The film actually succeeds on several levels. Long and Davis both turn out strong performances, bolstered by above-average writing by the directors. The strongest element, however, comes in Julia Hapney’s gruesome gore effects.

For all its vividly and realistically rendered graphic violence and gore, The Basement is an example of torture porn at its most ironic. It threatens to bore its audience to death.

There’s a big twist at the end, but like everything else here, it aims for a shock effect that the film is simply too clumsy and psychologically far-fetched to pull off.

Every time you think “torture porn” is dead and gone, here comes another blood-and-bludgeoning tale to try and revive it.