jacksmoviepage

Review

Originally released back in 1970, The Dunwich Horror would prove to be one of the earliest of the many features that have attempted (for the most part unsuccessfully) to bring cinematic life to the slithering horrors and fantastical cosmic gods of legendary horror writer H.P. Lovecraft. Based rather loosely upon Lovecraft’s short tale of the same name, The Dunwich Horror represents the latter of two Lovecraft adaptations directed by Haller and backed by studio giants AIP, its predecessor being 1965’s Die, Monster, Die! – an equally loose but partially effective adaptation of Lovecraft’s The Colour Out Of Space starring Boris Karloff in one of his last high profile roles. As it happens The Dunwich Horror, despite the guiding hand of the great Roger Corman as executive producer, would vanish more or less without a trace on release thanks to its singular lack of marketability. In their infinite wisdom AIP sought to remedy this problem by misleadingly promoting The Dunwich Horror as a film in the same vein as Roman Polanski’s box office smash Rosemary’s Baby (1968), but in doing so only confused matters further. Eventually The Dunwich Horror found itself doing the cinema rounds here in the UK on the arse end of a double bill alongside Gordon Hessler’s forgettable Poe adaptation The Oblong Box (1969) starring Vincent Price and Christopher Lee. Since then The Dunwich Horror has enjoyed a rather chequered history and is generally regarded by most horror genre historians as one of the foremost of the myriad failed cinematic Lovecraft adaptations.

The Dunwich Horror begins at the Miskatonic University located in Arkham, New England, where the eminent Dr Henry Armitage (Begley) has recently come into possession of a priceless ancient book known as the Necronomicon. It is said that the passages and incantations contained within the Necronomicon can be used to summon “The Old Ones” – a race of powerful and altogether terrible beings which, legend has it, ruled the world before the dawn of man but are now confined to an alternate dimension.

Shortly after making this exciting acquisition Dr Armitage is approached by a well-mannered but sinister young man named Wilbur Whateley (Stockwell) who expresses a wish to examine the Necronomicon personally. When Armitage refuses Whateley’s request the conniving young warlock soon sets about worming his way into the affections of Armitage’s beautiful young student Nancy (Dee) whom he soon whisks off to his creepy family home located in the nearby town of Dunwich. Once he has her there Wilbur soon uses a combination of his urbane charm and drug laced tea to persuade Nancy into staying the weekend.

Concerned that Nancy has fell into the clutches of such and odd and potentially dangerous stranger, Dr Armitage wastes little time in following the couple to Dunwich where he soon uncovers some shocking revelations relating to Wilbur and the history of the Whateley family. Armitage discovers that the Whateley’s have long been despised outcasts in Dunwich thanks to their seemingly insane belief in the existence of “The Old Ones”. Additionally Armitage also hears a disturbing account of the events that took place in the town some twenty-five years previously. On the night of Wilbur’s birth there was also born Wilbur’s twin who was allegedly stillborn but whose corpse was never seen. Some of the more superstitious townsfolk believe that Wilbur’s twin is still very much alive and is not a human being. When Wilbur succeeds in stealing the Necronomicon away from the university it soon becomes apparent to Armitage that both the book and Nancy figure heavily in Wilbur’s insane scheme to resurrect The Old Ones who will in turn annihilate humanity.

Viewed now retrospectively The Dunwich Horroris an odd kettle of fish, simultaneously intriguing and effective in some ways but intensely frustrating in many others. Ultimately it does admittedly prove rather hard to really disagree with the general consensus that The Dunwich Horror is one of the first in a long line of failed attempts to bring the imaginative fantasy and otherworldly sense of horror synonymous with Lovecraft’s literature to the big screen. Yet although The Dunwich Horror is essentially a failure that is not to say that it is not completely ineffective or without merit. On the contrary The Dunwich Horror although deeply flawed and often underwhelming nonetheless makes for a unique addition to the initial wave of seventies horror films.

The films principal failing is the same one that afflicted practically the entire handful of attempted Lovecraft adaptations to emerge during the sixties and seventies. No matter how effectively or faithfully these attempted adaptations built up suspense and atmosphere the fact inescapably remained that they were all singularly unable to deliver anything palpably frightening as the fantastical cosmic gods and tentacled horrors synonymous with Lovecraft were simply beyond the means of the era’s special effects technology. Ultimately it would not be until the mid eighties and the release of Stuart Gordon’s superb duo of Re-Animator (1985) and From Beyond (1986) that the visual aspects of Lovecraft’s unique spin on horror would be realised effectively onscreen, albeit in a completely different context to that which Lovecraft originally intended.

This inability to effectively realise the visual aspects of Lovecraft (admittedly a huge sticking point) leaves The Dunwich Horror somewhat compromised from the outset. To his credit however, Haller does go some way to compensating for this unavoidable shortcoming by generating an understated but consistently effective sense of a lurking horror which is beyond the comprehension of the films protagonists. This atmosphere of mysterious unease is established from the very outset as The Dunwich Horror opens with a memorably eerie animated silhouette credits sequence which conjures up a palpable sense of macabre ancient mysticism. Other portions of the film similarly succeed in shining, in particular the involving middle act in which Dr Armitage gradually delves into the horrific truths behind the Whateley family history and most specifically the reasoning behind Wilbur’s fanatical obsession with the Necronomicon.

