Lovecraft's Corner #9: The Resurrected

Trick 'r Treat! Halloween is my favorite time of the year - when you ask people to watch a horror film with you, they almost always say yes instead of questioning your tastes. Heck, I can take my Lovecraft anthology to classes and no one comments or gives me weird looks.
Speaking of Lovecraft, this is my treat to you guys (or another trick): another review of a Lovecraft adaptation! Today's film is "The Resurrected", also called "Shatterbrain", a 1992 film that I believe has earned the right to the alternate title. It's based on "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward", one of my favorite Lovecraft stories, and appears to be relatively obscure. Does it deserve this reputation? Will it shatter your brain in a good way or a bad way that leaves you screaming for therapy? Let's find out.

Yes, spoilers ahead. As always.

We start with credits - light radiating from a single spot as the words "The Resurrected" rise up, and turn red before the main cast is listed. Nothing terribly special - budget was only 5 million. Then again, to be fair, this story shouldn't require a large budget to adapt, and I can still have hopes. The credits then cut to a large building with a thunderstorm going on overhead - and a Biblical quote appears on the screen. I don't get why adaptations will throw in religious references when they're seeking a quote, though at least this one's relevant - oh, right, movie. So, it then cuts inside, where a man goes into an office to tell his superior Charles Ward has escaped - ah, this must be the mental hospital. Hopes rising. They go to his room to find a terrible mess - a decapitated body, blood everywhere, and what looks like the remains of an explosive. "What in the hell happened here?" Just a Great Old One rave, sir, nothing to worry about. They find Ward's suitcase outside - and then a lightning bolt takes us to a new place in a city - specifically 'March Agency', where a man is speaking into a recorder discussing 'the case of Charles Dexter Ward'. The prelude to the events sounds rather like your typical ramblings of a Lovecraft protagonist. Hopes higher. Say, how far in are we anyhow? ....Five minutes? Movie, if you end up dashing my hopes after these first five minutes, I am going to trash you.

The flashback starts, three weeks ago, in the city of Providence. ...compressed timeline, I can cope. After some talk, it then goes inside an office with our protagonist, John March, meeting a lady named Claire Ward.

....please be the mother, please be the-

She talks about how her husband (crap. Another love interest) has moved out of the house, will not talk to her, and is suspected of smuggling corpses. He had left abruptly from a party to his laboratory and stayed long in the night, with shouts coming from the place. She told him to stop being so loud, and, in response, he moved to the country with his assistant, Dr. Ash. Out there, he's apparently been working late into the night and receiving long boxes. March promises to investigate, sending someone to talk to the police. He goes out to Pautuxet Valley, commenting in his narration that it seems like "they're hiding something". Pautuxet is Innsmouth, got it.

He stops at a gas station and, after a jump scare, discovers dogs are terrified of something. He asks for directions and is advised to follow the smell of Death. He finally finds the new lab and tries talking to Ward, camera shaking slightly (yeah, low budget. Oh well). Ward turns him away, not giving any real information about his activities. As he drives away, he narrates as he passes by a cemetery.

After finding an article with the title straight from the book, March receives a call from his police contact, who says they found eight boxes of old human remains and learned that there's been a rash of tomb-snatching of occult scholars over in Europe. However, Ward denies he ordered the bodies and can't be prosecuted since there's no proof.

March meets Claire again over dinner (learning they haven't been together long) and tells her about the bones. She says he first acted strange when he received items from a freshly-deceased obscure relative, mostly papers referencing Joseph Curwen. They visited Curwen's old house (Ward's current place) and found, concealed under wallpaper, the painting of Curwen. He then continued digging into Curwen's things. The two visit her home, discussing Ward a little, and then go out to the lab to find refrigerated animal blood, the trunk of items (emptied) and a picture of "Saturn Devouring His Son" (which, at first, I mistook as a reference to Pickman, though I now understand that story's inspiration).

Going home, March learns he has a message from one of Ward's neighbors. When calling him doesn't work, he drives to his home to find the police there. The man's dead and, lacking any other answers for the gruesome mutilation and blood all over the room, chalk it up to "animal attack".

To paraphrase some of the other watchers, it's great how not even the officer giving that explanation believes it.

March immediately suspects Ward but doesn't tell the police. He instead returns to the office, with the feeling he's being watched, works on the computer, and has a nightmare in a lovely blue tint, that starts with footage from the movie and grows increasingly....uh, odd. Don't think Freud can help you there, pal.

One of his employees comes in to find out he'd spent the night. The next comes in to announce he'd quit smoking, and the three just hang out until Claire comes in. If the two employees survive after that, I'll be amazed.

So, March informs Claire about the neighbor's death. Claire, in return, has a recording of Ward sounding extremely desperate and warning them about Dr. Ash. So, naturally, the two visit his new place. The man from before tries to refuse them, but Ward, speaking in a hoarse whisper, invites them in. He speaks a bit oddly, and Claire tries to get him medical help. He turns her away and seems to forget simple dates; he won't even leave to celebrate the anniversary of his marriage and refuses to tell them what he's doing, only that he requires six weeks. Claire leaves, distraught, and March drives her away. She swears he's not Ward; March suggests perhaps Ward is a bit delusional and thinks he's possessed by the ghost of Curwen.

March continues keeping an eye on Ward, learning about his activities to prove he's insane. They gather a lot of information - ordering fresh blood, bank thought his signatures were forged, possible tunnels in the area - and eventually get the police to seize him to be committed.  Claire, worried for her husband, follows, and ends up being caught by Ward as a hostage. Way to help. This is why I hate Lovecraft love interests, they are so useless.

March tries to help and get attacked; luckily, this frees Claire and allows the police to subdue Ward in a straitjacket. At the mental hospital, Ward claims a need for fresh blood and raw flesh to stay in control; not having it would leave a "damnable mess". The doctor also mentions to March and Claire that Ward's metabolism and respiration is irregular and slowed and that he doesn't expect him to be released.

Claire is awoken late at night, later, by March going through the trunk and finding a diary sewn into the side. Specifically, the diary of Ezra Ward.

(Note: there's a slight skip. There may have been a scene missing)

The next day, the agency and Claire discuss the contents - Curwen was oddly old, considered to be a warlock, and smuggled odd things into his home. Ward discusses how he explored the area to find proof of Curwen's malice and kept in contact with Eliza, the wife of Curwen who was supposed to marry Ezra. Eliza tells him about the odd shipments and a strange wound he had received and refused help for. He observes shipments of dead cattles and coffins, along with a secret doorway near the river. While Ezra awaits the decision of the town's council, a rainstorm washes away the river bank, causing something odd to wash up. Hey, just like the sto-

HOLY MOTHER OF GOD WHAT THE HELL AM I LOOKING AT

Hot damn, I guess we know where the movie's budget went.....

Anyhow, they burn that THING and decide they'll take care of Curwen. 100 privateers march on Curwen's barn, breaking in - and the diary ends there without detailing the results of the raid. Depressing.

So, next scene is a news reporter detailing a murder of yet another one of Ward's neighbors and another murder. Both are equally mutilated. The idea of telling the police comes up, and is shot down for the fact no one would ever believe it. They decide instead that, since Claire technically owns the place, they can legally blow it up - but she'll only do it once they know what's down there. March and the other man from the agency drive to the farmhouse and, on the way, get a jump scare courtesy of Dr. Ash and a rearview mirror. C'mon, movie, be better than that.


So they arrive at the house, where Claire is waiting for them. They grab the explosives and guns and go inside down to the cellar to find the entrance to below the house. It's located under a cabinet, not exactly well-hidden, and releases a foul stench when opened. Probably either corpses or Arby's after a few days.

So, of course, the three descend into this hellhole, and we find out in the process they only have one flashlight. Being in the private detective agency must pay horribly. So, past the ladder down is a spiral staircase leading further down. Ominous music crescendoes to...a fork in the path and a lantern. C'mon, movie, you're better than that. Just get Merlin in and then deal with - oh, right.

So, one path is blocked, forcing them down the other path. There are doors down the path, but they're all locked. This is probably a good thing; for all we know, there are more abominations behind those doors, including the monster from earlier, heirs to the Great Old Ones, and Uwe Boll films.

So, Claire finds an unlocked door, taking them to a room filled with books and a.....I'm sorry, in my version, it's too dark to see. Anyhow, so the flashlight goes out briefly (FORESHADOWING!) and then they find the diary of Joseph Curwen, which implies he had eluded death. There's also an interesting passage about ripping flesh off of improper owners and a drawing of two skeletons connected by fleshy strands. Betting this'll be important later.

The next room is a lab full of beakers and urns. March thinks it's a swell idea to tip one over to see the contents. The other guy from the agency thinks Curwen was just mad, so March takes a bit of ash, sprinkles it on meat lying around, and drips elixir on it, growing a horribly deformed hand and proving Curwen was right. Gotta love these effects, no sarcasm intended.

The flashlight dies, just leaving them with the lantern, as they investigate further to find a large, damp chamber lined with covered and uncovered pits. One emitting smoke is still growling, and closer investigation shows it to be one of the near-human abominations, which March only calls "Mistakes or screw-ups". You call them that, I call them the best argument ever for the eradication of science and magic arts.

