H.P. Lovecraft’s Witch House is an impressive low budget indie horror based on the legendary writer’s short story Dreams in The Witch House. The story finds graduate student Alice (Michelle Morris) staying at an old house that allegedly was the scene of much occult and supernatural activity. Alice intends to prove that witchcraft was actually used to open dimensional doorways, but her investigation only opens up a nightmare for the pretty young student.
Flick is atmospherically directed by Bobby Easley from a script by he and Ken Wallace, and Easley gets a lot accomplished on his low budget. The director has a good visual eye and there is some very spooky imagery here. He gets good use out of the atmospheric old house that a lot of the film is shot in, the dream/hallucination sequences are spooky, and what minimal make-up and gore FX there are, such as a very effective demonic entity, are well shot and executed. The story has been done before, and the ending is no shocker if you are a horror fan, but it’s still quite effective. Lead Michelle Morris gives a really good performance as Alice, a woman with a scientific interest in witchcraft and who is also emotionally wounded by a toxic relationship with an abusive boyfriend (Andrew Hutchinson). Aubrey Smith-Leonard is spooky as the owner of the allegedly haunted house and Julie Anne Prescott is good as her daughter Tommi, whom Alice forms a friendship and romantic relationship with. Not all the acting is as solid and some of the surreal dream sequences are shot a little too dark, with the color filters and lights being used a bit too much. Flaws and budget restraints aside, though, Bobby Easley crafts an effective little horror with some legitimate chills and some very impressive and spooky visuals on what appears to be an extremely modest budget. Worth a look when it comes to VOD on 7/5/22!
Flick has Marie Aldrich (Jocelin Donahue) returning to the place of her mother’s (Melora Walters) burial upon receiving notice of the gravesite being vandalized. She becomes trapped in the remote island town of Lone Palm during a fierce storm and finds her mother’s tales of the village’s dark past may not have been the mere ramblings of a mentally unstable woman.
Film is written and directed by indie filmmaker Mickey Keating (Carnage Park, POD) with a definite Lovecraftian flare. Offseason is very atmospheric and there are some very spooky visuals and cinematography. It’s all much ado about nothing, though, as story-wise there isn’t very much going on, nor is anything really accomplished other than a bunch of strung together set pieces with some admittedly unsettling visuals. These island folk made a deal with a demon from beneath the sea and Marie unfortunately is related to one of the island’s inhabitants, making her prime interest to the right-out-of-Lovecraft entity. Donahue is good, as is the rest of the cast, but ultimately there really isn’t a strong enough story to support the spooky goings on. Worth a look, but its spookiness is as shallow as the surrounding shore without any dramatic weight or the emotional resonance that comes with good story telling. Flick is currently available on VOD.
Flick finds Isaac (Ludovic Hughes) and his pregnant wife Emma (Sophie Stevens) returning to his Norwegian birthplace after the death of his mother. Isaac and his mother fled the home when he was a boy and now local Sheriff Renate (Barbara Crampton) tells him that his father was actually murdered and the case is still open. The worst is yet to come, though, as there is something strange in the waters around this island and Isaac and Emma may be in great danger.
Creepy yet tedious flick is directed by Andy Collier and Toor Mian based on their script and story, which is itself based on a short story by Paul Kane and the works of H.P. Lovecraft. It is moody and visually atmospheric, but something is missing, as it never really grabs us. Maybe it’s because we never really endear to Isaac and Emma, who aren’t especially likable, so we don’t get emotionally invested once things start to get weird. The film is also paced like a funeral and even a slow burn needs some kind of flow to keep us interested. The flick is also predictable and leads exactly where one expects it to go. Nothing comes as a surprise. Maybe that’s it. The film is so gloomy from the start that we know from the first frames that it is not going to end well for this young couple, no matter what the backstory or reasons for the spooky goings on turn out to be. It tries hard and has a bit of a Lovecraftian feel, and you can’t completely hate a flick that has Barbara Crampton chewing up the scenery in a Norwegian accent. There was a good movie in here somewhere, but Andy Collier and Toor Mian can’t seem to find it.
Shudder Exclusive opens with something being released from the ocean floor near a beachfront community, something that soon gets into the water supply and air. At the same time, young couple Randall (Noah Le Gros from Depraved) and Emily (Liana Liberato) arrive at Randall’s family beach house to sort out some relationship issues. When they arrive, they find friends of Randall’s father staying there as well, couple Mitch (Jake Weber) and Jane (Maryann Nagel). The older couple is the least of their worries, as whatever is seeping out of the ocean floor begins affecting and infecting the local lifeforms, including both couples.
