1987’s Cellar Dweller opens with Jeffrey Combs playing an artist.

Sitting in his art studio (located in the cellar of his home), Combs draws a picture of a monster and he adds a few Lovecraftian occult symbols and — uh oh! — the monster comes to life and start to destroy everything that Combs holds dear.  Combs discovers that he can stop the monster by setting his drawings on fire but, in the process, Combs also destroys himself.

This ten minute prologue features Jeffrey Combs at his best, bringing his neurotic Re-Animator energy to the role of the artist who discovers just how dangerous an active imagination can be.  One reason why Combs is a horror icon is that he can win your sympathy even while playing a character who does some objectively stupid and terrible things.  Unfortunately, once the prologue is over, so is Jeffrey Combs’s role in the film.  He may be first-billed but he doesn’t appear after the opening credits.

The film jumps forward to 1987.  Cartoonist Whitney Taylor (Debrah Farentino) is the latest artist to take residence at Mrs. Briggs’s Institute For The Arts, which just happens to be in the same house that was once home to Jeffrey Combs’s artist.  Mrs. Briggs (Yvonne DeCarlo) is a noted critic of modern art.  In fact, Whitney and Mrs. Briggs disagree so vehemently about art that you really do wonder why Whitney would apply to the Institute in the first place.

There’s a few artists at the Institute.  Norman (Vince Edwards) is a tough guy writer.  Philip (Brian Robbins) is a bad boy artist.  Amanda (Pamela Bellwood) is a former rival of Whitney’s and the two still hate each other.  (Whitney seems to rub a lot of people the wrong way.)  Best of all, there’s a performance artist named …. LISA!

Lisa is played by Miranda Wilson.

Frustrated with Amanda, Whitney gives into her worst instincts and draws a cartoon the features a monster killing her rival.  Uh-oh.  Soon, the monster has reemerged from the cellar and Amanda has disappeared.  One-by-one, the other residents are picked off and their deaths appear in Whitney’s cartoons.  The monster claims that he dwells wherever there is imagination but Whitney is convinced she’s figure out a way to destroy him and bring everyone back.  Has she?  You’ll have to watch the film to find out!

Produced by Charles Band’s Empire Pictures, Cellar Dweller is an enjoyably macabre little tale.  It’s only 77 minutes long and the fast pace makes the film feel like an extended episode of a horror anthology series.  The monster and the plot feel like they could have been lifted from a 50s horror comic and the other artist are all memorably eccentric.  The cast appears to be having a ball.  It’s a fun treat for horror fans like you and me.

Cellar Dweller was directed by special effects specialist John Carl Buechler and he does a good job with the monster.  It’s both intimidating and kind of goofy at the same time.  A year after Cellar Dweller, Buechler directed his best known film, Friday the 13th Part VII — The New Blood.  That film too was likably goofy.