TIFF 2025 Exclusive: The Man In The Basement interviews with Corey Hawkins, Anna Diop, and director Nadia Latif
Hitting select US theaters starting September 12th, 2025 then on Hulu is the psychological thriller The Man In The Basement, directed by Nadia Latif starring Corey Hawkins and Willem Dafoe, with Anna Diop & Tamara Lawrance. The screenplay is written by Walter Mosley & Nadia Latif; based on Walter Mosley's book of the same name.
In the African American neighborhood of Sag Harbor, New York, Charles Blakey (Corey Hawkins) is out of work, out of luck and on the verge of foreclosure on his ancestral home.
A knock on the door from a mysterious businessman, Anniston Bennet (Willem Dafoe), brings a bizarre & lucrative proposition; rent his dusty stand-up basement out for the summer and receive enough money to clear his debts for good. Once Charles accepts, he finds himself led down a terrifying path that confronts his family's ghosts & locks the men in a terrifying puzzle, at the heart of it race, the source of their traumas and the root of all evil.
Blackfilmandtv.com's Wilson Morales talks to Corey Hawkins, Anna Diop, and director Nadia Latif on The Man In The Basement