The three get ready to go when they encounter one of the abominations above ground (and I learn pausing on these things is a BAD idea). The lantern is dropped, breaking it, and they use matches to light their path briefly. The other agency man is grabbed and pulled down a pit, accompanied by the most wonderful crunchings. Yeesh. ...still, I called it. He didn't survive to the end.

So, the match goes out, they light another, the abominations are attacking. While trying to escape, Claire is knocked out, leaving March to save her and destroy this hellish place. He tries fending them with a shotgun and then manages to push one down a pit. The flashlight dies as Claire wakes up, leaving them one last match to leave with and several of the abominations still lurking about. The match stays lit long enough to find a new lantern and, oddly, Charles suitcase. March sets up the explosives, and they flee into the storm outside, Claire unconscious again. March blows the place to hell in a very satisfying moment and then drives to a hospital to deal with Claire. The doctor says she has a concussion and is pregnant - relevancy uncertain. March goes back to his office to examine Charles' suitcase - inside is Dr. Ash's sunglasses and beard, along with bloodied bones. No question about what happened.

A lightning strike takes us to March's arrival at the mental hospital to visit Ward - and calls him out as the actual Joseph Curwen. He then tells Curwen he blew up his lab and brought Charles' bones to the hospital. Curwen points out that March would not be taken seriously and then explains how he returned (along with an awkward scene showing Curwen regenerating in front of Ward in nothing but skin....awkward does not even begin to cover it), the creation of Dr. Ash, and the fate of Ward. Gotta say, it takes guts to eat your own flesh and- *shot* Sorry. Anyhow. Curwen keeps lecturing March about what he's accomplished. He then mentions that he, as the dead, is still hungry - and breaks through his straitjacket. March tries calling in help, but Curwen punches him. An aide comes in, but Ward demonstrates supernatural strength in killing him.

Curwen approaches March - he will kill March but go unpunished due to his insanity, feign a recovery, and effect release. He then bites into March, who reveals he grabbed a vial of the resurrective elixir and throws it at Ward's bones, which then then reassemble into a moving, talking skeletons that starts ripping the flesh from his bones. ....I'll let Kriken sum this up:

Kriken_8: A skeleton killing a zombie... Why hasn't this been used in more movies?

Red energy starts escaping Curwen - flesh starts attaching to the skeleton - and the resulting energy burst destroys them both. March opens the window for air, then throws out Ward's suitcase to make it look like he'd escaped. He bandages his wound and then leaves, and his narration resumes briefly. He made it look like Ward escaped to spare her the truth. As he leaves, the orderly asks him how Ward's doing, and March replies, "Resting peacefully."


So, how is this as an adaptation? Pretty good, really. It follows the story faithfully - there are moments where they even quote the dialog straight from the original story - and while changes are made, it's mostly to fit into the new date of the story or because other elements *coughMerlin* were not included. The timeline's compressed, but I think only the fans of the original story will realize that. The horror of the abominations Curwen fashioned are captured pretty well in this film and the detective manages to come off as a convincing character. Also: a zombie killed by a skeleton. You will never see that again. This is definitely one of my favorite adaptations, and I'd recommend it to Lovecraft fans. Kriken? Your thoughts?


Thank you RBY. Next to Re-Animator this has to be my new favorite adaption. As a horror movie, I feel it works very well relying more on atmosphere and creepy set designs rather than jump scares (Okay a few time) and horrible effects. For such a low budget as you indicated, the effects are rather magnificent in my opinion, they aren't lifelike, but they are scary and you will remember them. As for the downsides, Claire was rather bad and the movie seemed to bog down at certain points. But overall, if you want to see a good horror movie for Halloween you've never seen before, I'd say check it out

Lovecraft Corner #8: The Unnamable

Hi, guys, RBY back. I'd like to open with another mini-explanation, similar to last time. In all honesty, Lovecraft is something that Hollywood really should shy away from adapting. Lovecraft managed to explain why in one of his short stories, in which his author avatar (Randolph Carter) and another character discuss whether or not it's possible for something to be so hideous as to be indescribable. To spoil the ending, the two are attacked and, when Randolph wakes up in the hospital and asks his friend what it was, this is his reply:

"It was everywhere - a gelatin - a slime - yet it had shapes, a thousand shapes of horror beyond all memory. There were eyes - and a blemish. It was the pit - the maelstrom - the ultimate abomination. Carter, it was the unnamable!"

...Yes, in some twisted logic, it was a story that had an indescribable monster and was saying how some things can't be described that was adapted into this month's movie. A medium in which there's little left to the imagination and description is always plausible (perhaps there's a film that's pulled off the concept of an indescribable beast, but I never saw it). ....why would you do this, Hollywood?

As always spoilers ahead.

It's your favorite slasher film with Lovecraft references.

....that didn't work, huh. Okay, let's start again...

The film opens onto a dark and stormy night, back in the late 1600s/early 1700s, where a horrible shrieking can be heard for nearly five minutes, set over a man reading. He goes up to the attic to let the breathing sound effect out and, for his troubles, is killed brutally. The story returns to present-day, where it's revealed to be a story told by one Randolph Carter. He follows this with a story about a boy who, 50 years ago, broke inside, and what he saw drove him insane. It turns out he's telling this story to two friends: Howard, who doesn't know what to think, and Joel, who thinks Carter calling the creature 'unnamable' is stupid and is determined to prove Carter wrong. Joel asks about the house where the creature supposedly lives, and it turns out it's the house that's right in front of them. Joel decides he'll spend the night to prove Carter wrong. Carter, realizing he's in a slasher film under the guide of a Lovecraftian tale, wisely hightails it.

Joel stays the night and Howard goes back to Miskatonic University (hi, Dan and West! Lot of bodies incoming!) with Carter, concerned for Joel but unwilling to go back. After Carter reassures Howard, Howard introduces us to the first of our cannon fodder - I mean cast - Wendy, whom he has a crush on. Now that it's nightfall, Joel finally enters the house (despite being there while it still had daylight). When he's inside, the door suddenly closes and he thinks it's just a prank. He goes upstairs with a lit candle and finds a noose and a bloody bowl before a shadow passes by, catching his attention. He follows it up to the attic and finds a face etched into the window before the door up there breaks open. Of course, Joel dies.

The next day, Howard finds Carter in the library and tells him Joel never showed back up. Carter, refusing to get entangled in this mess and ramp up the body count, says Joel is just trying to scare them. Wendy is also at the library with her meat shield, I mean, friend, Tanya. The two are talking about boys, and two frat boys (Bruce and John) approach them. After some conversation, they invite them to the house to join a sorority. The girls agree, though Tanya's worried.

That night, all four arrive at the house and, like Joel, are magically locked in. This doesn't seem to bother them much, nor does finding Joel's shoeprints. Back at the college, Howard catches up with Carter to tell him Joel was supposed to have gone home for the weekend, but he never showed up. Carter, unable to brush off the plot any longer without sounding like an idiot, agrees to go back to the house to find him. Back at the house, the girls decide to explore, and the four walk around, going upstairs, and provoking this comment: "Seems bigger inside than it looks." ....you never know. There are jump scares to be had while they investigate, and then John takes Wendy, splitting up the group. If I got the names wrong, forgive me; after a while, I couldn't remember who was who. Side effect of being a slasher flick. Tanya and Bruce go look for the two, narrowly missing discovering a body and seeing the moving shadow. The breathing sound effect stalks them, but when Tanya hears it, it hides.

John and Wendy end up having sex, ensuring their demises. Bruce tries it too, but Tanya shames him into stopping. Wendy's enjoying herself until Joel's mutilated head rolls to a stop next to her, which, understandably, ruins the mood. Wendy flees and passes out in front of Tanya and Bruce, and John is killed by the monster. When the three find John, they decide to flee, and we get a glimpse of the 'unnamable' monster, which does NOT live up to its reputation in the slightest. In fact, let me describe it for you: albino Jersey Devil. It's not completely accurate, but it's not far off.

Anyways, when Tanya reaches the door - alone - she sees a strange silhouette that makes her faint. It's just Carter and Howard, though; Carter starts checking out the books while Howard revives Tanya so she can explain what's been happening. Carter theorizes it's a frat joke or Joel gone mad, and Howard and Tanya go upstairs. Bruce, meanwhile, chooses to use himself as bait to protect Wendy, and the monster kills him by....lifting up up a few feet and dropping him. Repeatedly. Words really don't do the hilarity of this scene any kind of justice. Meanwhile, Howard and Tanya find that John's body is gone, supporting the 'frat prank' theory. They search for Wendy, and Tanya admits she likes Howard. Back downstairs, Carter finds a copy of.... the Necronomicon.

If I haven't said it yet, another rule to the drinking game: take a shot every time some tome of eldritch lore is inserted into a story it wasn't in before.

Anyhow, during a rather random conversation, Howard and Tanya find Joel's headless body, making Howard realize it's not a prank and Joel's not responsible. However, with this revelation, Tanya is locked into a room. Howard leaves to go find help. He asks Carter, but Carter says he needs more time to find an answer before he can act. When they hear Wendy, Howard goes to find her while Carter learns that the monster is actually a child of evil, bound to the house by a spell and held back by the structure and the trees. When Howard goes downstairs, he finds Wendy, who blames him for the night's events and tries to kill him. He's knocked out but, before she can do more, the monster kills her and drags her body away.

