The Dunwich Horror

 Year:  1970

Director:  Daniel Haller

Screenplay:  Curtis Hanson, Henry Rosenbaum and Ronald Silkosky, based on the short story The Dunwich Horror by H. P. Lovecraft

Starring:  Sandra Dee, Dean Stockwell, Ed Begley, Lloyd Bochner, Donna Baccala, Joanne Moore Jordan, Sam Jaffe

Running Time:  90 minutes

Genre:  Horror

At the Miskatonic University in Arkham, Massachusetts, student Nancy Wagner (Dee) becomes fascinated with the strange Wilbur Whateley (Stockwell) who is desperate to get his hands on the University's copy of a very rare and valuable book knows as the Necronomicon.  Nancy accepts Wilbur's invitation to spend some time at his mansion in the nearby small town of Dunwich.  At the mansion, Nancy is disturbed by Wilbur's grandfather (Jaffe).  It turns out that the Whateley's have a very bad reputation in the town.  Wilbur is obsessed with using the Necronomicon to bring back the "Old Ones" who used to rule the earth, and plans to sacrifice Nancy in an occult ritual.

American writer H. P. Lovecraft has been hugely influential in the fields of horror and science fiction.  In particular his brand of cosmic horror known as the "Cthulhu Mythos" which postulates that long ago, Earth was ruled by monstrous creatures known  as the "Old Ones" who, due to their evil ways, were banished to another dimension by the yet more powerful "Elder Gods".  The immortal Old Ones still exist and are eternally desperate to get back and reclaim their dominion over Earth.  They can be summoned by various rituals and incantations, which have thoughtfully been written down in various ancient grimoires, most famously the Necronomicon.  While Lovecraft has certainly been influential his work has proved challenging to filmmakers.  His conception of creatures that can drive to madness any human unfortunate enough to so much as look at them is difficult to render on film, even with CGI.  Lovecraft is also controversial due to his blatant racism and misogyny.  There have been successful Lovecraft adaptations, however, such as Re-Animator (1985), From Beyond (1986) and Color Out of Space (2019).  This film, from the stable of B-movie maestro Roger Corman, is enjoyable enough, but not one of the best.  Incidentally, Roger Corman previously directed one of the first Lovecraft adaptations, The Haunted Palace, which was officially part of Corman's series of eight films based on Edgar Allan Poe, but the plot is actually from the Lovecraft story The Case of Charles Dexter Ward.  Loosely based on the 1928 short story by Lovecraft, The Dunwich Horror does a decent enough job of putting Lovecraft onto the screen.  Although Sandra Dee never really seems particularly frightened by the goings-on around her; Dean Stockwell gives an intense, quiet performances as the wicked warlock, and is really the film's highlight.  Veteran actor Ed Begley, in one of his final roles, seems slightly embarrassed in his role as the heroic professor who races to save the day.  Talia Shire (here credited as Talia Coppola), who would go on to appear in The Godfather and Rocky series, appears in a small role as a nurse.  The film is full of bizarre psychedelic effects, which are lively if unintentionally funny, and frequent dream sequences, which just really seem shoehorned in to get some nudity into the film.  The film is watchable enough, and there is enough going on that it never really gets boring, however it is likely to disappoint Lovecraft fans and is probably not enough to convert non-fans.  

Dean Stockwell in The Dunwich Horror

From Beyond

Year of Release:  1986

Director:  Stuart Gordon

Screenplay:  Dennis Paoli, story by Brian Yuzna, Stuart Gordon and Dennis Paoli, based on the short story "From Beyond" by H. P. Lovecraft

Starring:  Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton, Ted Sorel, Ken Foree, Carolyn Purdy-Gordon

Running Time:  82 minutes

Genre:  Horror, science-fiction

Dr. Edward Pretorius (Sorel) and Crawford Tillinghast (Combs) create a machine called the Resonator which stimulates the pineal gland in the human brain, allowing a person to see beyond normal, perceptible reality, revealing grotesque monsters.  One of them bites off Pretorius' head, and Crawford is accused of his murder.  Intrigued by his story, ambitious psychiatrist Dr. Katherine McMichaels (Crampton) and Detective Bubba Brownlee (Foree) persuade Crawford to recreate the experiment.  They soon discover that Crawford was telling the truth, and that Pretorius has been absorbed by the creatures and returns hungry for more prey.

This film reunites many of the cast and key behind the scenes personnel behind cult hit Re-Animator (1985) for another take on the works of influential American writer H. P. Lovecraft.  This film, written by Dennis Paoli from a story by Paoli, director Stuart Gordon and producer Brian Yuzna is very loosely based on a very brief minor H. P. Lovecraft story written in 1920 and published in 1934.   As with Re-Animator much of the material is played more for laughs than scares, and is full of slimy, rubbery monstrosities and gore galore.  There's a surprisingly strong sexual element here as well.  A scene where a monster attempts to assault Barbara Crampton is queasily unpleasant and strikes a sour note on what is otherwise an essentially fun, gory monster movie.  Later, in one of the film's most memorable scenes, the buttoned-up, serious Crampton appears in full leather bondage gear and also, if you are so inclined, there is the sight of Ken Foree in very small briefs.  It's one of those films where everyone seems to be having a ball.  Jeffrey Combs overacts tremendously as the twitchy, bug-eyed scientist; Barbara Crampton is good as ever as the sympathetic if slightly sinister psychiatrist and she conveys well her slow transformation under the influence of the Resonator; Ted Sorel provides a fun pantomime performance as the hissable villain under increasing layers of latex; Ken Foree, who is possibly best known for Dawn of the Dead (1978), is engaging as the likeable tough-guy detective; and Carolyn Purdy-Gordon is fun as the psychiatrist who despises Katherine and her methods.  While the special effects may look a dated today, the gruesome monsters are imaginatively designed and it's all satisfactorily gross.  At a brisk 82 minutes the whole thing keeps moving along.  It's the kind of film that is best watched late at night maybe with a few drinks and a few likeminded friends.  None of it is supposed to be taken seriously.       