Unfortunately much of what Haller gets right is sadly marred to a considerable degree by senseless concessions to early seventies psychedelia which are frankly to Lovecraft what chalk is to cheese and stick out like a sore thumb. Nancy’s ludicrously stylised (allegedly sensual?) hallucinatory sequences are particularly guilty offenders, horrifically kitsch and adding an unwelcome and altogether risible, off-putting distraction to what is otherwise a fairly tight and compulsive narrative. On the same note a totally misappropriated score courtesy of AIP’s resident compositional legend Les Baxter only manages to confound matters further. While some have inexplicably acclaimed his score for The Dunwich Horror as one of Baxter’s best (it was even released on vinyl LP) personally if I didn’t know better I would call it a deliberate attempt n Baxter’s behalf to sabotage any sense of creepiness or atmosphere Haller had otherwise achieved.

However the main problem with The Dunwich Horror – for me at least – is the woeful miscasting of Dean Stockwell in the role of Wilbur Whateley. If there is any truth to the rumours AIP had originally wished to cast Peter Fonda as Wilbur and it was only after he turned them down that the role was offered to Stockwell. To be brutally frank it is a pity that Fonda declined to play Wilbur because Stockwell is comically ineffective in the role. Instead of a suave, charming yet dangerously fanatical practitioner of the occult, Stockwell instead comes off as a vaguely perverse yet not even the slightest bit menacing weirdo misfit with a very silly beard and is ultimately as insubstantial and colourless a villain as has ever graced a horror film. Therefore when Wilbur finally casts aside any veil of normality at the films conclusion and erupts into psychotic gibberish incanting any suspension of disbelief is impossible and much unintentional hilarity ensues. Don’t get me wrong I have nothing against Stockwell and I acknowledge his numerous good performances elsewhere but his performance here is cringe inducing – all wild eye movements and campy weirdness with none of the sinister subtlety a role such as this so desperately cries out for.

Most of the scant discussion surrounding The Dunwich Horror over the years has tended to centre around lead actress Sandra Dee’s very brief and discreet nudity. As discreet as it may be Dee’s brief flash of bare breast on the sacrificial altar would be cut from most prints (probably to secure a theatrical PG rating in the United States) and would only be fully reinstated for the films VHS and DVD releases almost three full decades later. In all fairness Sandra Dee, in contrast to the woeful Stockwell, makes for a reasonably appealing female lead but unfortunately it is very hard to believe that Nancy would ever allow herself to be whisked off by a charmless oddball like Wilbur in the first instance and it doesn’t help that Dee and Stockwell have zero onscreen chemistry whatsoever. It is therefore very fortunate that reliable veteran actor Ed Begley is present to hold things together from a thespian perspective, delivering a solid performance as Dr Armitage who uses his own not inconsiderable knowledge of the arcane and the mystical to come to Nancy’s rescue. Additionally viewers should keep their eyes open for an assured early appearance from Talia Shire (credited as Talia Coppola) in a small supporting role as an unfortunate young nurse who finds herself fatally caught up in the evil events that eventually befall Dunwich.

Prior to his own directorial career Haller had spent many years as an art director to filmmaker Roger Corman, collaborating with him on over thirty features and playing an integral role in realising the visually sumptuous appearance of Corman directed horror classics such as The Pit And The Pendulum (1961), The Terror (1963) and The Tomb Of Ligeia (1964). While it is impossible to look past the films glaring flaws, Daniel Haller eventually does call upon his invaluable experience with Corman in order to redeem The Dunwich Horror up to a point, with a stylish and impressively realised tour de force finale. As Wilbur finally puts his diabolical plans into practise Wilbur’s much whispered about “twin” finally breaks free of its chamber in the Whateley house and tears across the local countryside laying waste to everyone and everything in its path. While the obvious and aforementioned technological constraints of the era prevent Haller from actually showing the creature he bridges around this in ingeniously effective and innovative fashion by depicting the creatures progress through violently swaying shrubbery while conveying its attacks through colour filtered monster POV shots and slick rapid editing techniques. While some staunch followers of Lovecraft and the Cthulhu Mythos may remain somewhat underwhelmed, Haller still deserves credit where it is due for concluding The Dunwich Horror with a choice crescendo of shocks.

All in all The Dunwich Horror remains a curious potpourri of the reasonably effective and the frustratingly crap. While The Dunwich Horror is every inch an honourable attempt to bring the feel of Lovecraft’s fiction to the big screen it is nonetheless a failed attempt to do so, fatally impeded by Stockwell’s dreadful central turn and a seriously uneven tone. To his credit Daniel Haller occasionally imbues The Dunwich Horror with a nicely realised sense of atmospheric disquiet and an underlying sense of unspeakable evil permeating through the very fabric of New England. It is therefore a shame that the ambitious directors largely good intentions are washed out to see by the illogical inclusion of garish and hopelessly kitsch stylistic trappings which are totally misplaced within the context of a Lovecraftian narrative and mark The Dunwich Horror out as a quaint and curiously dated product of its era. So overall this is most assuredly not an especially successful film but for the curious seventies horror fan or Lovecraft aficionado there are enough points of interest (both good and bad) to make The Dunwich Horror worth a glance, registering as a middling yet intermittently compulsive genre effort.

Also Try… Die, Monster, Die! / The Haunted Palace / The Shuttered Room / Curse Of The Crimson Altar / Re-Animator / From Beyond (1986, Stuart Gordon) / The Oblong Box / Cthulhu Mansion.

Please place any comments or queries about this film / review on the message board below. Please note that the newest comment is always displayed first so if you wish to read the comments in order start from the bottom and work your way up. Thanks.

Piczo