Carter finally figures out a solution, but he's still locked in. To remedy this, he tries a few incantations from the Necronomicon until the door opens. He goes into one of the tombs, using a rather familiar-sounding incantation to protect himself (even if you weren't sure, you hear Cthulhu's name and R'lyeh. They weren't trying, it seems). At this point, Howard wakes up - Wendy's gone, Carter's no longer on the ground floor, Tanya's not answering... Tanya, by this time, had gotten out and, in her efforts to escape, stumbled across a body that makes her scream. Howard finds her and comforts her, only for the two to be confronted by the monster. They flee to the attic and barricade the door. They then find the trapdoor - how the monster had been moving - and block that too. Back in the tomb, Carter uses the Necronomicon to summon the 'tree spirits' (just roll with it), causing the camera to shake and the tomb to close over him, trapping him.

Back in the attic, the creature finally seems to leave, and Howard and Tanya heave a sigh of relief. Tanya then checks the window and screams, saying she could see the monster. Howard, thinking it's just the etching, goes to show her it's harmless. Except it IS the monster, and it leaps through and attacks. Oops. Knocking them both down, the monster....uh, dances over to Howard and pins him. Of course, Howard and Tanya fight back - Tanya successfully breaks one of its arms by lightly tapping it with a flashlight, and Howard rips off part of its face. Then, a tree branch breaks in and, with the help of a voiceover, takes the monster away, presumably to its demise. Howard and Tanya flee the house (after Howard does a cursory search for Carter) and the two embrace outside the house - just before the ground opens up and hands try dragging Howard down. A human hand reaches up - it's Carter, who uses Howard to get above ground before helping Tanya save his friend and closing off the hole. Carter announces he's seen the 'unnamable' (Riiiight) and delivers the last line of the movie, saying "It was Hell."

As you might've guessed, this movie's a pretty poor adaptation of the short story. I'll admit, they didn't have much to work with - they adapted all but the proper ending of the original story in the first ten minutes. That being said, it doesn't excuse this becoming a slasher flick - blood and gore were not Lovecraft's style; if they wanted to be more faithful, inspiring characters to insanity might've been better. The two named characters in the story - Carter and Joel - are close friends, something that's not really apparent here because Joel's obvious cannon fodder. The one thing that really bugs me, though, is Randolph Carter's character here. Now, it's possible I'm wrong, but I've always figured Carter is pretty much the closest you can get to a badass human in the Lovecraft universe - he's gone into Kadath, home of the Dream Gods; he's chatted with Nyarlathotep and Yog-sothoth; and he, unlike most Lovecraft protagonists, comes out with no major psychoses or phobias. Yet here he says that whatever was in the house would be beyond him and refuses to get involved. To me, that just seems so unlike him - but again, I might be wrong in my interpretation. It doesn't change the fact that, as a Lovecraft adaptation, this fails.

But how about as a film? Kriken?

As a film, I could only classify this as a generic slasher that doesn't really try to distinguish itself from the rest of the pack. This movie felt like it was trying to follow a lot of the slasher movie cliches and the monster itself was a complete joke when we actually got to see it. The characters were not interesting in the slightest, the story about the monster made no sense, the effects were average at best, and overall it was really boring. I don't know if it would have helped, but I think that it could have been a bit better if everytime the monster had a scene, it was shot through the eyes of the monster or the monster itself was always slightly offscreen (I probably would have called it as a way to cheapen the special effects budget, but it would have improved the concept of "It's indescribable"). In short, this really isn't worth watching as it's not memorable at all, it doesn't follow the Lovecraft story and there are far better slasher flicks out there if you want to see a slasher.

Lovecraft's Corner #7: The Curse

Before I talk about today's film, I want to talk about my grading system: judging the film as an adaptation and then judging it as a film, on its own merits. It may seem strange to do so, but some works that stray away from the source material (Re-Animator is a prime example on this blog) are actually quite good on their own merits. Conversely, a movie that stays true to its source material may not take into account unfortunate implications or racist themes that were present in the source, and so the movie may end up repulsing viewers. Given that H. P. Lovecraft had incorporated some racial and miscegenation themes, judging any Lovecraft adaptation by such standards is important. So, why is this coming up thanks to today's movie,The Curse?

The Curse stands on IMDb with a 4.6 rating. That's pretty low - Die, Monster, Die!, the other adaptation of "The Colour Out Of Space", has a rating of 5.4. Still, this isn't proof it's bad in either aspect, right? ....it stars Wil Wheaton, better known as Wesley? Ok, still not proof but....well, let's just do this. As usual, spoilers ahead.

The film opens with the police arresting an oddly-scabbed man, who's yelling at everyone to stay away from the water. Of course, with him inside a police car and being insane, no one's listening. The movie then cuts to a card giving the location and time - Tennessee (I guess they couldn't afford tickets to the New England area), six months prior to the opening. The credits roll over footage of a farmhouse, shot by a possibly-drunk cameraman. It's not certain. We meet the family - a religious zealot father named Nathan, the son he favors named Cyrus, a little girl named Alice, the mother named Frances, and a scrawny boy named Zack. There's also a guy who I guess is a farmhand; it's never really said, just mentioned he's setting up the well. Personalities are established fairly quickly, I admit. Only six minutes in, and I hate both Cyrus and Nathan. We also meet a sleazy real estate agent named Davidson who's trying to buy the farm - yeah, a lot of introductions are dropped in the first ten minutes.

It's soon established that Frances and Nathan had married after starting families and that Nathan is uninterested in sex, leading Frances to seek out the farmhand (who will not be seen again after this). Not much later, a meteor falling from the sky, revealing one of the film's biggest flaws: its special effects suck. Anyways, the family goes outside to investigate (and Nathan figures out what Frances did), and Zack retrieves Dr. Forbes. He says it's probably safe. The next day, Davidson visits and persuades Dr. Forbes to declare the thing safe, in order to ensure that the water company will build the dam in the area. Dr. Forbes tells the family that it's just waste released from an airplane. Zack isn't swayed, especially since he watched the glowing meteor melt into ooze and sink into the ground. Nathan then starts pumping from the well - water going to the crops, the farm animals, their dogs... yeah, if you've read the story, you know how that goes.

There's an abrupt jump to a man in a car, soon revealed to be Willis, who is responsible for determining the dam's location. Davidson shows him around to make sure he picks this area to buy up (making Davidson rich in the process). Meanwhile, Frances notes that several vegetables are ready for picking; however, cutting into the cabbage produces a briefly nauseating moment, and slicing a tomato produces more red fluid than a severed artery. That night, while Dr. Forbes is dealing with his guilt (and his wife Esther tries seducing him to make stay quiet), Zack steals water from their hose. The next morning shows it may be too late for Frances; she's already developing a sore. Both Alice and Zack are refusing to drink the water and eat the farm food at this point.

While Nathan and Zack are working, Cyrus starts screaming for help - he's caught out in the pasture with the horse trying to attack him (not that the footage looks like that). Zack gets a moment of revenge, and Frances is apparently going insane in a moment that's either creepy or hilarious. However, business goes on as usual, with Alice going to feed the oddly-molting chickens and Zack, Cyrus, and Nathan harvesting apples when Davidson comes along. He talks to Nathan and tries an apple to find, in a rather disgusting moment, it's rotting and filled with maggots. Nathan starts cutting open the other apples to find they're all diseased and worthless, and it's then Alice is attacked by the chickens (in yet another moment of unconvincing footage). She's saved, and the chickens start leaking yellowish ooze from their mouths and eyes. Somehow, this attack is bad enough that Alice has to stay in bed for a few days. Dr. Forbes tries the water at last and realizes something's wrong, both with the water and with Frances. That night, when Frances sews a sock to her hand, Nathan takes her upstairs and Zack runs for Dr. Forbes, who Nathan turns away. Zack is then punished, and Dr. Forbes takes a water sample, with the scene implying the 'colour' is present in fog.

Willis is continuing to survey the next day, when he needs a drink. The Crane place is right there; he knocks on the door and, getting no reply, wanders in. Frances attempts to stab him and Nathan shoos him out. Frances' insanity and appearance is getting no better, as shown by breakfast, and Zack is disposing of the food made for his sister. Cyrus, who is now developing the sores, and Nathan then go to check on the cows, only to find they've been infected too, showing signs of decay, and one exploding in a shower of insects. Nathan blames Frances' affair for their problems. She manages to get loose and Zack finds her, in very bad makeup. Nathan subdues her and takes her out to the cellar, much to Zack's dismay, Alice's sorrow, and Cyrus' excitement. Of course, that may just be him going insane too, I honestly can't tell.

Dr. Forbes finally gets the results of the water testing and is told it might be a new element that is altering the chemical composition of the water. ...uh, right. Anyways, he tries to reach Davidson and Willis, to no avail. Both Esther and Davidson make one last attempt to buy the farm, and do so, metaphorically, as Esther is mauled by the insane dogs and Davidson flees into the cellar and is caught by Frances in a horribly-done shot. That night, it's shown Zack has been buying food in town to keep his sister safe from the farm's sickness. He then goes to check on his mom, but Nathan catches him. When Zack gets in the house, repacking his bag (for no real reason), Nathan finds out what he's been doing, and it's shown Nathan's developing the sores too. Nathan then attacks Zack, and Cyrus attacks Alice. Zack manages to stop Nathan temporarily, though, and knocks out Cyrus with a bat so he can hide Alice while he goes for help.

