H.P. Lovecraft Movies
Inspired by the works of celebrated horror fiction author H.P. Lovecraft, this apocalyptic frightener tells the story of a Seattle history professor who becomes caught up in a frightful and rapidly accelerating series of strange events after returning to his estranged family on the Oregon coast and discovering that his father is involved with a bizarre New Age cult. Upon returning home to execute his late mother's will, the professor enters into a long-awaited affair with his beautiful best friend from childhood. Later, the professor uncovers evidence that the members of his father's cult are anticipating a large-scale event that will forever alter the way humankind views the universe. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jason Cottle, Cara Buono, (more)
An aspiring writer and inner city grocery clerk discovers a dark secret about the elderly former scientist who employs him in this chilly shocker inspired by H.P. Lovecraft's Cool Air. Attempting to make ends meet while he works on his latest novel, Sam Jackson lands a job in a run-down grocery store owned by the eccentric Dr. Munoz. A retired scientist who claims to suffer from a rare skin condition that requires him to live in sub-freezing temperatures, Dr. Munoz harbors a satanic secret that may ultimately cost Sam his life; the truth is, Dr. Munoz has been dead for years. Having previously made an occult pact that allows him to remain undead as long as he continues to harvest flesh from the living, Dr. Munoz soon captures Sam and gives him a horrifying ultimatum: join him in his dark quest for eternal life, or suffer the slow, painful death in order to provide him with the flesh he needs to continue walking the Earth. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Thomas Calabro, Ashley Laurence, (more)
H.P. Lovecraft fans rejoice, because the story that spawned an entire mythology finally comes to the silver screen in this visionary feature that would strike terror into the hearts of even the Great Old Ones. A silent film shot in the expressionistic style of F.W. Murnau and Carl Theodore Dryer, director Andrew H. Leman's take on the Cthulu mythos follows the nephew of a renowned professor as he procures documents concerning a mysterious cult. The followers of an ancient deity who lies under the ocean waters awaiting the day that he will return to rule over the Earth, the Cthulu cult are convinced that the day of reckoning is at hand. According to his grandfather's notes, any mortal who hears the mighty Cthulu's call will be driven beyond madness. As the horrifying reality of this cosmic terror begins to take form, the frightened man passes the torch to his psychiatrist, who personally sets out to investigate the dark legend. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
The brutal murder of a Catskill Mountains family sets into motion a terrifying sequence of events as the horrors of H.P. Lovecraft come to the screen courtesy of directors Barrett J. Leigh and Thom Maurer. The year is 1908, and a mountain man named Joe Slaader has just committed the ultimate atrocity. Committed to the Ulster County Asylum after murdering his entire family, the man with the mysterious growth on his back is seen by the studied doctors of the facility as the harbinger of the dark days to come. When the inmates of the asylum decide to turn on their captors and wrestle away control of the remote asylum, the strange events that follow precede the ominous arrival of a dark force that the mind of man may not hold the power to comprehend. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Sanderson
- 1994
In this chilling horror movie, loosely based on a tale by H.P. Lovecraft, a group of people in an ancient church find themselves beleaguered by terrifying monsters. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1993
- R
Based on horror author H.P. Lovecraft's writings, Necronomicon: Book of the Dead includes three short stories devoted to the deadly and mysterious "Necronomicon." When Lovecraft (played by Jeffrey Combs) manages to smuggle the legendary book out of a heavily guarded library, he quickly finds himself immersed in its passages, and three short stories take form as he sets off to record the information. In the first, Bruce Payne plays a disgruntled man whose inheritance of an old motel turns out to be more than he bargained for, as there are a nasty group of demons populating its basement. The second story follows a young reporter in search of a doctor who allegedly found the path to immortality, though, like the unwitting motel owner, he wouldn't realize how far in over his head he was until it became too late. The last story features Signy Coleman as a tough-as-nails police officer who descends into a strange set of catacombs in order to find her missing partner -- little does she know that an infamous serial killer is already living inside its subterranean depths. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeffrey Combs, Tony Azito, (more)
- 1992
- R
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She lives. Deep in the bowels of the underworld Alyda the half-human demon waits to return to the earthy plane. This horror sequel chronicles her blood-soaked ascent. It all begins at Miskatonic University where several gruesome murders have occurred. Two college students, Randolph Carter and Eliot Damon Howard witnessed some of Alyda's handiwork in nearby Winthrop mansion where their friends, who went up there for a little illicit fun, were mysteriously slaughtered. The fleeing duo encounter the cops and paramedics. Though they claim some otherworldly monster is responsible, Sheriff Hatch pooh-poohs them, claiming an animal did the damage. Howard goes to the hospital and while there has a vision. He sees the original owner of the mansion who lived in the 1600s. The owner had been a warlock and it was he who awakened Alyda. As Winthrop fades, he warns Howard that he must stop her. Unfortunately, after his release, Howard has trouble finding people to believe him until he and Carter hook up with professor Harley Warren who uses a combination of ancient rituals and modern technology to take care of Alyda once and for all, but not before more blood is spilled and much horror ensues. Both this and its prequel were based on tales byH.P. Lovecraft. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mark Kinsey Stephenson, John Rhys-Davies, (more)