The film is basically Lovecraft’s TheColour Out of Space set at the beach, instead of a rural farmhouse, as written and directed by Jeffrey A. Brown. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as it is unsettling and spooky as people begin to get sick and change. The fear of infection element is always present and extremely relevant in these COVID 19 times. It’s Liana (2013’s Haunt, not the Shudder flick from last year) Liberato’s likable heroine Emily, though, that really makes this work for us, despite the familiarity with Richard Stanley’s The Color Out of Space Lovecraft adaptation released this past January. Emily is smart and understands what’s going on, somewhat, which makes it all the more frightening as she tries to survive it. It’s a now familiar story, but done very well, especially since Brown creeps us out in broad daylight and in such a picturesque North Truro, Massachusetts settings. The make-up and visual FX are solidly rendered and they are used sparingly enough to be effective when they are presented. Worth a watch. Streaming now on Shudder.
Flick is based on H.P. Lovecraft’s The Colour Out of Space and takes place in a secluded house in rural Arkham, Massachusetts. The home is occupied by the Gardner family, father Nathan (Nicolas Cage), mom Theresa (Joely Richardson), Wiccan teen daughter, Lavinia (Madeleine Arthur), teen son, Benny (Brendan Meyer) and young Jack ( Julian Hilliard). What appears to be a meteorite lands on the eccentric family’s property one night, emitting a purple glow and having a strange effect on all of them. Two days later, and after being struck by lightening, the meteor seems to have vanished, but strange things begin to occur. The object is not gone, however, but has found it’s way into the family well and water and begins to change the animal life around them…and begins to change the Gardeners as well.
Creepy flick is directed by South African director Richard Stanley who is most famous for being the first director on the disastrous 1996 The Island of Dr. Moreau remake and for the apocalyptic, music video-esque Hardware. Color has some very bizarre and surreal sequences, some very unsettling prosthetic creatures and make-up, and Nicolas Cage being…well, Nicolas Cage. The SPFX are quite good and the flick does play a bit like John Carpenter’s The Thing, but with alpacas, which isn’t a bad thing. The movie does start out slowly, giving us a chance to get to know this already strange family, but once it gets going, it’s quite spooky and sometimes borders on hallucinogenic. It’s not perfect, Cage’s over-the-top gets obtrusive at times and the family seems a little too weird, even before the alien entity shows up. It makes their personality transformations less startling as they are already an odd bunch. H.P. Lovecraft doesn’t seem to be the easiest author to adapt and being unfamiliar with this tale it’s hard to say just how good a job they did. Taken as it is, it’s a trippy, creepy and effective enough movie and Stanley proves he hasn’t lost his visual flare, either. Worth a look! Flick also features Tommy Chong as…surprise!…a stoner squatting on the Gardener land.
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80s horror is based on an H.P. Lovecraft story and finds some college students relating the tale of an old house and the creature that supposedly is imprisoned inside…a story we are treated to in an opening flashback. As college students in 80s horror movies were wont to do, they find reason to enter the old house only to discover the legend is gruesomely true.
Late 80s horror is directed by Jean-Paul Ouellette from his Lovecraft based script. Lovecraft’s story is used as a starting point to which the flick then turns into a more formula 80s slasher with the creature of the title stalking and killing the coeds within the old house, one by one. There are some bloody kills and it is fun, though it never gets really scary. The creature itself is well rendered in prosthetics and make-up and the gore is also well done and quite abundant. The characters are typical 80s horror types with a few characters from the original story as part of the group, such as Randolph Carter (Mark Kinsey Stephenson). Today the film has a bit of a following and while it could have been better, as we continually wonder why they don’t just simply leave the house, it is still bloody and fun. Add in some 80s nostalgia and that it does deliver on the boobs and blood and it is certainly an entertaining enough watch.
The cast, including leads Stephenson and Charles Klausmeyer, are all suitable enough, though no awards will be given out. Katrin Alexandre performs an imposing creature with Alexandra Durrell and Laura Albert making suitable eye candy as Tanya and Wendy.
Maybe not a great flick, but a fun one with some nice gore and a cool monster. It is just as much a creature flick as it is a routine slasher, though one that’s not particularly scary. It’s based on a classic H.P. Lovecraft story and tries hard to provide some atmosphere. While it has it’s flaws, it succeeds in being a good time, especially if 80s flicks are your thing.