Nathan manages to recover at some point and has already begun sealing up the house. Dr. Forbes arrives, finding the house shrouded in fog. He breaks in, and Nathan kills him. Zack comes downstairs and tries escaping via the sealed door when Nathan attacks him with a crowbar.

I can think of so many ways this could've been better done.

Zack gets away and finds Dr. Forbes' body by tripping over it. Nathan is about to kill Zack when Willis abruptly shows up and stabs him with a pitchfork. The house starts falling apart incredibly slowly, and Zack and Willis go to get Alice. When Cyrus returns for another attack, Zack pushes him from the top of the stairs. Zack THEN decides he has to save Frances, who was moved upstairs, and goes to do so while Willis makes sure Alice is safe. Zack finds Frances melting into a puddle, so that was pointless, and he FINALLY decides it's time to go. Cyrus and Nathan just won't stay dead, though, and try to stop him but fail. Zack, Willis, and Alice all get away and live happily ever after, and everything's ok!

Except Willis was the one who had the screaming breakdown at the beginning and was infected.

And Alice and Zack's fates are unknown, doubly worrying since they had more exposure to the water than Willis did and he got sick.

And the meteor's light is still around, as is its contaminating ooze.

Yeah, life still sucks.

So, that's The Curse. How does it fare as an adaptation? Surprisingly, despite its lower rating, it's a better adaptation than Die, Monster, Die! Even on its own merits, it's not a bad adaptation. The relatively downer ending is more true to the story's end, in which the colour never completely left. The meteor's effects on animals and crops are fairly accurate, even if the depiction was poorly executed, and the dam subplot actually came from the original story. They attempt to make it clear that it's not the rock itself that creates this effect, though it's hard to tell if they intended for the glowing color or the ooze that does it. That being said, it fails as an adaptation in terms of the characters - the thing that makes 'The Colour Out Of Space' so horrifying is that it happens to an ordinary family, all of whom are good people. They are completely innocent folks who suffer horrific fates for simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time and for that are made to decay from the inside out without having the ability to get away, even when they know something's wrong. As I've mentioned before, changing it from 'innocent victim' to 'he had it coming' undermines the story and the horror element. Even the wife, who is supposedly good, isn't fully innocent either, and, in the end, only Alice and Zack could be considered the good ones of the family - so, unsurprisingly, they get out.

Kriken, your thoughts?

Thanks. As a movie, I thought it had its moments, but the movie was held back by horrible effects, sub-par acting at times and a religious theme that wasn't needed. I'll admit, I don't mind the occasional religious theme, but this movie kept trying to hammer in the fact that all Nathan needed was 17th Century clothing to be a Puritan, and it really annoyed me. I'll admit that there was a scare factor with such scenes as the cabbage and the apples, but the tomato seemed more like comic-relief than scary and the apple scene was interrupted by the chicken fight (Which seemed to ruin the atmosphere a bit). I commented about how the effects from Die Monster Die were bad, but this movie somehow made them look good in comparison. I didn't think that was possible, and that was the movie where the Lovecraft monster looked like Snuffleupagus. The writing was rather cliche at times to the point that we WANTED to see Nathan and Cyrus die in the end. Charlie was the exact opposite of subtle and took all of 5 seconds for me to realize he was the villain. The ending was less than desired as I couldn't help but wonder what happened to Zack and Alice. Willis was never shown on-screen to be exposed by the 'colour' but somehow he gets the insanity and sores? I won't lose sleep over it, but I felt that it left an empty feeling in the end.

Lovecraft's Corner #6: From Beyond

Now, after reviewing Re-Animator and my subsequent enjoyment, I was rather pleased to learn that my next film shared huge portions of the cast with Re-Animator. This film, From Beyond, also stars Jeffery Combs and adapts a story only six pages long in my collected edition. Making a movie out of 'Herbert West: Reanimator' seemed impossible, but these same people succeeded there. Let's see if they can succeed with 'From Beyond' as well.

As always, spoilers ahead. Also, please note the only version I had on hand was the director's cut, so not sure how that'll impact the synopsis.

The movie opens with Herbert West - I mean, our protagonist - examining a machine. He turns it on, creating a purple glow, and a flying eel attacks him. He goes downstairs to tell a man named Edward that the machine, the resonator, is working. Edward puts the machine to full power, and we learn our protagonist, who is trying to persuade Edward to turn the machine off, is none other than Crawford Tillinghast.

...I'll let that sink in for you Lovecraft fans and move on.

A neighbor calls the police before her dog runs over to the house, being met by none other than Crawford, who is trying to flee the scene with an axe. It's then discovered Edward's head is missing. The credits roll - purple font, weird image in the background. This fades to a hospital, where the district attorney has brought Meg Halsey - I mean Dr. Katherine McMichaels - to examine Tillinghast to determine if he's sane enough for trial. The doctor that meets them is none too pleased, as Katherine has a reputation for experimenting on the mentally ill (our other protagonist, people). Still, Katherine talks to Crawford. It is here we learn he was the sidekick to Edward (more accurately, Dr. Edward Pretorious), and the resonator was his idea. He had the axe, he says, because he destroyed the machine after a monster ate Edward's head. Katherine doesn't wholly dismiss him as a lunatic, and has him undergo a CAT scan. Noting that his pineal gland is abnormally large, she says there could be some truth to his story and asks to take him back to the house. The district attorney lets her, despite the female doctor's (and later crawford's) objections. Katherine and Crawford are driven to the house by Bubba Brownlee, a police officer. The two manage to get Crawford into the house, but he sneaks away under the cover of darkness. Katherine and Bubba turn the power back on, find a room filled with bondage equipment, and go to the attic. There, they find the resonator and then have to restrain Crawford when he emerges from the shadows with an axe. They manage to calm him down and persuade him to fix the machine.

Katherine dozes off as Bubba keeps watch and Crawford works long into the night. He and Bubba have a brief chat, implying that West has a crush on Meg - I mean, Crawford has a crush on Katherine - and Edward was rather cruel towards others. When Katherine awakes, she's told the machine's fixed. Crawford explains how the machine works and warns them not to move, as the monsters will be able to see them too. He then turns the machine on, and there's a bit of tension between Crawford and Megan before Bubba breaks it by pointing out the flying jellyfish and eel. A jellyfish attacks him, and Crawford realizes Edward's killer is approaching. He moves to shut the machine off, only to be stopped by a being who looks a lot like Edward. It's quickly revealed that his new body can shapeshift (in a rather nauseating fashion), and he attacks. Bubba shoots at him, and Crawford shuts down the machine.

The next morning, Meg happily discusses the implications of their experience last night, while West's less than enthusiastic. It's like they had their brains swi- sorry, wrong film, meant Katherine and Crawford. Bubba comes down, still sick over last night. It's mentioned that the machine seems to increase sex drive, and Katherine suggests they try the experiment again. Both men refuse; Bubba even says after some rest, they're leaving.

During their rest, Katherine sneaks back upstairs to turn the machine on. Crawford's forehead pulsates a bit and he wakes up, realizing what's going on, and runs upstairs to shut the machine down. Katherine, upon seeing him, catches him and they make out. It's then that Edward returns, one half completely mutated, and grabs Katherine as a hostage. Crawford heads for the basement to kill the power (soon joined by Bubba) while Edward sexually assaults Katherine (bit of a shame David Gale wasn't playing Edward) and attempts to remove her head as well. Crawford and Bubba reach the basement to be greeted by a giant worm-monster. After a struggle that nearly costs Crawford his life, Bubba manages to shut down the power, saving both Crawford and Katherine. While Crawford's in enough pain that even a touch hurts, Katherine still wants to experiment one last time. Bubba refuses and leaves to start packing. Katherine starts exploring the room, which has Edward's bondage equipment, and actually ends up wearing some of it. By the time Bubba returns, she's dry-humping an unconscious Crawford. When she starts making the moves on Bubba, he forces her to look at herself, and she breaks down. During this, some invisible force is setting everything back up and turning the machine back on. Crawford wakes up, hearing the resonator, and Bubba goes upstairs to turn it back off. None of his attempts work and, when Crawford and Katherine go up as well, they are attacked. Bubba finds that the creatures are attacted to light; when he loses his flashlight and it points to him, the creatures devour him. Edward now shows up, bearing only his face and nothing else human. He attacks Katherine yet again and, before Crawford can help, his pineal gland bursts from his forehead on a stalk and hijacks his brain. Katherine manages to shut down the machine with a fire extinguisher.

Back at the hospital, Crawford's in a surgical room, and Katherine is institutionalized and prepped for ECT. Crawford then awakens, acting a bit oddly, and stumbles from the room to another one, seeing in different colors. The female doctor returns, finds him missing, and tracks him to the other room (the pathology room) and finds him eating what appears to be a human liver. He then regains control long enough to be horrified and for the doctor to take him to the door. There, the pineal gland regains control, and he kills the doctor by eating her brain through an eyesocket. In the ensuing confusion, Katherine escapes the hospital to destroy the resonator for good. Crawford ends up killing a few more hospital employees before coming to and following Katherine in an ambulance.

