Nadia Latif’s mystery thriller The Man in My Basement is an adaptation of Walter Mosley’s novel by the same name. Just like the literary work, the film too takes a philosophical route as it tackles questions of race, identity, power, and morality. Charles Blakey (Corey Hawkins) was a middle-aged man without a job or a family. He lived alone in his ancestral house, and the roof above his head was all that he had left, the rest he’d gambled away. With barely enough money to afford gas or even food, Charles needed to find a way out of the situation he was in. Most of his relatives refused to help him; this was not the first time he’d called them to ask for money. With no alternative in hand, Charles ended up calling Anniston Bennet (Willem Dafoe), a White man who’d stopped by his house and asked him if he was willing to rent out his basement. His proposal didn’t interest Charles at first, but given the situation he was in, he realized a little extra money could do him good.
Spoiler Alert
Why did Anniston Bennet lock himself in a cage?
Charles sensed that there was something odd about a stranger wanting to rent his basement for 65 days at $1000 per night. A deal too good to be true. Turns out, Charles’ hunch was right—Anniston had built himself a cage, and he planned on staying inside it for the entire period he rented the basement. He wanted Charles to keep the key to the cage and play the role of a warden and bring him food and beverages around the clock. Charles didn’t know how to react at first. He feared that he would get into trouble—after all, a White man locked in a Black man’s basement can lead to obvious disaster. But Anniston confirmed that no one would come searching for him, and he didn’t have to worry. He added that he wasn’t a criminal, just an importer-exporter who wanted some time off and to spend his days reading books and gaining knowledge. Living in comfort would have always left him distracted, so locking himself in a cage was the only solution. At first, Charles did exactly as Anniston told him to. But soon he realized that even though the White man was locked up, he still held complete control over him. One day, when he brought Anniston his meal a little late, he was clearly discontent. Meanwhile, Charles figured out that Anniston wasn’t an innocent man, and while the stranger admitted that he had committed crimes, he believed the system was too corrupt to ever punish him.
Why did Anniston choose Charles?
Though he chose not to delve into his past, Charles felt the need to break free from the oppressive dynamics, especially after he discovered that Anniston knew every little detail about him. As it turned out, Anniston had shot a Black man in Tehran, where he worked as an accountant. He did so because his boss asked him to, and it was the only way he could prove his loyalty. It was obvious that it was one of the many crimes Anniston had committed, and he believed he deserved to be locked behind bars because of it. He chose Charles because his situation made him easy to exploit. He had a mortgage to pay, and he didn’t have a job. Charles realized how calculative Anniston’s move was when he one by one mentioned every little detail of his life. From the high school he attended to his father’s death in sophomore year, the names of his childhood best friends, his football star phase in high school, he also knew that Charles returned home after college to look after his ailing mother, but she died within months, and in the following years he looked after his uncle, Brent. Anniston added that during his time as a teller at Harbor Union, Charles embezzled $430, and he was fired because of it. Anniston reminded him that he was ‘broke with no prospects’ and he had a huge mortgage to pay, and if he failed, he would lose his ancestral home. As it turned out, Anniston was responsible for forcing the bank to start a foreclosure to make sure that Charles didn’t have any option but to take his offer.
Anniston didn’t hesitate to mention that one of the reasons why he chose Charles was because he was a Black man, and as a White man of influence, Anniston had abused the Black community in every possible way, so he felt the need for his ‘warden’ to be a Black man. He described Charles as the ‘perfect specimen’—he was lonely, he was in debt, and he had a house with a basement. He was also a great example of how society had failed his race. Charles felt he was being mocked; even with the little privilege that he had, he never felt the urgency to do better in life, and Anniston reminded him of it. Gradually, Anniston remembered his victims—the Nigerian journalist he ‘saved’ but who died by suicide eighteen months later, the Jordanian man he tortured and whose family he threatened to kill (who died by suicide, so Anniston went ahead and killed his family as well), and the man who once paid him a large sum of money to offer a nine-month-old infant girl to his dog (the man wanted to see if his dog’s natural instincts kicked in, and Charles accepted the assignment). He’d approached a mother with thirteen starving children, and for a price, they handed over their nine-month-old girl for a White man’s amusement. Anniston justified his actions, stating that these souls were the price he had to pay for the thousands of lives he had saved in his lifetime. He believed that he was simply a tool used by an already segregated world. The power he held as a White man was his destiny regardless of the choices he made in life, but for Charles, a Black man, it wasn’t the same. Every choice, every decision he made had severe consequences, and the system was designed for him to fail. So, if he actually fought back and made something of his life, his win would remind the system that it was impossible for them to silence his people.
