NECRONOMICON (1993)

 

(a.k.a. NECRONOMICON: BOOK OF THE DEAD and H.P. LOVECRAFT’S NECRONOMICON; directors: Christophe Gans, Shûsuke Kaneko, and Brian Yuzna. Screenwriters: Brent V. Friedman, Christopher Gans and Kazunori Itô)

 

Review

Plot: This four-part anthology film, inspired by H.P. Lovecraft’s “fiction” (says one librarian monk), revolves around Lovecraft visiting a library of rare books, a grieving man who inherits a house with supernatural issues, a murder-beat reporter interviewing a strange woman in freezing circumstances, and a serial killer whose crimes are the tip of a cosmic iceberg.

 

In “The Library” (NECRONOMICON ‘s frame story), set in America in the 1920s, a plotting H.P. Lovecraft enters an arcane library maintained by secretive monks─a place where he’s a regular visitor. When he goes into an off-limits area, he unwittingly(?) courts cataclysmic events.

Jeffrey Combs (HOLIDAY HELL, 2019) played a nervous, thrilled Lovecraft.  Tony Azito (THE ADDAMS FAMILY, 1991) played a “Librarian.” Juan Fernández (THE COLLECTOR, 2009) played an “Attendant.” “Library” director Brian Yuzna played Lovecraft’s “Cabbie.” Brent V. Friedman (TICKS, 1993) wrote “Library”’s screenplay.

 

“The Drowned” centers around Edward De Lapoer, a grieving widower, who inherits his family’s empty oceanside hotel, a business with a supernatural history─one that threatens his immediate, housebound circumstances.

Bruce Payne (HOWLING VI: THE FREAKS, 1991) played Edward Da Lapoer. Richard Lynch (HALLOWEEN, 2007) played Jethro Da Lapoer. Belinda Bauer (SERVANTS OF TWILIGHT, 1991) played Nancy Gallmore. Maria Ford (SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE III, 1990) played Clara Lapoer, Edward’s dead wife. Denice D. Lewis (END OF DAYS, 1999) played Emma Da Lapoer, Edward’s ancestor. An uncredited Vincent Hammond (THE RELIC, 1997) played “Darkman,” a seaborne creature who brings Edward a horrifying gift.

Christophe Gans (SILENT HILL, 2006) directed “Drowned,” and co-authored it with author Brent V. Friedman.

For those inclined toward reading, “Drowned” sports elements seen in Lovecraft’s real-life 1923 story “The Rats in the Walls.”

 

In “The Cold,” based on Lovecraft’s 1926 story “Cool Air,” a Boston-based reporter (Dale Porkel) interviews a young woman in a gelid apartment while she tells him about a former occupant (Emily Osterman) whose meeting with the strange but seemingly harmless Dr. Madden radically changes her life.

Shûsuke Kaneko (DEATH NOTE, 2006) helmed “Cold,” co-penning it with writers Kazunori Itô (GHOST IN THE SHELL, 1995) and Brent V. Friedman.

Dennis Christopher (FADE TO BLACK, 1980) played Dale Porkel. Bess Meyer (HEATHERS, 1988) played Emily Osterman. David Warner (THE OMEN, 1976) played Dr. Richard Madden. Millie Perkins (THE WITCH WHO CAME FROM THE SEA, 1976) played Lena, Dr. Madden’s intense, longtime assistant.

 

“Whispers” concerns a pregnant police officer, Sarah (Signy Coleman) and fellow officer Paul investigating a series of murders committed by the media-dubbed “Butcher,” a task made more difficult when a car crash in a bad warehouse area opens them to more brutal, occult terrors.

Obba Babatundé (THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, 1991) played Paul, Sarah’s frustrated partner in love and cop-work. Judith Drake (HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES, 2003) played Mrs. Benedict. Don Calfa (THE RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD, 1985) played Mr. Benedict.

“Whispers,” inspired by Lovecraft’s 1930 novella The Whisperer in the Darkness, was directed by Brian Yuzna, who co-wrote it with (again) Brent V. Friedman.