Katherine arrives at the house, fully dressed, and sets timed explosives on the resonator. Unfortunately, the power starts sparking again and, before she can get out, the pineal-possessed Crawford gets her and restrains her in the bondage room. In his attempt to eat her brain, she bites through the pineal gland's stalk. Crawford's sanity is thus semi-restored, but the resonator's back on and Edward wants Katherine for his own. Crawford taunts Edward until he follows him down to the ground floor. Unfortunately, Edward catches him and eats his head. Fortunately, this gave Katherine enough time to escape her restraints using the monsters' attraction to motion and to light to keep herself from being eaten. She heads downstairs to get away, but Edward's waiting for her there, and chases her back up to the resonator room. Before Edward can kill Katherine, though, Crawford bursts through, and the two struggle in a decaying, gory fight, freeing Katherine from their grip. She jumps through the window just as the explosives go off. She sits on the ground sobbing as the neighbors approach out of curiosity. The neighbor from the start of the movie asks Katherine if she's okay and what happened. Katherine's sobs turn to mad laughter, and the credits roll.

As an adaptation, From Beyond has little in common with its source material. Given the story's length, this had to be a given, but a lot is added to the resonator's side effects (the increased sexual drive was not there, I assure you) and Tillinghast is made shockingly sympathetic. It's like they took the story's character, realized that they couldn't possibly have him as a protagonist, and so gave Edward all his negative traits. Now, I'm not gonna protest the resonator's new effects, as it helps drive the story, but given that the alteration of Crawford's character ended up making him in name only, that bit does bug me (why couldn't he remain the main scientist, bitter to friends who told him he was mad for creating the resonator?). I know, I praised Re-Animator despite its major changes to the characters, but that added rather than subtracted. Still, if you go by my theory that Edward's actually Tillinghast, it works a bit better.

As Kriken could not provide his opinion of the movie at this time, I'll give mine: this movie was, uh, interesting. The first 2/3s were okay, you could have fun watching them. After the pineal gland burst from Crawford's forehead, though, the movie starts becoming difficult to sit through and, by the final battle, both Kriken and I were ready for the movie to be over. There was a special effect towards the end that was laughably bad; still, most of the creatures from 'beyond' were pretty good and aside for the last half-hour (give or take), the movie was pretty good.

As an adaptation, this film isn't worth watching. As a movie, it's worth a look, I suppose.

Lovecraft's Corner #5: Re-Animator

At this point, I wonder why Kriken insists on putting me on schedule. Deadlines seem to be my archnemesis. Oh well.

H.P. Lovecraft, Master of Horror, best known for his work in creating the Cthulhu mythos, once wrote a stealth parody of 'Frankenstein' that reached patently ridiculous levels. That's not to say it wasn't creepy - the man could've written about toast and made it scary, I'm sure. That said, when I discovered Re-Animator, today's flick, I was wondering, not how, but why they'd adapt a work that Lovecraft himself thought was poorly done. Was this a good idea? Let's find out. Spoilers ahoy!

The movie opens in a foreign country, with a nurse, a doctor, and two policemen breaking down a door to find a young bespectacled man (played by Jeffrey Combs) leaning over an ashen-faced bleeding older man. In a rather gruesome scene, the older man's eyes burst and he falls over dead, with the younger man saying the dosage was too much. The nurse accuses the younger man of killing; the younger man calmly replies he gave him life. This takes us to our opening credits, played over neon outlines of human head anatomy sketches. One such sketch suddenly opens its eyes, and the zoom-in to white fades to the Miskatonic University in Arkham, Massachussetts. There, we meet our hero, Dan Cain, attempting and failing to revive a female patient. He takes her to the morgue, and we get to see the coroner, Dr. Hill, using his famous laser drill to collect a sample from the body's brain. Dan is then surprised by Dean Halsey, who wants Dan to meet their newest student - the young man from the beginning, Herbert West. West immediately gets off on the wrong foot with Dr. Hill (who is revealed to be a famous researcher).

The next scene has Dan posting an ad for a roommate, and Megan, Halsey's daughter, walks by. The two are clearly in a relationship, as demonstrated by the cut to the two of them in bed. They talk for a while, confirming that Meg is the Dean's daughter and her father would go into conniptions if he knew the nature of their relationship. The two of them joke around, and Dan ends up chasing Meg to the door, with him in nothing but a bedsheet. It turns out West is at the door to inquire about the roommate Dan asked for and is accepted after some hesitancy on Dan's part.

The first class we see West in is a disaster - taught by Dr. Hill, who is interrupted intentionally by West every time West disagrees with his teachings. Cut to that evening, when Hill is having dinner with Mr. Halsey and Meg. Dan arrives to pick Meg up for a study date, and Hill toasts her in a rather creepy manner. At Dan's place, Meg reveals her concerns about West - and both realize their pet cat, who normally won't leave them alone, is missing. Meg finds the cat in West's refrigerator, dead, and West threatens to tell the Dean about their relationship if Dan and Meg don't leave him alone. Late that night, though, Dan is awoken by a scream and finds West being attacked by the cat. In a humorous moment, the two end up rekilling the cat (better than it sounds, honest). West then tells Dan just what his project is: resurrecting the dead. Even better, he's decided he wants Dan to be his assistant! After all, as he says, Dan's hardworking, respected - he even revived the cat for him!

...I'm not gonna make any jokes about the exact nature of West's relationships with others, but I WILL keep a counter of all the times I could've.

Gay jokes: 1.

West reanimates the dead cat again to prove his work is real, and Meg (who was still there?) comes down to see the cat, howling in agony, guts on the table. She takes it well. Dan tells Halsey about West's work, and he takes it well too, suspending Dan's financial aid and expelling West. In a desperate attempt to prove the research was not made up, Dan smuggles West into the morgue, and they attempt to revive a fairly healthy specimen. Meanwhile, Halsey learns Dan is in the morgue and leaves Meg with the nurse to get him. Dan and West are about to leave when the body revives and attacks West. When Halsey reaches the morgue, the body gruesomely attacks him as well. West finally stops the corpse by driving a frickin' bone saw through the chest - and then, upon realizing Halsey is dead, persuades Dan to help him revive Halsey. Meg, by this time, has gotten away from the nurse and arrives at the morgue to find her zombie dad trying to strangle West and Dan. She makes him stop, security comes in, and West concocts an explanation that places all blame for the mess solely on Halsey - just visiting Dan (he even grabs him) when Halsey came in and went nuts. While the guard calls the cops, Dan goes into shock, and it's West who puts the blanket around him and holds him possessively.

Gay jokes: 2.(maybe 3?)

Halsey is secured in a padded cell with a straitjacket, with Meg watching him through a one-way mirror sadly. Dr. Hill gets her permission for exploratory surgery to find out why he's gone mad. Dr. Hill then starts making moves on Meg, and it is a blessing when Halsey interrupts by banging his head against the mirror. Meg leaves and Hill, angry that Halsey kept him from scoring, has him seized.

When Meg comes home, Dan is waiting for her. She demands to know just what he and West did to her father, and he has to tell her he's dead. She reacts about as well as you'd expect. Meanwhile, West, who cares not about women, is working in the basement when Hill arrives. He reveals he knows Halsey is dead and wants West's research as his own. He even says, "You will do what I tell you to."

Gay jokes: 4.

Hill is allowed to read West's notes and see his tissue samples. While Hill is distracted, West gets a shovel and decapitates him. He puts the head in the pan, standing it upright after a couple of unfruitful tries, and then decides, because SCIENCE! is more important than common sense, that he'll see if he can revives body parts (while normally I'd cry foul, the original character really could get this stupid; at least here, he had a bit better reason to kill a guy he decided to resurrect). Unfortunately, it goes horribly right, and West is knocked out by Hill's body. Back with Dan and Meg, they break into Hill's office to find Halsey has been lobotomized and Hill is waaaay too obsessed with Meg.

When West recovers, he finds Hill has stolen all his work and notes. He tells Dan what happened. Dan can't believe that not only has he killed someone but then brought him back, despite that everything West reanimates tries to KILL him. West's response? "Look, he tried to blackmail me, Dan! I didn't want you to disappear!"

Gay jokes: 5.

Dan and West work out Hill's plan, and Dan decides to inform Meg, despite West's protests.

Gay jokes: 6?

We then see Hill returning to his office, head kept in the pan (and how he got back is anyone's guess). After some fresh blood and a quick reanimation, Hill gives orders to Halsey, in which it's shown the lobotomy makes the mad reanimated subjects subservient to Hill. After this, Hill then sneaks into the morgue, using a head model from his desk to cover his severed neck. Cut to Meg's house, where Dan arrives to check in on her. The two have a tender moment before Zombie Dad Halsey ruins the moment (so he's a professional mood killer too) by breaking in, knocking out Dan, and kidnapping his daughter.

Back at the morgue, Hill's body is lobotomizing corpses when Halsey arrives with Meg and, on Hill's orders, strips her and restrains her. While I search for the rape horn, Dan wakes up to Herbert rather close to his face, calling his name repeatedly, before pulling him to his feet to save Meg.

Gay jokes: 7?

We return to the morgue to see Hill trying to rape Meg before West interrupts him and keeps him distracted long enough for Dan to free Meg (and give her a shirt). Hill reveals he wasn't unprepared, as legions of the undead rise to fight the trio, and beat them down fairly quickly. West is forced to drop his reagent and is bent over the autopsy table by two of the undead...

Gay jokes: 8.