How did Anniston’s presence affect Charles?
Anniston stated something crucial during his conversation with Charles—that his being in the cage was only his physical situation. Even if he kicked Anniston out of the cage, his life wouldn’t change. He would still have to pay the mortgage, and he would still be a failure. While Anniston locking himself in a cage was a physical torture/punishment, Charles was trapped mentally, and apart from him forcing the bank to start the foreclosure, everything else wasn’t really Anniston’s fault. Unlike most African Americans around him, Charles’ ancestors were never enslaved. The masks with golden detailing that he’d recently discovered while cleaning the basement suggested that his ancestors were affluent and possibly influential. The artifacts reminded Charles of his rich heritage and how even with everything that his ancestors had passed on to him, he hadn’t really made good use of it or helped his community as he should have.
Instead of holding on to his family history and trying to keep it alive, Charles didn’t hesitate to ask Narciss, a curator with a deep interest in Black history, if he could sell the masks and other artifacts for a good price. While Narciss understood his dire financial condition, she repeatedly advised him not to turn his heritage into merchandise. She felt pity for him because he clearly didn’t realize their significance. Instead of delving deep and finding out more about his ancestors, Charles preferred turning a blind eye to it all and selling everything for what he could get. Anniston’s presence compelled Charles to address his failures. The monsters he’d buried started to crawl up, and they haunted him in his dreams. His mother wouldn’t have been proud of the man he’d become, of the petty crime he committed just to get by, and of the fact that he had put his dignity on the line because of it. Charles realized how shameful it was to dance to the tune of a White man just because he’d agreed to pay. So, to establish a sense of authority, he decided to set some rules—he stated that henceforth, food, water, books, and even light would be a privilege for Anniston. If only Anniston agreed to answer his questions properly, would he receive these privileges, but if he failed, he would be denied the very basic necessities. Charles added that if Anniston requested to be released, then after 96 hours he would open the gate. Anniston begged to make one modification: for every three questions Charles asked, he wanted to ask Charles just one. Charles agreed to the deal.
What did Anniston confess to before killing himself?
During The Man in My Basement’s ending, after Charles walked into the basement after days of not checking on Anniston, he was taken aback when he saw the filthy condition of the man. The neglect had turned him wild, and he was desperate enough to want to kill Charles. But Charles reminded him that if he choked him to death, they both would rot in the basement, and that wasn’t a great deal. Anniston loosened his grasp and answered the questions Charles asked in return for some privileges. When Charles asked him if he was actually ‘Anniston Bennet,’ he hesitated. He weakly stated that his birth name was Tamal Knosos, and that he never got the chance to meet his parents. His mother was Maria Knosos, and according to his birth certificate, his father was a Turkish man named Tamal. He was named Tamal Knosos because his mother died during childhood and his father was gone. Tamal went ahead and removed his blue contacts. He had black eyes, but the blue helped convince the world that he was as White as one could get. He chose Anniston Bennet as his name because the title ‘Bennet’ belonged to aristocratic Britishers whose descendants had waged wars, captured land, and turned them into colonies. He wanted to be one of them because he’d realized the power that a White name could have. Charles mockingly stated that his father could’ve been Turkish, Arab, Indian, or even African, and the possibility offended Anniston, who stated with confidence that he was ‘White as the sun.’ Charles realized that he was standing before a man who had no idea about his ancestors, and he’d simply adopted a personality that helped him navigate the world easily, and even the thought of being related in some way to his victims gave him chills because he knew how cruel the world was to ‘them.’
What was Charles’ secret?