This low-budget film from Alien scriptwriter Dan O'Bannon (his first film since the 1985 zombie hit Return of the Living Dead) is one of the more loyal adaptations of fantasy author H.P. Lovecraft, taking as its source the short story The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. Set in Lovecraft's home town of Providence, Rhode Island, the story involves the investigations of hard-boiled private eye John Marsh (John Terry) into the mysterious activities of Charles Dexter Ward (Chris Sarandon). It seems that Ward is becoming increasingly obsessed with the occult practices of his distant ancestor Joseph Curwen (also played by Sarandon) who was reputed to have found the secret of resurrecting the dead. Much to the horror of his wife Claire (Jane Sibbett), Ward is slowly being possessed by Curwen's malevolent spirit, and he is compelled to perform horrible experiments on the locals in pursuit of his goal. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Terry, Jane Sibbett, (more)
- 1988
- R
College students from Miskatonic University who retreat to an early 18th-century mansion for a weekend of lust are stalked by a fatalistic female in this horror film taken from a story by H.P. Lovecraft. The demon delights in tearing the limbs off her human victims to carry out a centuries-old family curse. Bloody graphic violence and nudity is combined with some campy comedy. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Klausmeyer, Mark Kinsey Stephenson, (more)
- 1987
- R
This awful horror film, the directing debut of actor David Keith, is the second major adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's The Colour Out of Space, first brought to the screen in Daniel Haller's Die, Monster, Die. Wil Wheaton stars as Zack, eternal whipping-boy of a rural farm family headed by his religious fanatic stepfather Nathan (Claude Akins). A large meteor comes zipping through the clouds and crashes in the yard, where local scientist Carl Willis (John Schneider) cracks it open to leak slime into the water supply. Soon, tomatoes are squirting blood, the lettuce oozes pus, apples are full of worms and little Alice (Wheaton's real-life sister Amy) is pecked bloody by crazed chickens. Eventually, the bad water begins affecting other members of the family, until Willis shows up to save the day. Keith's direction is sluggish, the acting is horrid, and even the involvement of associate producer Lucio Fulci couldn't save the wretched effects-work. The cast doesn't even seem to be paying attention most of the time, as in the priceless moment when Zach's mother tells him, "Eat your eggs, Wil." The Curse is an utter abomination which somehow produced three unrelated sequels. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wil Wheaton, Claude Akins, (more)
The production team responsible for the twisted cult classic Re-Animator -- including director Stuart Gordon and producer Brian Yuzna -- returned the following year with this equally depraved (perhaps more so) follow-up, based once again (and very loosely) on the pulp-horror fiction of H.P. Lovecraft. Also returning to the fray is Jeffrey Combs, here playing the mild-mannered Crawford Tillinghast, apprentice to the dangerously obsessed Dr. Pretorious (Ted Sorel) and co-inventor of an enigmatic and ominous-looking device known as "The Resonator" -- a machine designed to stimulate the vestigial sensory apparatus contained within the human pineal gland. Such stimulation allows participants to "see" the slimy creatures which occupy a dimension parallel to our own, but with some chilling side effects -- the first of which being that the interdimensional vision works both ways. When a powerful sentient force devours Pretorious and assumes his consciousness, Tillinghast panics and destroys the Resonator -- soon to find himself in a padded cell, accused of his mentor's murder. Called to the case are Dr. McMichaels (Barbara Crampton, another Re-Animator alum) and amiable cop Bubba Brownlee (Dawn of the Dead's Ken Foree), who escort Tillinghast back to the shattered laboratory in an attempt to corroborate his deranged account by re-creating the experiment. Their attempts are all too successful, and the Pretorious-thing emerges to take control of the reactivated Resonator and draw the others into its hideous realm. Also called forth are the participants' darkest sexual desires -- another interesting by-product of pineal stimulation -- and, in Tillinghast's case, an uncontrollable urge to devour human brains. Just when it seems it can't get any weirder...it does. Gordon explores this demented scenario with relish, allowing nearly every scene to go completely over the top into surreal mayhem while retaining the dark brooding sense of menace characteristic of Lovecraft's work. (It's not likely, however, that the author's dignified upbringing would have explored the psychosexual dimensions of the premise -- at least not in the kind of detail seen here.) All manners of perversities abound, accompanied by the wizardry of four dueling special-effects studios and the rich, creepy score by Richard H. Band, bringing the film to a literally explosive climax and a chillingly poetic final shot. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton, (more)
Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) is a brilliant medical student who has perfected a green-glowing serum for regenerating life into dead things -- or even parts of dead things. But a corrupt superior, Dr. Carl Hill (David Gale), assumes control of West's experiments and winds up, by ghastly necessity, using the stuff on his own severed head and body. West and in-over-his-head co-worker Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott) struggle to control the now out-of-control effects of the serum, but the bone-saws and zombies complicate their plans. ~ Buzz McClain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeffrey Combs, Bruce Abbott, (more)