Ok, there's NO way this is unintentional by now. The writers HAD to know what they were doing! So, while West is pinned to the table for a lobotomy with the laser drill, Dan tries and fails to protect Meg from the zombies. However, Meg finally gets through to Zombie Dad, who tears the zombies away before saving West by pushing Hill's body out of the morgue and then grabbing his head and squeezing it.

The remaining zombies are in extreme pain, freeing West and giving Dan and Meg a chance to get past their attackers. Hill's body returns to try to stop Halsey, but then West retrieves two more syringes of the reagent from his bag and overdoses the body; like in the beginning, this is effective, turning the body into a bloody mess and letting Halsey crush Hill's head and throw it out the morgue (finally prompting the guard to flee for his life). The zombies go nuts, destroying the lab, breaking a water pipe (I think) and destroying the fuse box. West, who cannot resist recording the results of an experiment, watches Hill's body until its stomach explodes and intestines capture West. He throws Dan his bag of serum and notes just before being dragged away. Dan and Meg get to the elevator to escape, but a zombie strangles Meg. He manages to get her to a hospital room, where one of the first scene replays: they try to save Meg and fail. Dan, having already lost his boyfriend - new friend, I mean, doesn't take her death well.

And then remembers West's bag.

He takes out a syringe and the reagent, tells Meg's body he loves her, and then positions the syringe at her neck as the screen fades to black, only showing the glowing reagent. The reagent then depresses. Cue a horrific scream - and roll credits.


As an adaptation....this movie's pretty good. The timeline's very compressed, granted, and there's a lot less ambiguity than in the original (in which West began going to extreme lengths for his research and his assistant rarely, if ever, protested), but the plot keeps the main story intact while adding pieces that develop the characters further (such as Megan). West is far more heroic and badass here than ever hinted at in the story this movie's based on, and his assistant Dan (unnamed in the original tale) is not as willing to go along with West, but it's at least explained in the movie why. There's a few scenes that don't seem to make as much sense due to the fact they were adapted straight from the book and the compressed timeline, but they do not interfere with the adaptation much. Plus, this adaptation drops some of the more racist connotations that came up in the original - certainly not a bad change. Overall, as an adaptation, I'd recommend this. Kriken, what'd you think?

Overall, I thought it was a rather decent movie. Not quite sure how well it stayed true to the original story, but it seemed to have an element of horror that I've come to expect from HP Lovecraft. I think what made it the best adaptation to date is the well timed humor and the Lovecraft references feel natural throughout the movie. It doesn't try to reference some other Lovecraft story that doesn't belong in this story so the flow of the movie is rather good. I'll have to agree with RBY about West coming off as a tad gay in certain scenes. Whether it's the dialogue or just the actions, there's something about his performance that seems to hint at the occasional "Ambiguously Gay Duo" jokes. It's not a bad thing, as it helps to make his scenes more enjoyable. Honestly, I'd recommend it if you're looking for a decent HP Lovecraft movie.

Overall:
H.P. Lovecraft fans or nonfans, you must track this down and watch it. Whether you like horror, humor, drama, or Ho Yay, there's something for everyone.

Lovecraft's Corner #4: The Dunwich Horror (1970)

The Dunwich Horror is copyright American International Pictures.
All rights reserved

Well, folks, another apology on the delay of this review. Life got in the way. It's enough to make me wish I could live online, were it not for.... Ah, right, this review. Today's film, The Dunwich Horror, is yet ANOTHER film from our friends at AIP and directed by the same man who directed Die, Monster, Die!. If that wasn't enough to scare you, guess what, it's the scariest part of the whole film.

A film called 'The Dunwich Horror'.

Yes.

The film opens onto a woman giving birth before the credits roll. Names appear over silhouettes climbing a mountain - no the devil - getting eaten - I'll admit, the shifts can get hard to follow, but I've been able to interpret the whole thing as the circumstances around our antagonist's birth, and so I have to admit, the credits work well. Unfortunately, the effect is then ruined when the film actually starts, opening with a biblical quote on the wall (There's a time and place for everything, yes, but in a Lovecraft film?).

We then meet our protagonist, a successful professor named Dr. Henry Armitage and his two female friends, Nancy and Elizabeth. Armitage is returning the Necronomicon to the university library since he apparently lectures on the occult. He leaves the women there, and it is then Wilbur Whateley appears. He talks a bit awkwardly, but manages to charm Nancy into letting him read the Necronomicon. While he reads, stock footage of trees and scenes of robed figures are played - and the whole scene is interrupted by Armitage, who takes the book back. Wilbur introduces himself and, upon realizing he's a Whateley, Armitage takes him out to dinner to learn more about the family. After dinner, Wilbur tricks Nancy into driving him home. During the drive, they discuss the town of Dunwich and we see that Wilbur is not well-liked in the town. They finally arrive at Wilbur's home, a large overgrown mansion. He invites her in, offers her tea, sabotages her car's engine, and drugs her to make her stay the night (Charming fellow isn't he?). During all this, we meet his grandfather and learn about a mysterious rattling door (Look out! It's the McGuffin of the film)

The next day, while Nancy and Wilbur are resting in a field and talking about dreams, Armitage and Elizabeth show up to take her home. Nancy refuses, hopelessly hypnotized by Wilbur, and so Armitage and Elizabeth leave to investigate the Whateleys. It is discovered that no one trusts the Whateleys, due to their worship of the Great Old Ones, that no one in town had helped deliver Wilbur but there was talk about a stillborn twin, and that Wilbur's mother went insane shortly after his birth. Between scenes of their investigation, it is shown that Wilbur keeps drugging Nancy and that his grandfather does not approve of his actions. Wilbur, however, does not care. During a picnic with Nancy, he takes her to a stone altar and, through mesmerism and a rather unclear sequence, apparently has sex with her.

....let's just keep going. I'll throw in the rape horn later.

Elizabeth, now very worried for Nancy, rushes back to the house. When the grandfather won't let her in, she hits him and runs in, eventually finding the rattling door. When she opens it, flashing colors and hand puppets attack and apparently kill her (Yeah somehow the special effects in this make the special effects in The Haunted Palace look good in comparison). Soon after this, Wilbur and Nancy return to the house, and Wilbur and his grandpa get into another fight. It is revealed that Wilbur plans to do something awful to Nancy, and the grandfather is trying to stop him since he knows it won't work. In the course of the argument, the grandfather falls down a flight of stairs and dies, the whipporwills announcing his death. Wilbur attempts to bury him, but the townspeople interrupt and refuse to let Wilbur finish.

Wilbur finally successfully steals the Necronomicon, after a relatively dull fight with the world's worst security guard, and takes Nancy to the altar. During this, the mother dies at the asylum, and her death causes Armitage to be concerned for his copy of the Necronomicon. Unfortunately, the ritual has already begun, and Wilbur summons his brother, who escapes the rattling door and ends up creating one of the funniest scenes I've seen in a horror film in a long time, only ended when the invisible being inadvertently sets the house on fire. It then attacks a farmhouse, killing its inhabitants. Armitage arrives after the town has gathered and barely keeps them from going after Wilbur to lynch them. They organize at the burning house and go to the altar, being attacked by the invisible brother along the way (I assume, it looks more like they're being shown a technicolor lightshow). When Armitage and the doctor (the only two apparent survivors) arrive, Wilbur summons lightning - and the Armitage uses some word never even hinted at before to kill Wilbur and dissipate the invisible brother, leaving us with a brief moment to see said brother in all its glorious fakeness.

The day saved, Armitage and the doctor lead Nancy away - and the movie ends with the dramatic reveal that Nancy is pregnant (Dun, dun dun!)


I know by now I shouldn't be too harsh in judging adaptations - made that mistake in my first review - and The Dunwich Horror would be hard to adapt. You don't even meet the protagonist until at least halfway through the story. That being said, this is both a good and a bad adaptation. It keeps the characters, yes, but what they did to Wilbur - his death in the original tale was considered the prologue, not the end, and that's just the NITPICKING. Wilbur was not a charming person and barely looked human to begin with - they could have tried showing that in the rape scene, but, nope - and, maybe most annoyingly, the movie makes him look sympathetic at parts. The movie tries referencing the original story, except that by starting where they did, the references make no sense, and the ending, without Wilbur's diary, feels like an ass pull. All the details suggest that they did read the story, but the main story ruins this as an adaptation for me.

As an original movie, I can't quite judge this (blame the rape scenes and some negative feelings), so I'll let Kriken wrap up.

Thanks RBY, this movie was weird. So far I rank it as the second best adaptation we've done so far but that's only because I didn't like either Die, Monster Die! or The Curse of the Crimson Altar. While I'll admit there were some good scenes in terms of movie scenes, in the end, it didn't leave that great of an impression. The music was okay, but at the same time it sounds like generic "Spooky" music that I swear I've heard somewhere else (Maybe not though). The grandfather was completely pointless and I swear he reminds me of Torgo, (Maybe it's just the staff). Really, where I lost all respect for the film was the "Brother", forgiving for a moment that effects in 1970 weren't great, the way he attacked was just ludicrous and silly. Whenever I saw him attack someone (Always from a POV shot by the way) I couldn't take it seriously, it felt more like the brother was flashing a multicolor strobe light at people to kill them rather then being a menace. Nothing else to really note outside of Dr. Armitage being played by Ed Begley (Bigot juror from 12 Angry Men) and the ending was rather empty as it seems like a rip-off of Rosemary's Baby (Okay I'll admit I'm basing this off the plot synopsis from IMDB seeing how I never watched Rosemary's Baby, but considering how RBY told me that was never in the story and Rosemary's Baby came out in 1968 I feel that it's fair)

Final recommendation? .....I guess if you're into psychedelia and old movies, or if you can forgive Wilbur's portrayal, go for it. Otherwise, leave this in the 70s.