In The Man in My Basement’s ending, Charles confessed his deepest, darkest secret, which had been the reason behind his anxiety, breakdowns, and nightmares. He finally admitted that he’d killed his uncle Brent. He’d moved into their house after his father passed away, and from the brief glimpses of Charles’ memory of him, it becomes quite clear that he was an abusive man and Charles had despised him all his life. So, after his mother passed away and his uncle fell sick, Charles neglected him. He refused to take care of the man who’d been nothing but cruel to him, and even though Brent wailed and screamed for his nephew’s assistance, Charles never responded to him. And one day the screams stopped, and Charles buried his uncle. He couldn’t forgive his uncle, and his hatred got the better of him. The haunting memories continued to chase him wherever he went.
After his regular confrontation with Anniston, Charles finally found the courage to walk into his uncle’s room. The image of the dog that we get to see a number of times was possibly a reminder of his childhood days and perhaps his only true companion at the time. It can also be interpreted as a representation of Anniston, who once referred to himself as a dog waiting to be fed. Charles learned to accept that he did wrong instead of refusing to acknowledge it altogether, which made it all the more difficult for him to move on. Seeing Chastity, his neighbor, who was confined to a bed and barely responsive, reminded him of his uncle, and when Irene mentioned that Chastity hadn’t seen a guest for three years, Charles realized the pain of not seeing a known face around. Although his uncle was a horrible man, maybe he didn’t deserve the neglect that he was subjected to. Charles gradually realized the importance of community and doing little acts of service.
How did Charles get back control over his life?
Anniston, aka Tamal, took his life after admitting his true identity, and the next morning, when Charles walked into the basement, he saw his body lying lifeless on the ground inside the cage. He left a note for Charles, apologizing for ending his life sooner than he intended to, and while he was aware that he didn’t answer all of Charles’ questions, he believed he had to carry some of the answers to his grave. He admitted that he wasn’t sure if he would die in the basement, though he considered it at times. He’d assumed that he would find all his answers in the books, but it was only after Charles left him in the dark alone that he remembered every person he did wrong by. He was haunted by the faces and the memories, and he realized that he had to die in the basement to pay the price of the many sins he committed. He’d left letters for his loved ones and asked Charles to send them so that they would mourn his passing, but Charles chose to burn them; he didn’t think the man in the basement deserved a single tear.
Anniston had also left a pill for Charles in case he found it difficult to live with himself, but the ending of the film confirms that Charles chose to live, because he’d come to realize the importance of fighting the system and actually doing something that would contribute to his community. Narciss had proposed they start a museum together at his house, where he could display the artifacts he’d found in his basement, a tribute to his family heritage, and the entry fee could help him stay afloat. Charles accepted the proposal, and instead of selling the items, he chose to hold onto them and honor them. Charles tried to be a better man; he attended Chastity’s funeral, he was there at Ricky’s wedding, and he continued to spend time with his best friends, especially Clarence. Anniston had left the money he’d promised to Charles in the cage, and that helped him pay the mortgage and start his life afresh. It was a small sum, considering the damage that Anniston had done to the world, but then again he was not alone; the world was designed to benefit men like him to oppress men like Charles, and while his guilt ultimately consumed him, Charles found the support of his community and got the courage to reimagine his life all over again. In the final shot of The Man in My Basement, Charles was seen reading Frantz Fanon’s “The Wretched of The Earth,” which further establishes his desire to break free from the shackles that the world sought to impose on him. The stranger changed the course of his life; while Anniston found peace in death, the confrontation helped Charles find freedom from everything that had been holding him back for so long.
Was Anniston imaginary?
Anniston represents the racist, intolerant, violent world, but can one interpret his presence as entirely imaginary? In the film, everything takes quite a literal turn. There were real-world consequences that Charles was dealing with because of Anniston, so if we completely nullify his presence, it would also suggest that the foreclosure on the mortgage was not real. But that’s quite far-fetched, because it was the primary reason Charles got extremely desperate. The Man in My Basement chooses to make Anniston a living, breathing human being, probably because of the visual medium. While assuming Anniston was only an idea works to a certain degree, the fact that the parcel was delivered (we also got to see it from Irene’s perspective, and the delivery truck and the man were very much there), Narciss heard Anniston’s muffled screams, Charles used Anniston’s money to clear his mortgage, buried his body, and burned the letters he left behind—all of it suggests that the intent was to make Anniston a very real person and not entirely imaginary.
