The Dunwich Horror

            What happens when you decide to make a movie based on an H.P. Lovecraft film but don’t have the budget or the technology to do it right?  Why, you make a masterpiece of cheese, my friend.  A cheesterpiece.

On to the review!

            TheDunwich Horror is based on the Lovecraft story of the same name, only the Lovecraft story is, well, scary.  The plot is similar but I’m not here to debate the differences between film and the written word.  I’m here to tell you about an awesomely corny horror movie released in 1970. 

            In the film, our main character is Wilbur Whateley (Dean Stockwell).  Thanks to his upbringing, he has a very unhealthy obsession with the occult.  Now an ‘adult’, he gets it into his head that he can resurrect the horrors of the Old Gods by sacrificing the innocence of virgin Nancy Wagner (Sandra Dee), with a little help from the Necronomicon of course.  Unfortunately for him, the Necronomicon is safe and sound at good ol’ Miskatonic University and is currently under the auspices of Dr. Henry Armitage (Ed Begley).

            As the plot unfolds, Wilbur is able to seduce/brainwash/magic Nancy into staying with him until such a time as he can use her for his evil scheme.  While this not-quite-human man advances his evil scheme, something not-nearly-humanoid begins rampaging across the countryside.

            It’s painfully obvious that this is a ‘60’s film.  Don’t let the 1970 release date fool you—that was just an effort to throw you off the trail.  Despite being a supernatural horror, this movie is colorful.  There are bright, happy colors everywhere.  The clothing is cheerful, nature is happy and the furniture….oh god the furniture.  Everything screams Technicolor, and the cheerful appearance certainly does not set a tone of wicked manipulation and dark dreams.

            Alas, it’s not really fair to pick on the special effects of a 42 year old film, but I can’t help myself.  In The Dunwich Horror’s defense, it actually does a fantastic job when it sticks to suggesting evil things afoot.  Things go downhill rather fast when it starts showing things to you.  Not showing things in this film is good for the same reason that it was good when you never really saw the alien in Ridley Scott’s Alien.  If you had seen too much, you would no longer have been scared.

            Speaking of seeing too much, I have to comment on the final battle.  Without giving anything away, it felt like they ran out of budget just before the climactic scene.  So instead of some sort of epic battle we get to watch Wilbur and Henry talk gibberish at each other.  We don’t even get a good payoff for the ridiculous faux-evil-sounding-kinda-racisty-Native-American.  Instead we are ‘treated’ to a terrible green-screen effect followed by the worst human/stunt dummy juxtaposition I’ve ever seen.  The scene involving the dummy is so poorly done even Ed Wood would scoff at how amateur the whole thing is.

            On the plus side, since it is a 60’s movie at heart, there is pointless nudity.  I guess it’s supposed to represent evil and temptation, but heck.  I’m a guy.  All I saw were boobs.

            As an exercise in how far the genre has come, The Dunwich Horror is an interesting time piece.  It’s not great at anything, but it does offer a tantalizing glimpse into what can be accomplished with a half-decent script (conveniently cribbed from a dead horror writer’s story), some competent actors and a willingness to avoid most special effects.  It doesn’t have the suspenseful build of Peeping Tom but it’s entertaining in its own special way.