Lovecraft's Corner #3: The Crimson Cult, aka The Curse of the Crimson Altar

I'd like to open this with a brief apology: this review should've been posted March 9th. However, when the movie was first obtained, it was discovered, much to my dismay, we had obtained a Spanish version. It wasn't until the 10th we found an English version available on Youtube.

With that out of the way, I just want to say, Dreams in the Witch House is one of Lovecraft's few stories that I could imagine being adapted to film with few issues. There are not indescribable monsters or anything so confusing that an audience could not understand it. This month's movie, The Crimson Cult starring Boris Karloff and Christopher Lee, is supposed to be an adaptation of that story - at least according to the Internet, since the movie itself never credits Lovecraft. It's possible the Internet is wrong; that would explain a lot about this movie.

I've only reviewed two adaptations to date, but, in those reviews, I try to keep the synopsis relatively snark-free. That being said, I had to break my rule on that - there is no way to sum up this movie without at least acknowledging the issues the summary will present.

Our movie opens onto some bizarre ceremony with a blue-skinned lady, a guy in leather, a goat, and a woman chained to a bed (and I'll leave it to you readers to come up with the dirtiest joke). After a person named Peter Manning signs a book for the blue-skinned lady, we cut to a British business. We know it's British because they talk about pounds instead of dollars. The owner, Robert Manning, receives a letter from his brother, dated ten days ago, along with a candlestick holder and a spring-loaded knife. For some reason, this prompts him to go to the lodge the items came from (since it's a sign his brother is missing...somehow). There, a wild party is going on and, honestly, even the strippers don't do anything to hold your attention. Robert then meets the owner's niece, Eve, and then the owner himself, Morley (aka Christopher Lee). Moorley claims to have never seen Peter but offers Robert a room for the night. Robert sees Eve again, who claims the house is spooky. If the house was meant to be creepy, introducing it with wild reveling was probably a bad idea.

Getting back on track (which is more than I can say for this movie), Robert introduces himself as Bob to Eve and propositions her without success. The two briefly discuss Peter, and somehow Moorley eavesdrops at that exact time. Eve then leaves, and the butler, Elder, comes in (I thought it was Elda. Any of you who watch, let me know if it's just me). He leaves a candlestick holder on the table, which is identical to the one Peter had mailed. The movie then cuts to Eve and Bob with Morley, talking about the festivities (I think) when Professor Marsh (aka Boris Karloff) comes in. Before you ask, no, he's not a geologist - he's a local historian. He tells Bob about Lavinia Morley, a woman accused of witchcraft who proclaimed innocence and then cursed her accusers.

Readers, I'm officially starting a drinking game. Every time an ancestor curses people, take a shot. Two shots if it wasn't in the original story.

Anyways, Lavinia was found guilty and burned at the stake, and the viewers then get to see the town re-enact the burning. At one point, it's compared to Guy Fawkes Day. Who knew the burning of Lavinia Morley had such powerful political ramnifications? Anyways, after the celebration, Elder brings the candlestick holders to the witch, while... something turns in the background. He also promises to retrieve ...well, honestly, I'm not certain. Elder then speaks of guilt over something never revealed. In the next scene, Bob goes back to his room to be surprised by Elder, who warns him to flee and avoid the graveyard. Bob, being the horror character he is, goes to investigate. He finds Morley and Marsh waiting for him in the cemetary, and they take him back indoors for a drink and a brief discussion about Elder. Bob then decides to turn in for the night.

While sleeping, Bob dreams of orange kalaidescope effects, his brother, and the blue-skinned lady, who is Lavinia. When he refuses to sign her book, she wakes him up by stabbing him. I guess she collects autographs. Dude, help a woman out, she's dead, might as well give her the flippin' autograph. So, after that dream, which he discusses with Eve, Bob goes out for a walk and is shot at. Bob then confronts his attacker angrily and is only stopped by Marsh. Angry Bob learns the man who shot at him is Marsh's servant, mute, and was aiming at a bird - and then Angry Bob is shot at and dies. The end.

Sorry, the writer wasn't Pastis. I'll go on.

After Angry Bob undies, he goes into town to look for his brother without success. He returns to the lodge, realizes his brother used an alias, and finds Elder in his room with a spring knife. Elder then tells him his brother is dead. This prompts Bob to talk to Morley and threaten to call the police - except, it seems, no one takes Elder seriously and Morley just tells him to sleep. Another dream brings another attempt to get Bob's autograph, which fails, prompting another stabbing. Bob, meanwhile, sleepwalks to the lake, where he is awoken by a cop who notices Bob has been mysteriously wounded. Bob goes back to the lodge, where Eve treats his wounds and then they have sex... No, really, that actually happens.

After some nice "Healed wound" sex, Bob walks around and notices some blood near the wall. This leads him to inspect the panel and find...a scret passage! He goes in to find....! Not much, really - dust, cobwebs - oh, this is supposed to be the room from his dreams. Uh-huh. He goes to report his experiences to the police who, true to form, don't believe him, even though the cop he's talking to saw his stab wound. He then decides to talk to Marsh, who identifies the spring knife as whatever it was the witch had called it, and identifies figures in his dreams as mere archetypes. It's then mentioned that signing a book traps a person (you say so, Boris), and that Bob's ancestor had been one of Lavinia's accusers (and clearly rightfully so). After this, Bob returns to the house to show Eve the room. They find the book, and Eve rips out a few pages in order to find out whose signatures they were. Bob keeps exploring, with a frog croaking somewhere despite being indoors and above ground, and finds his brother's bracelet and Elder's body. Funny how he wasn't missed before. Bob then leaves offscreen, and Morley comes in to find the room has been disturbed.

Eve, with the vicar's help, identifies the signatures as relatives of Lavinia's accusers and goes to inform Bob, only to be caught by her uncle. By the way, the turning thing earlier was a multicolored lampshade. Wondering where I can get one. So, anyways, after the police ignore Bob AGAIN, he returns and is captured by Morley. While Morley secures Bob and Eve and spreads gasoline around the room, Marsh learns that Eve knows about the witch's room. Just before Morley kills Eve for 'betraying' Lavinia, Marsh's servant shoots his hand. Morley starts the fire, but the servant frees Eve and Bob, and Eve, Bob, Marsh, and Butler McBadass escape. Marsh then reveals Morley was insane and had a split personality who thought it was Lavinia, a powerful witch. As the house burns and firefighters try to put out the fire, a figure is visible on the roof. It's Morley, who turns into Lavinia and laughs maniacally over the credits.


This story was confusing; there wasn't so much a plot as there was a string of events. Even the movie didn't seem to know what it wanted - it starts with psychidelia, tries horror, and ends with a mindscrew that comes out of nowhere. Keep in mind, I read the original story - it's not half as confusing, but it is far scarier. I can barely talk about this as an adaptation thanks to all the changes to the story that feel completely unnecessary. Two major characters get cut, the reason for the protagonist's arrival feels flimsy, the dreams are hardly frightening, and Eve contributes NOTHING to the story. Seriously, people might say Inception's confusing - I can say this movie is more confusing than a first-time viewing of Inception, and with nothing to make it memorable. Not even Karloff and Lee. Sorry guys, but you didn't.

Lovecraft fan or not, this movie's best viewed under the influence of marijuana or LSD. It'll probably be more coherent that way.

HP Lovecraft Review #2: Die, Monster, Die!

This month's movie, 'Die, Monster, Die!', is another product of our friends at American International Pictures (Yippee!). The opening credits reveal that it was based on Lovecraft's 'The Colour Out of Space'. Strange story to adapt, since one of the colour's main attributes is that it's a colour never before seen on Earth. How do you adapt that to screen?I suppose we'll find out. At least Boris Karloff stars, as the film's main antagonist. ...'The Colour Out of Space' never had a human antagonist. ...We may be in trouble, folks.

After the opening credits, we cut to our protagonist, Stephen Rhineheart, exiting a train to arrive in Arkham(I'm Batman!)...England (Considering how much Lovecraft loved Great Britain, I'll keep quiet about the change in setting). He's looking for the Witley place, but everyone in town laughs him off, and he ends up walking to this place, passing an enormous (obviously fake) crater along the way and being followed by some shadowy figure. It's at the Witley place, which is a mansion, that the audience meets the wheelchair-bound Nahum Witley (played by Boris Karloff) and Susan Witley, Stephen's love interest. Susan takes Stephen to meet her mother. Stephen and the mother talk; meanwhile, Nahum and his servant going into the basement (which would have been fitting for 'The Haunted Palace'). The mother finally tells Stephen to take Susan away, fearing for her life, and Stephen agrees to do so the next day. In the next scene, Nahum and his wife talk, and his wife implies that Nahum's father, Corbin, had gotten tangled up in some sort of dark magic involving the Cthulhu mythos (sidenote: as Nahum's father was never mentioned in the story, I have to ask: is 'Corbin' supposed to be a shout-out to 'Curwen'? The actors' pronunciation make 'Corbin' sound like 'Curwen', and their activities sound similar as well)(Right now I'd rather see Curwen, Vincent Price equals AWESOME!).