 

NECRONOMICON is a standout portmanteau film, from its excellent actors (putting in genre-true, often over-the-top performances), wow-worthy gore FX (provided by Tom Savini, Screaming Mad George and others), its all-around behind-the-scenes talent, and mostly solid pacing (the last two segments run a scoche long). As a Lovecraft-based work, it’s one of the better adaptations, NECRONOMICON is worth checking out, if you’re looking for a great-talent-creating-a-B-movie flick, and don’t expect it to reinvent the horrifying anthology subgenre.

THE CRIMSON CULT (1968)

 

(a.k.a. CURSE OF THE CRIMSON ALTAR. Director: Vernon Sewell. Screenwriters: Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln, based on Jerry Sohl’s story, loosely extrapolated from H.P. Lovecraft’s story “Dreams in the Witch House.”)

 

Review

Antiques dealer Robert Manning (Mark Eden) visits his family’s English ancestral home of Greymarsh when his brother, Peter (Denys Peek), disappears during a business trip. Peter’s last known location is Craxted Lodge.

Once Robert arrives, he is warmly greeted by Craxted’s owner (Morley), a descendant of Lavinia Morley (a green-skinned Barbara Steele) who was burned at the stake in 1652. Also in residence is Eve Morley (Virginia Wetherell, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, 1971), Morley’s niece, who becomes Robert’s romantic interest and fellow investigator. A cryptic local historian of the occult (Professor John Marsh) also visits Craxted; he is barely civil to Robert.

Robert’s questions get the run-around treatment, so he further investigates, at night having kaleidoscopic nightmares about a green- and red-lit room, and half-naked servants (men and women) who hold goats and writhe around Lavinia, sitting on her throne.

Eventually, all becomes clear with help from surprising quarters, ending in a visually fun (cheesy for some) end-shot.

CRIMSON, is a mostly bland, silly admixture of a straightlaced murder mystery and pseudo-psychedelic hippie-ish Lovecraftian nightmare, with its filler party scenes, a sex scene, and overlong, investigative-dream sequences. By the time Robert has figured out what happened to his brother and why, it’s a great, is this movie done yet? situation. CRIMSON’s behind-the-scenes crew made a good-looking movie, made darker with Peter Knight’s spare, effective music score.

Beyond the seething and sensual Barbara Steele (PIRANHA, 1978), a big part of what CRIMSON gets right is its top-billed leads: Christopher Lee (SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN, 1970) as the polite Morley, who is hiding something; Boris Karloff (BLACK SABBATH, 1963), in one of his final roles, as Professor John Marsh, whose brusque manners hide something as well; Michael Gough (DR. TERROR’S HOUSE OF HORRORS, 1965) as Elder, the Morleys’ troubled butler; and Rupert Davies (DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE, 1968) as “The Vicar.”

CRIMSON, with its not-quite-psychedelic trial scenes, solid behind-the-scenes work and worthwhile actors, is a “meh”movie, not terrible, not great─and worth seeing if you’re a completist fan of any of its leads, as long as you expect CRIMSON to be one of their lesser flicks.

DEATHBED (2002)

 

(Director: Danny Draven. Screenplay by John Strysik, based on George Barry’s 1977 film DEATH BED: THE BED THAT EATS.)

 

Review

A young couple─children’s book artist Karen (Tanya Dempsey, SHRIEKER, 1988) and photographer Jerry (Brave Matthews, AMERICAN ZOMBIELAND, 2020)─move into a Los Angeles, California flat, unaware that it has a murder-haunted bed in its upstairs room. They find it and begin sleeping on the quaint-looking, metal-framed bed on which the deaths took place. The couple experience waking and sleeping nightmares about the 1920-30s psychosexual killings (shown in black and white flashbacks) of “Ghost Man” (Michael Sonye, billed as Dukey Flyswatter, HOLLYWOOD CHAINSAW HOOKERS, 1988) strangling two of seven women (including Louise Astor, played by Meagan Mangum) with silk neck ties.

The effect of Jerry and Karen’s nightmares bleed into their work and relationships─particularly their dealings with their on-site landlord, Art (Joe Estevez, SOULTAKER, 1990).

