The tyranist's thoughts
Long ago, possibly before the advent of the Horror Film Compendium, Rish and I sat down in front of my computer one night and listened enrapt to a reading of "The Dunwich Horror" on the Sci-Fi Channel's website. Neither of us had ever read the story prior to that, and I believe neither of us has read it since. A quick check of scifi.com shows that the story is no longer available there, but I wish it were. My love affair with Lovecraft's particular brand of horror began long ago, but that one creepy night, with the lights turned low and the low-grade broadcast the internet afforded at the time, stands out as one of the singular events in my horror experience.
Just before watching this movie, I checked my bookshelf and was interested to find that among the dozen or so Lovecraft anthologies I own, only one featured this story. In spite of that, I think that this is one of his most recognized and loved stories. Perhaps it is the great title, I don't know.
A visiting professor at an unnamed Arkham, Massachusetts university has brought the Necronomicon to town for a series of lectures. The book is priceless as one of few known copies in existence, but a local man seems very, very interested in it. He wins the eye of a pretty young woman, steals the book, and they are off to the countryside for a holiday.
While there are some strong connections to the original story, the movie does not bother to try to be true to its source. Really it seemed to only use story material when it was convenient instead of crafting a larger story around it.
Dean Stockwell is very good as the country gentleman who is a little too interested in the occult. I also really liked Sandra Dee in this. The script was pretty strong, but really followed what would become pretty standard Devil-Worshipper movie formulae.
In fact, if you liked The Wicker Man and Rosemary's Baby, you might want to check this one out. It predates them and is not quite as high a quality movie, but it definitely laid the groundwork for those two movies.