Period piece is set in 1914 with a young man named Friend (David Oakes) traveling to a secluded island as a Weather Official. There he finds the man he’s replacing is missing and cantankerous lighthouse keeper Gruner (Ray Stevenson) has fortified the lighthouse against something he won’t speak of. Soon Friend finds out that he and Gruner are not alone, as the surrounding waters are home to a society of aquatic humanoids that aren’t happy about the island’s human occupants.
Flick is atmospherically directed by Xavier Gens (Frontier(s),The Divide) and is a Lovecraftian tale of man against monster…or so we first believe. The script by Jesús Olmo and Eron Sheean hints that these creatures are quite intelligent, though and may simply be acting in self defense, as Gruner hasn’t been exactly treating them nicely. There is a lot of action, fierce battles and plenty of bloodshed as Gruner and Friend fend off their attackers. As with many flicks of this type, we soon begin to question just who are the bad guys and who are the victims. Gens proves again he has a solid visual style and delivers an old fashioned and entertaining tale of man discovering things yet undreamt of. Also stars Aura Garrido as a female creature that Gruner has captured and been mistreating in some questionable ways.
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This is actually a fun anthology the uses the amusing framing story of H.P. Lovecraft (Jeffrey Combs) himself visiting the library of a mysterious sect of monks and sneaking a look at the forbidden book of the title and thus unleashing three stories based on actual works of the author. Now we know where he got his inspiration.
First story, The Drowned, is the best and most Lovecraftian of the three tales. It’s directed by Christophe Gans (Brotherhood of the Wolf) and written by Gans and Brent V. Friedman. It tells the tragic tale of Edward De LaPoer (Bruce Payne) who has recently lost his wife in a terrible drowning accident and now has inherited a run-down, old seaside hotel from a distant uncle. He discovers the original owner of the building Jethro De La Poer (Richard Lynch) also lost his family tragically at sea and used a book called the Necronomicon to resurrect them. Not heeding how horribly Jethro’s story turned out, Edward finds where the book is hidden in the house and plots to resurrect his own lost love. This story is very well acted by Payne and has some of the best SPFX of the anthology in its presentation of resurrected ghouls and Cthulhu-like creatures. It has a nice atmosphere of dread and a great visual look from Gans. As far as evoking Lovecraft, this segment nails it perfectly.
Second story, The Cold, is entertaining, too as it finds nosey and obnoxious reporter Dale Porkel (Dennis Christopher) confronting a woman (Bess Meyer) in an old Boston house as to the whereabouts of the original owner, a Dr. Madden (David Warner). Madden is suspected of being over 100 years old and Porkel claims he can tie him into a series of disappearances unless the woman tells him everything. Be careful what you wish for, as Porkel gets a tale of love, murder and trying to cheat death that is chilling in more ways than one. Another entertaining story, this one directed by the 90s Gamera series’ director Shusuke Kaneko and written by Friedman and Kazunori Ito. This segment combines a tragic love story with a gruesome tale of a scientist trying to cheat death while at the cost of the lives of others. It earns it’s title from the fact that Madden’s cheating of death only works at very low temperatures. The segment is well done, has some very good FX and the cast all perform well, especially David Warner as the ill-fated Madden. Christopher lays it on a little thick but is only in the beginning and end of the segment.
Final story, Whispers is the weakest, but still provides skin-crawling entertainment. It’s written by Brent V. Friedman and Brian Yuzna, who also directed the segment. This tells the story of a cop (Signy Coleman) who is pregnant from her partner Paul (Obba Babatundé). Her overly emotional state while in pursuit of a mysterious suspect called The Butcher, causes an accident that allows the injured Paul to be taken hostage. She pursues them into what appears to be an abandoned building, but soon finds there is an unspeakable and otherworldly horror waiting for her and her unborn child in its depths. Segment is OK but marred by some over-the-top and uneven acting and a story that’s too contemporary to fit in comfortably with the previous old-fashioned tales. What we finally find in its lower levels is gruesome and unnerving and well portrayed by some charming prosthetic effects and Yuzna does have a cinematic style that works well with the subject matter. The story is entertaining, but not as much as what came before and it also lacks the other stories’ charm, though it does have some of the most unsettling visuals.
Obviously, after the final tale, we finish the framing story of H.P. Lovecraft’s search and seizure of the Necronomicon and hint at possible future installments which sadly never happened. The framing segments are fun and also directed by Brian Yuzna and co-written with Brent V. Friedman. This segment has a charming old-fashioned movie serial feel and does get to have a little fun with prosthetic make-up FX in its last act. Too bad the film never took off enough to continue the adventures of Coombs’ H.P. Lovecraft. That might have been fun.