Produced by Stuart Gordon, Charles Band (Full Moon Pictures founder) and others, DEATHBED is a loose remake of George Barry’s way-different 1977 flick DEATH BED: THE BED THAT EATS PEOPLE. This remake is a good, makes-great-use-of-its-low-budget work. The production design/art direction (courtesy of Johnny R. Long and others) is mood-consistent with its spare-but-effective soundtrack (composer: James T. Sale, THE HAUNTING OF MOLLY HARTLEY, 2008) and relatively restrained gory special effects (Mark Bautista, MANK, 2020). The direction, Hollywood(land)-centric story (which slyly references H.P. Lovecraft) and flow of the movie is tight as can be, given its mostly well-acted characters and their personalities/histories.

Sonye/Flyswatter, an actor, screenwriter, and lyricist/lead singer of several horror punk/metal bands, primarily Haunted Garage and Penis Flytrap, is fun and ghoulish as “Ghost Man,” the spectral creep/killer whose crimes and spirit continue on well beyond his death. Film nerds may appreciate the brief appearance of Constance Estevez,  billed as Constance Anderson, as a “Maternal Model”─according to IMDb, in 2004 she married Joe Estevez, Martin Sheen’s younger and equally prolific brother.

DEATHBED is a worthwhile movie if you don’t mind its solid-for-its-limited-budget effects, occasional lapses into questionable acting (by supporting players) and its overall low budget. The filmmakers achieve what they set out to do─create a solid, tightly shot and edited minimally funded film─and that's all any reasonable viewer can expect, given the filmmakers' resources.

THE DUNWICH HORROR (1970)

 

(Director: Daniel Haller. Screenplay by Curtis Hanson (billed as Curtis Lee Hanson), Henry Rosenbaum, Ronald Silkosky, based on H.P. Lovecraft’s story of the same name.)

Storyline

A young man, who’s more than he seems, tries to return a race of monstrous, god-like creatures via sacrifice in Dunwich, Massachusetts.

Review

Miskatonic University, Arkham, Massachusetts. A strange young man, Wilbur Whateley (Dean Stockwell, THE WEREWOLF OF WASHINGTON, 1973) attends a lecture by Dr. Henry Armitage (Ed Begley, ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW, 1959). He attracts the attention of two young women, Nancy Wagner and Elizabeth Hamilton. Nancy (Sandra Dee, NIGHT GALLERY, 1971-2), returning Armitage’s copy of the Necronomicon to the library, is curious, charmed by Wilbur. Elizabeth is repelled by him.

Wilbur reads the Necronomicon in the library, where he also meets Armitage. He invites Wilbur to have dinner with him, Elizabeth and Nancy. After dinner, Nancy offers him a ride back to his nearby hometown (Dunwich). He accepts.

In Dunwich, he invites her into his ornate, occult-symbol-adorned house. Within the house, Nancy hears ghostly theremin music and ocean swells, and has flash-visions of orgiastic multicolor-painted women, causing her to become dizzy. Due to the lateness of the hour and the fact that her car won’t run, he offers her a bedroom to sleep in, one that “hasn’t been used in years.”

Thus begins the nightmarish, sometimes goofy work that is DUNWICH, climaxing at the Whateleys’ cliffside altar (The Devil’s Hopyard), replete with a soundtrack that incorporates growl-distorted sounds of flocking seagulls.

This film has a lot going for it. It has great actors in the over-the-top roles, an intense, miasmic (if sometimes unintentionally goofy) atmosphere and often solid pacing. Its FX (wild color palates, weird soundtrack noises, quick-cut visions, and Monster POV) is effective and intoxicating for its filmic period. Its scope─the full range of the Old Ones’ influence is experienced over a wide area─is ambitious for a modest-budget project like this.

The end-twists work, making DUNWICH more fun and goofy. And the actors, who put their all into their roles, sell the characters.

The film sports a noteworthy cast: Sam Jaffe (THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, 1951) as Old Man Whateley; Donna Baccala (BRAINSCAN, 1994) as Elizabeth Hamilton; Michael Fox (YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, 1974) as Dr. Raskin; Talia Shire, billed as Talia Coppola, as Nurse Cora; and Jason Wingreen (THE TWILIGHT ZONE, 1960-3) as Sheriff Harrison.

DUNWICH is a fun, color- and mood-intense Lovecraftian horror flick, one worth watching if you have a tolerance for antiquated counter-culture-infused nightmares, occasionally slow pacing, and flirtations with cheesiness, and are a Lovecraft fan.