In the African American neighbourhood 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 and 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 and locks the men in a terrifying puzzle, at the heart of it, race, the source of their traumas and the root of all evil. THE MAN IN MY BASEMENT contains several sequences with flashing lights that may affect those who are susceptible to photosensitive epilepsy or have other photo sensitivities.