This is, overall, an entertaining movie. The stories may be uneven, but they do capture the flavor of the celebrated horror author’s work and the wraparound story actually involving Lovecraft is charming and fun. The FX throughout are delightful prosthetics, gore, miniatures and rubber creatures with some slightly cheesy visual FX that are all the more fun for it. The cast are fairly solid, except for a few overdone performances, such as in the last story, but are balanced out by the strong work of Payne, Lynch, Warner and the always welcome Jeffrey Combs. A fun and nostalgic anthology that deserves a decent blu-ray release!
This week’s double feature are two films that go very well together, at least in my opinion. They are both from the 80s, both co-written and directed by Stuart Gordon, both are based loosely on the works of H.P. Lovecraft and both star the incomparable Jeffrey Combs and the lovely Barbara Crampton. Not to mention, they are probably two of the best features to come out of Charles Band’s prolific Empire Pictures… certainly the most infamous.
RE-ANIMATOR (1985)
Based on a story by H.P. Lovecraft, this delightfully fun gore-fest opens in a university in Switzerland with something going frightfully wrong in one of the labs and security and faculty rushing to see what is going on. They burst in to find famed Doctor Hans Gruber (Al Berry) a bloody screaming mess with brilliant student Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) at his side with a syringe. Gruber dies and West is accused of his murder causing him to reply that it was he who gave him life. We then cut to Miskatonic University where West has appeared and seeks to continue his education. He rooms with fellow medical student Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott) who is dating Megan Halsey (Barbara Crampton), who is Dean Halsey’s (Robert Sampson) daughter. But West’s true goal is to continue his experiments with defeating death using a serum he’s developed, and he begs Cain to assist him. After being given some gruesome proof, involving Cain’s cat, that West’s serum works, he agrees. But one of their experiments goes horribly awry and not only leads to the death…and re-animation…of Dean Halsey, but also gets the unwanted attention of rival Doctor Carl Hill, who wants West’s serum as his own. This sets a series of blood-soaked events in motion that sees corpses rise and headless foes carrying out their own diabolical plot that puts the lives of West, Cain and the lovely Megan in grave danger…emphasis on grave.
Directed by Stuart Gordon, Re-Animator is a really entertaining and deliriously blood-spattered treat that perfectly straddles the line between comedy and horror. And it’s my experience that comedy/horror is one of the hardest types of flicks to make as the blend has to be just right to work…and Gordon nails it here. There are some set pieces here that are both grotesque and hilarious, such as West and Cain’s first experiment gone wrong and the really over the top morgue-set finale that includes Megan as a nude and bound damsel being menaced by a perverted severed head…it’s the scene this flick is most famous for and I will always have much respect for Barbara Crampton being such a good sport in performing it and with such seriousness.
And while we are on the subject of the cast, they all do a perfect job of taking the material seriously yet adding that touch of theatricality that gives it a much welcome energy and buoyancy despite the gruesome subject matter. Few films with so many severed limbs and so much spurting blood have been this giddy. This is the flick that introduced the genre world to Jeffery Combs who is not only a horror icon, but equally iconic in the world of Star Trek as well. He plays West very seriously but takes him over the top just enough to delightfully evoke the mad scientist vibe he needs to make his part work. Abbott plays the straight man to West’s demented yet determined scientist and is a noble, if not flawed hero. Crampton’s Megan is basically required to be a feisty girlfriend who mistrusts West and then become a damsel to be rescued, but she’s beautiful and hot and a real sport for her work in the last act that has earned her special status among horror fans. This and her equally racy work in From Beyond make her a real trooper in my book. Rounding out the main cast is Robert Sampson as stern father and school dean Alan Hasley and he seems to play both dean and zombie henchman with equal relish and David Gale provides a truly despicable villain in Dr. Hill whose villainy extends quite beyond decapitation and death. The performances hit the right notes and keep Gordon’s flick balanced on that horror/comedy line.
The gore FX are excellent and quite disgusting, especially during a final act that sees all manner of corpses, limbs and viscera coming to life and wreaking havoc. Again, if the FX didn’t work, the film wouldn’t have near the impact it does. Add a witty script by Gordon, Dennis Paoli and William J.Norris and an energetic score by Richard Band and you have a cult classic movie that hits all the right marks and doesn’t miss a beat. One of my favorite horrors and one I can proudly say I was able to catch it in a theater…the Hyway Cinema in Fairlawn, N.J. to be exact…back in the day in 1985. A fun, gory good time!