Getting back on track, Stephen has dinner with Susan and Nahum, we learn a bit about the family history and the mother's increasing illness but getting no answer about the crater. At this point, Susan reveals herself as entirely ignorant of everything going on with her family. However, this scene is interrupted when Nahum's servant abruptly collapses. While Susan checks in on her mother, Stephen finds a book called 'Cult of the Outer Ones'(Subtle). While examining it, Susan sees a veiled figure (earlier said to be the maid) at the window and freaks out. Stephen comforts her, and they agree to leave the next day.

I know you're all asking me to get to the point, but this is the parsed version. If I had to remove ALL the pointlessness, the summary would be maybe ten sentences and could not alone convey what this movie is like.

That night, Stephen and Susan wake up to hear a scream, and Nahum informs them that his servant has died. After Stephen takes Susan back up to her room, he goes back downstairs to see Nahum dispose of the body on foot and finds the greenhouse. The next day, instead of leaving with Susan, Stephen goes into town by himself and is attacked along the way by the maid, who is mutated beneath the veil. After getting no help from the town, he returns to the mansion and discusses the greenhouse with Susan. She helps him break in, and they find mutated animals, green rocks that seem to promote tremendous plant growth, and sentient malevolent plants. After this, Stephen goes into the cellar to see the 'radioactive' rock. He then warns Nahum to get rid of it, but then Nahum's wife escapes from her room. After a lengthy search, they find her, mutated and malevolent, and a brief chase scene leaves her to dissolve on the floor(With the cheapest effects humanly possible). Having lost his wife, Nahum reveals that the rock was a meteorite (only at one hour and seven minutes in. Movie's 79 minutes) and resolves to destroy it. He goes to the basement but is attacked by the maid and exposed to the radiation at full blast. As a result, he turns into a 'metallic' person (Oh no! The Silver Surfer is here to kill us all!) with a green glow and some inherent hatred of people. After chasing Stephen and Susan through the house, he falls to his death, and Stephen helps Susan get away.

Revenge of the Silver Surfer!

In retrospect, I think I was too harsh on 'The Haunted Palace'. Sure, it missed a lot, but it got the basic theme down: a man looks into his ancestry and is taken over by it, losing himself in the process.

This movie doesn't even try - in the original story, the meteorite that brought the color just fell onto a random plot of land, affecting a guy who didn't know any better and just thought it was interesting. I'm not sure why the screenwriter decided to try dragging in the Cthulhu mythos, but this was one of the worst possible stories it could've been done in. More irritatingly, the color really had one effect on animals and humans: it drove them mad and turned them to dust slowly. The humans would know what was going on but be powerless to get away. In the movie, the four known victims suffered no fewer than three different effects from exposure. Never mind the fact that it seems to be the rock and not the actual color, which was more gaseous. The worst sin of all? The shoehorned antagonist. Nahum was, in the story, a good man even if he couldn't help his family, not some cackling mad scientist who had tomes of eldritch lore lying about. That just changes the character's presence from 'innocent victim' to 'he had it coming'. Why the screenwriter decided to mention what this movie was 'based' on is beyond me - I wasn't fully convinced I was watching an adaptation flick until I went back to the credits and confirmed it.

As I cannot judge this fairly as a movie on its own merits, I now turn it over to KK to finish the evaluation.

Thanks. As a movie, it fails on almost every aspect. It fails in terms of storytelling, it fails in terms of effects, it fails in terms of acting, it fails in terms of entertainment. The characterization was horrendous; I mean the main character had nothing and I do mean nothing. He was underdeveloped and I cannot even think of anything that made him special. This movie has done the impossible: it's made Roger Corman look like Stanley Kubrik in terms of HP Lovecraft films. You know how sometimes a movie can be so bad it's good? There's nothing in here to give the film any of those qualities. The acting is incredibly dull, and emphasis on incredibly dull. I can be entertained by hammy acting because I can laugh at it, but the dismal performances basically bored me and caused me to fall asleep quite a few times. The effects are laughable and downright amateur. When your demonic HP Lovecraft creatures look more like the crack babies of Snuffleupagus, you really need to reconsider your career. The story drags on ad naseum and there is no tension or reason we should give a rat's ass about any of the main characters. Overall, I say stay away from this movie as much as possible and do not track it down, it will be 78 minutes of your life that you'll never get back. I am going to go out on a limb and say this is easily one of the worst things I've ever watched in my life. And for a guy who saw Epic Movie, Alone in the Dark, and Christmas with the Kranks that's saying a lot.

Long lost cousins?

For HP Lovecraft fans: This is not the same story that made you scared of a color.

For non-HP Lovecraft fans: Unless you're a horror film reviewer looking to pad out your schedule or have a bile fascination, this isn't worth looking for.

HP Lovecraft Review #1: The Haunted Palace

So, hey, folks, RBY speaking. Just a quick introduction. My little series examines films claiming to be adaptations of H. P. Lovecraft's works and tries to evaluate them as an adaptation and as a film - after all, just because something's a poor adaptation doesn't make it a bad film. Not everyone will know the story it's trying to adapt and thus will have no expectations.

I admit, this is my first-ever review. Constructive criticism is much appreciated, and any feedback is much beloved. Thanks for supporting Kriken, and, in advance, thanks for giving me the time of day.


The Haunted Palace - a 1960s movie named after Edgar Allen Poe's poem but claiming to also be based on H. P. Lovecraft's 'The Case of Charles Dexter Ward'. For those who aren't aware, it was part of a series by the American International Pictures showcasing Poe's work - the title was their idea and was chosen against the director's wishes. For MST3K fans, I'm going to drop a name that might make you groan: Roger Corman. Yes, he directed this film. Before you go, though, you ought to know the star: Vincent Price. I'll be honest, before this film, I never saw Price's acting. Now... Well, I'll tell you after the summary. Spoilers ahoy.

The movie opens with credits over a spider spinning its web and catching a butterfly to eat it. Anyone who's read the book this movie is based on can see that it could be apt symbolism for the actual story; anyone just watching the movie may get a little lost.

After these credits is a cut to the 1700s (I assume), showing Vincent Price as Joseph Curwen, kidnapping a young woman for his experiments (aka forced to mate with Elder Gods. Dead serious). He is then caught and burned alive by a mob. 110 years later, Charles Ward and his wife (!) Ann arrive in the town of Arkham to claim Charles' great-great-grandfather's palace as part of a mysterious inheritance. Neither intend to stay long, due to the palace's creepy feel, the mutated humans running around as a result of Curwen's experimentation, and the unfriendly residents who note Charles' uncanny resemblance to Curwen. However, the housekeeper Simon persuades them to stay long enough for Curwen to start possessing his descendant. Charles soon becomes unable to leave the house, with the townspeople growing suspicious of him. Curwen starts getting revenge on the descendants of the townspeople who killed him, aided by Simon and another old assistant, Jebidiah.

Finally, Charles makes one last attempt to leave but fails, with Curwen sending Ann away in Willet's care. Both soon return in hopes of saving Charles from the town and from his ancestor's grasp. While the two search the palace for Charles, eventually stumbling across his not-so-well-hidden laboratory, the townspeople form a mob and set the palace on fire. Curwen captures Ann and intends to subject her to his 'experimentation', restraining Willet; however, when the fire above destroys the portrait of Curwen, Charles breaks free to save Ann. Simon and Jebidiah attack Charles while Willet gets Ann out of the burning palace. He then goes back and pulls out Charles as well, with the implication at the end being that Charles is still possessed by Curwen.


As an adaptation of 'The Case of Charles Dexter Ward', this movie fails. The setting is wrong: the big issue being that there was never a palace, though the lab isn't as secretive nor as well-hidden as it should have been. The characters are wrong: two major examples are that Charles was a bookish awkward teen interested in history, with Dr. Willet as the family physician (and thus having a reason to care so much about Charles). The plot is wrong: Curwen's plans never directly involved the Elder Gods, and what he actually did to Charles is possibly more disturbing than the demonic possession presented in the movie. The worst sin of all, though, is the treatment of Curwen: in the book, everything he did was so awful, so gruesome, that the town struck him nearly entirely out of history, and it was only through Charles' best efforts he found anything at all. In the movie, the whole town knows about Curwen, even naming a tavern to reference his fate, but still try to act like he wasn't a person. Sorry, townsfolk (and movie), but that I can't excuse by any means.

Now, to be fair to this film, it wasn't all bad. Sure, most of the actors are average, at best, with the exception of Vincent Price. I will say this once, Vincent Price turns this from an awful adaptation into a pretty decent B-movie. The effects are cheesy, the climax far too rushed, certain characters are not worth their screentime, and the plot missed the point of the book it was supposed to be based on, but the music isn't bad and, again, Vincent Price. Honestly, if the movie had just been 'inspired by' the novel, and the names were changed, it would significantly improve this flick for Lovecraft fans.

Overall: Lovecraft fans, don't bother unless you can not take it seriously. Non-Lovecraft fans, it may be Corman, but it's at least worth a look via renting or Youtube.