Barbara Crampton and Ted Sorel in From Beyond

Color Out of Space

 Year of Release:  2019

Director:  Richard Stanley

Screenplay:  Richard Stanley and Scarlett Amaris, based on the short story "The Colour Out of Space" by H. P. Lovecraft

Starring:  Nicolas Cage, Joely Richardson, Elliot Knight, Madeleine Arthur, Q'orianka Kilcher, Tommy Chong

Running Time:  111 minutes

Genre:  Science-fiction, horror

Nathan Gardner (Cage) and Theresa Gardner (Richardson) move with their three children:  Teenagers Lavinia (Arthur) and Benny (Brendan Meyer) and youngest son Jack (Julian Hilliard) to a remote farm in the middle of the New England woods.  One night a meteor crashes down near their home, releasing bizarre coloured lights and seeming to have a strange effect on anyone who comes near it.  Shortly afterwards the meteor seems to vanish.  Hydrologist Ward Phillips (Knight), who is surveying the area for a dam development discovers that something strange seems to have contaminated the water.  As strange events happen around the Gardner family, local animals and people begin to undergo nightmarish transformations.

American writer Howard Philips Lovecraft is one of the most influential and problematic horror and science-fiction authors of all time.  His work is challenging for filmmakers is difficult not only for the horrific racism, sexism and anti-semitism that blights his life and writing, but also Lovecraft's writings tended to be about dimensions and creatures so terrible that the very sight of them would drive a human insane, which is very difficult to realise on screen.  Lovecraft has been adapted to the screen before, perhaps most notably in Re-Animator (1985) and From Beyond (1986), but this is one of the best depictions of Lovecraftian horror that I have seen.  Cult film director Richard Stanley and co-writer Scarlett Amaris update the film enough to be acceptable to modern audiences, while still keeping the cosmic horror feel of the story.  Stanley creates beautifully artistic images, with special effects which range from the subtle to the completely psychedelic, alongside gruesome 1980s style pulp horror.  In the lead role Nicolas Cage goes from quiet and subdued, to his trademark full-on manic frenzy.  The film is overly long and it takes a while to get going, also Cage's over the top performance in the final third of the film becomes almost funny.  It is a good film, not without it's flaws, but is one of the most successful H.P. Lovecraft adaptations, and is full of striking, memorable imagery.

Nicolas Cage sees the Color Out of Space

The Haunted Palace

Year of Release:  1963
Director:  Roger Corman
Screenplay:  Charles Beaumont, based on the story The Case of Charles Dexter Ward by H. P. Lovecraft
Starring:  Vincent Price, Debra Paget, Lon Chaney Jr.
Running Time:  87 minutes
Genre:  Horror

In the 1700s, the small town of Arkham is in the grip of fear due to the evil warlock  Joseph Curwen (Price) who lives in a large palace overlooking the town.  The townspeople eventually grab Curwen and burn him to death, but not before he places a curse on the town.  110 years later Curwen's great-great-grandson Charles Dexter Ward (Price again) and his wife Anne (Paget) arrive in Arkham to move in to the palace which has passed down to him.  However the Wards are disturbed by the hostile reception they receive from the townspeople, and by the horrific deformities that seem to afflict many of Arkham's inhabitants.  Nevertheless, they move into the palace, but almost immediately Ward starts to display many strange personality changes, and Anne comes to realise that he is being slowly possessed by Curwen's evil spirit which still haunts the palace.

Despite the film being sold as based on Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Haunted Palace", it is really an adaptation of the H. P. Lovecraft novella The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and really has no connection with Poe at all, aside from a couple of brief extracts, one of which is narrated by Price as the scene changes from the 18th to the 19th Century, and the other appears as text as the film ends.  There are a lot of Lovecraft elements in the film:  It's set in Lovecraft's fictional town of Arkham, the evil book Necronomicon appears, and Lovecraft's recurring dimension-spanning monsters Cthulhu and Yog-Sothoth are namechecked.  Other than that it is a fun slice of old-school gothic with mist-shrouded graveyards, angry villager wielding burning torches, secret passages and very nasty things locked in attics and dungeons.  Vincent Price hams it up for all he's worth in the dual role, and seems to be having enormous fun throughout.  Debra Paget is affecting as Anne Ward, and the rest of the supporting cast are all solid.  However the film is slow by modern standards, and it is quite creaky in places.  It's not a perfect film but it is a good film, and if you're looking for a good old-fashioned spooky story then you can do a lot worse.

Cathie Merchant, Darlene Lucht and Vincent Price in The Haunted Palace