Stuart Gordon followed up his cult hit Re-Animator with another H.P. Lovecraft inspired story, this one about experiments to expand the senses into other dimensions. The result is a weird, sometimes kinky and moderately entertaining film, but it didn’t live up to the instant classic it followed…which admittedly, were big shoes to fill…though it has developed a cult following of its own.
The film opens with scientists Dr. Crawford Tillinghast (Jeffrey Combs) and Dr. Edward Pretorius (Ted Sorel) initiating The Resonator, a machine that uses sound waves to stimulate the pineal gland in the human brain which would allow one to see into other dimensions. The experiment works until something from another dimension sees them back. The result is Pretorius left without a head and Tillinghast driven out of his. The young scientist is institutionalized, and the authorities want answers. Enter beautiful Dr. Katherine McMichaels (Barbara Crampton), a psychologist who volunteers to take Crawford back to the Pretorius house to determine if he is truly crazy or if they really did unleash something through their experiments. Accompanied by Det. Bubba Brownlee (Ken Foree), the three try to restart The Resonator and piece together what happened that fateful night. But the more Dr. McMichaels sees of the accomplishments the two men made, the more she is seduced by needing to push the experiment further. And despite Crawford’s dire warnings, Katherine unleashes a horror upon the three that none of them may escape.
From Beyond is a far more serious and ambitious flick then Re-Animator and could have used a bit more of that film’s theatrical tone. Gordon directs with a far more somber and darker feel then his last flick, despite the borderline goofiness of some of what goes on. While there is a smattering of humor, the comic aspects of his re-animated corpse epic are gone and replaced with a bit of a surreal atmosphere with a touch of S&M, as he once again portrays science gone too far. This time his story focuses on heightening the senses of the living and not raising the dead…and it’s not as much fun and not always successful as the film sometimes seems to bite off more than it can chew for its small budget. The FX this time are not limited to gore, but various creatures including the constantly evolving monstrosity that Pretorius has become, now that his twisted mind is taking physical form on the other side. The production tries to accomplish The Thing-like creatures with a fraction of the budget and the FX are mixed, with some being quite effective and others being rubbery or just plain unconvincing. Another thing is that the film is shot entirely on sound stages, and it shows. The film never quite looks real. More like a filmed play than a movie.
A big plus though, is that the cast are all good. Combs plays more of a victim here, a man mentally wounded by what he has seen and experienced and he is fine, though, except for a few really bizarre and over the top moments, he seems a bit wasted somewhat as it’s becomes Crampton’s show. And Barbara Crampton does shine as she gets a far meatier part from Gordon and co-scripters Brian Yuzna and Dennis Paoli. She starts out as a young doctor resented for her accomplishments at her youthful age and then slowly turns mad scientist as the experiment’s allure pulls her in. Once again, she is a trooper for Gordon as the pineal gland stimulation also controls sexual urges and Dr. McMichaels gets her dominatrix on in the film’s most notorious scene and gets her pretty flesh again ravaged by prosthetic horrors. Next, we have the always delightful Ken Foree as the big teddy bear cop who has some of the best moments and lines. Not sure why Foree never became a bigger star. He can play a tough guy and has charm and charisma to spare and it’s on full display here. Rounding out is Ted Sorel who is dripping with malice and madness as Pretorius, but we see little of him not covered in pounds of latex monster make-up and not getting to know him well limits him to being a fairly generic villain, though well played.
But the biggest flaw with From Beyond is its weak script. The dialog is hokey, the science is obviously more science fiction…which is fine…and it really needed to flesh out the characters and situations a bit more, and at least Gordon is lucky his cast helped out on the character front, adding some dimension to their portrayals. We could have used a clearer idea of what lurked in this other dimension to establish a deeper threat and a more gradual portrayal of the effects it has on the house occupants. They transform way to fast and the film’s over too quickly before we really feel the story’s accomplished anything other then the time-honored ‘leave well enough alone’ moral. What really was the point other than to shower the screen with goo and gore and get the shapely Ms. Crampton into a leather corset…not that I mind. The film is almost a series of set-pieces more than a complete movie with a smooth narrative flow. Sure, we were entertained somewhat, the film has its degree of fun, but we’re never swept off our feet like with Re-Animator and sadly, Gordon has never again hit his stride or equaled his accomplishment with that classic.
Overall, I do like From Beyond. It’s got a midnight movie feel, some unintentionally goofy goings on and definitely benefits from the 80s nostalgia now, too. But it is a bit of a disappointment after Re-Animator and once it’s over you just get the feeling there was potential there to achieve a lot more even with what they had to work with. An amusing diversion that is fun enough when viewed from a guilty pleasure perspective, but could have been something more, or at least had a little more fun with what it was.
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