With a style and tone that wreaks of the late '60s, this cheap-looking adaptation of an H.P. Lovecraft story plays like an obvious reference to the battle between the establishment and the counterculture. The film stars Dean Stockwell as Wilbur Whateley, a brooding young man who makes a connection with a pretty librarian named Nancy (a very out-of-place Sandra Dee). Whateley wants to get his hands on the Necronomicon, a diabolical book that he believes will help him to open a doorway to a dimension inhabited by unspeakable creatures known as the "Old Ones." Hypnotized by Whateley's spell, Nancy accompanies the man back to his cursed home where he lives with his nutty grandfather (Sam Jaffe) and an unseen "thing" that is kept in an upstairs room. Meanwhile, the Necronomicon's owner, Dr. Armitage (Ed Begley), does some detective work on Whateley when he begins to fear for Nancy's safety. He quickly realizes that Whateley means to sacrifice Nancy in order to accomplish his diabolical plan. Whateley manages to steal the Necronomicon and begins the ritual to resurrect the Old Ones. As Armitage races to stop him, the thing from the upstairs room breaks out and beats a murderous path towards Whateley as well, leading to a final confrontation that leaves a lot to be desired. ~ Patrick Legare, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sandra Dee, Dean Stockwell, (more)
- 1968
One of four low-rent Mexican horror productions from the 1960s which featured an ailing Boris Karloff in supporting roles (and released after his death), this sci-fi/horror quickie features Karloff as a 19th-century scientist who invents a powerful energy device capable of rendering any weapon useless. Although we're led to believe that military forces will soon step in to nab the device, the scientist's laboratory is suddenly invaded by aliens -- who consider the raygun too dangerous to be allowed to fall into human hands. To achieve their ends, the invaders take over the bodies of the scientist and his assistant, who also happens to be responsible for a series of sex-killings in the surrounding village. Several confusing plot twists later, Karloff regains control of his senses and sets the machine to self-destruct before it can fall into evil hands. The filmmakers barely had enough talent to adhere to the simplest of storylines, much less this hodgepodge of cut-rate H.G. Wells posturing and sleazy exploitation. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- 1967
Another semi-successful attempt to adapt the works of American fantasist H.P. Lovecraft to the screen, this is loosely based on the short story The Shuttered Room (also an alternate release title for the film), a story which is purported to be more the work of "posthumous collaborator" August Derleth. The story involves a couple's return to the creepy old ancestral home, located on an island in New England, in which they soon discover the dark secret hidden behind a heavily-locked door in the attic... a door the fearful townsfolk declare "must never be opened." Oliver Reed delivers one of his patented gruff, over-the-top performances as the local nutcase, and director David Greene creates a suitably moody atmosphere, but much like the Roger Corman-produced The Dunwich Horror, this film fails to act on the spooky potential of its theme. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gig Young, Carol Lynley, (more)
- 1965
Also known as Monster of Terror, this British-made horror opus is very loosely based on H.P. Lovecraft's story "The Colour Out of Space". The story begins with an American scientist (Nick Adams) paying a visit to the remote estate of his fiancee's family (located in Lovecraft's fictional Arkham County, Massachusetts) and finding many of the surrounding flora and fauna horribly mutated by strange radiation. The source of the contamination is discovered to be a glowing meteorite kept hidden in the basement by his girlfriend's father (Boris Karloff), who has been using the radiation to mutate local plant life. As one might expect, the experiment has gotten a bit out of hand... and poor mommy has changed into something unspeakably horrible. Designed as a vehicle for Karloff (who is excellent), this is a decent freshman effort from director Daniel Haller (formerly Roger Corman's production designer), but the effectively creepy atmosphere would have been greatly assisted by a better script -- perhaps one more loyal to the source material. The same story was adapted (again, loosely) in 1987 for The Curse. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Boris Karloff, Nick Adams, (more)
- 1963
The Haunted Palace is a witches' brew of stories written by Edgar Allan Poe and H. P. Lovecraft--with the fine hand of sinister scenarist Charles Beaumont stirring the pot. Vincent Price plays two roles this time: A New England doctor burned as a sorcerer in 1745, and the dead man's great-grandson of 1855. Arriving in the village where his grandfather was killed, Price and his bride Debra Paget are shunned by the community. They are told that the mutant progeny of the "sorcerer"'s evil experiments are still roaming the countryside--with hulking manservant Lon Chaney Jr. a good example of these monstrosities. The longer he stays in the family mansion, the more Price is taken over by the spirit of his ancestor. The result: The possessed Price, together with Chaney and a warlock assistant, set about to create a mutant race to overtake the world. Concluding with the near-sacrifice of bride Debra Paget and the torching of the mansion, The Haunted Palace is a marvelous--and economically produced--exercise in Grand Guignol. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vincent Price, Debra Paget, (more)
