill individuals in the dream world, but death in the dream world causes death in the real world. In the dream world, Freddy sometimes takes his victims to his Nightmare Factory, which is just his boiler room. Here, he engages in torture and murder.

Psycho – 6.6 Basement Evil Score

Psycho made a huge impact on the greater world of horror. Film critics and the general public routinely consider Psycho one of the greatest movies of all time, and it paved the way for future movies to flourish. One way it made such a huge impact is by mixing slasher horror with psychological horror. In an especially unforgettable scene, the main character makes her way into an underground fruit cellar, where she discovers Norman Bates’ mother’s mummified corpse.

The Evil – 9.0 Basement Evil Score

There aren’t a lot of things more evil than a portal to Hell, which is exactly what The Evil offers in its basement. This movie centers around a home that sits over hot sulfur pits in New Mexico. However, when the homeowners and their friends open the trap door to the lower basement level, they soon learn that the basement isn’t a basement at all. Rather, it’s a portal to Hell, and it sets the scene for the rest of the movie.

Get Out – 9.6 Basement Evil Score

Get Out is all about building a trope, then using your expectations of that trope to utterly terrify you. The home that houses most of the action in Get Out isn’t what you would expect from a haunted house; it’s well-kept and beautiful. However, the basement is actually a consciousness transportation laboratory, and it’s where the main character undergoes hypnosis and travels to the Sunken Place.

The Silence of the Lambs – 10.0 Basement Evil Score

The most terrifying basement on this list belongs to The Silence of the Lambs. That’s because it uses the basement in an utterly horrifying way; serial killer Buffalo Bill kidnaps women, then brings them to his home and places them in a dry well in the basement. There, they starve to death, which makes it easier for him to skin them.

Conclusion

These are all some pretty horrifying basements. Whether you’ve seen all of these movies before or you’ve never seen any of them, they’re all great films that will make you appreciate a well-kept and absolutely safe basement even more.