Rating: 
Summary: Another dissappointing Lovecraft adaption.
Review: This film is taken from one of HP Lovecrafts better stories, but here its been turned into typical early 70s AIP schlock. The acting is decent, and the film generally looks good considering its low budget. The film is actually more loyal to the original story than most Lovecraft adaptions, though there have been signifigant changes. New characters have been added, others dropped, and the storyline has been altered and simplified. Few of the changes do much good, most are negative.The film moves very slowly towards it's conclusion, as the story is a bit thin for a feature length film. Once Wilbur and Sandra Dee get together in the first twenty minutes, the film plods along until it's time for the climactic ending. Much of the runtime is filled with a lot of 60's psychedelic effects, long dull conversations and occult mumbo jumbo. For diehard Lovecraft or AIP fans only.
Rating: 
Summary: Hip Lovecraft Lovin'!
Review: This handsomely filmed AIP Lovecraft offering has more to recommend it than not: colorful production, good cast and performances, and a pretty good script. The alterations made to Lovecraft's original story are acceptable, given production limitations. The Les Baxter soundtrack is hit-and-miss, the intrusion of rock music into the eeriness somehow out of place - as is the Mod Era look of the entire piece, which is partially effective (in the sense of connecting bizarre cults to a tie-dyed druggie generation), but as often as not feels discordant. Dean Stockwell plays handsome backwoods young man Wilbur Whateley, son of a deranged, mad old cultist (Sam Jaffe), whose wife Lavinia went mad giving birth to Wilbur. The townsfolk never took kindly to the Whateleys, and Wilbur gives them the willies. He's always off looking for arcane books of devil worship, presumably to continue his raving father's attempts to conjure-up some strange sky-demon. Wilbur encounters wise old Dr. Armitage at Arkham University (Ed Begley), who is more intrigued by Whateley's family history than put-off by it. Armitage's assistant, pretty naif Sandra Dee, is quite taken by the charming Wilbur, and spends the weekend at his ancestral house. Crazy old Jaffe warns Wilbur that what he wants to do with the girl will come to no good, and it doesn't - he wants to impregnate her with his seed under the appropriate circumstances, and create Something Other. Dee's presence contributes to upsetting the Family Secret, long locked up in an attic room - Wilbur's invisible not-quite-twin brother, who breaks free, burns down the house, and wreaks havoc throughout Arkham until Armitage confronts Wilbur in a magic showdown. The first half of the movie is quite good, and the second half, though uneven, is not bad. Wilbur's brother, once made (briefly) visible, is a pretty obvious spring-and-wire mask affair, but it isn't seen enough to detract from the rest of the piece. The movie's biggest problem is its anachronistic rock score, and repetitive pointless padding scenes of Wilbur performing incantations over Dee on a hilltop stone slab. The finale is abrupt and disappointing. But the performances and the high quality of the production itself are worth watching, especially if you're a Lovecraft fan. The "demons" in this version are converted to more prosaic devil-worship, which isn't as effective as Lovecraft's vision, but probably more passable to an American audience of the time - not to mention, easier on the budget.
Rating:
Summary: More than two stars is definitely suspending my disbelief!
Review: This movie is the best adaptation of any of the Lovecraft stories. I am glad that the creators of this movie didn't put Lovecraft's name on it like so many others who try to cash in on one of horror's greatest authors. Of all the crappy Lovecraft movies I've seen The Dunwich Horror is the best, and that is a cyclopean leap for me.
Rating: 
Summary: Reminiscent of Hammer Studios
Review: This one H.P. Lovecraft adaption reminded me of Hammer studios. It's about a guy with a Necronomicon who is trying to seduce an innocent girl into the occult. Talia Shire famous from Rocky as Adrian also appears here. Better than most Lovecraft adaptions because of its maturity. This is an old school style film before they started to jazz it up with gore and nudity. Still enjoyable to this day, its maturity rises it above a mediocre horror film of any sub genre.
Rating: 
Summary: A Superb "Lovecraftian" screen adaptation
Review: This ranks with "The Resurrected" as one of the most excellent and lovingly produced Lovecraftian movie treatments I have come across. There is peerless handling of dramatic tension, with that artful, classically Lovecraftian juxtaposition of "normalcy" and the trans-physical (I would not use supernatural in the context of Lovecraft works) which goes to show that the director has a sincere and heartfelt appreciation of the genre known as Cthlhu Mythos. A product of love by a director who knows his stuff. Everything a Lovecraft fan expects is here:- the innocent visitor (Sandra Dee), the creepy but apparently normal village weirdo (played with great restraint and deadly effectiveness by Dean Stockwell), your well-meaning smalltown doctor, overtones of in-breeding, incest, horrific genetic mixture with outer-dimensional monsters, ancient books of unspeakable mysteries (I would not use the word 'evils' in a Lovecraftian context) written by long-lost wizards, the secret library, the mysterious big mansion, strange stone menhirs and open-air sacrificial temples from aeons-past. Its ALL here!! Even if you are not a Lovecraftian fan you would enjoy this. Well worth it, go for it!!
Rating:
Summary: A Superb "Lovecraftian" screen adaptation
Review: This ranks with "The Resurrected" as one of the most excellent and lovingly produced Lovecraftian movie treatments I have come across. There is peerless handling of dramatic tension, with that artful, classically Lovecraftian juxtaposition of "normalcy" and the trans-physical (I would not use supernatural in the context of Lovecraft works) which goes to show that the director has a sincere and heartfelt appreciation of the genre known as Cthlhu Mythos. A product of love by a director who knows his stuff. Everything a Lovecraft fan expects is here:- the innocent visitor (Sandra Dee), the creepy but apparently normal village weirdo (played with great restraint and deadly effectiveness by Dean Stockwell), your well-meaning smalltown doctor, overtones of in-breeding, incest, horrific genetic mixture with outer-dimensional monsters, ancient books of unspeakable mysteries (I would not use the word 'evils' in a Lovecraftian context) written by long-lost wizards, the secret library, the mysterious big mansion, strange stone menhirs and open-air sacrificial temples from aeons-past. Its ALL here!! Even if you are not a Lovecraftian fan you would enjoy this. Well worth it, go for it!!
Rating:
Summary: The Dunwich Horror
Review: Whooeee! I had no idea that this movie is considered to be such a bomb. Biggest complaints seem to be that Stockwell should have had his hair straightened (so 90s & millenial, in the 60s folks weren't so hung up about the Uniform Hair look), the flick was low budget (duh!), not enough special effects for the monster (yeah, it would have been SO great if they'da had COMPUTER GRAPHICS, you know, like in Aliens 'n' The Thing, complete with lingering scenes of slimy tentacles & dripping puss---for all you jaded unimaginative types out there), clips of painted dated hippie types (anyone ever hear of pagans, Druids, Picts, etc.---they probably didn't have executive hairdos or baseball caps), the ending was anticlimactic (?) (Yeah, it COULD have been more like a Schwarzennegar or Bruce Willis flick with lotsa EXPLOSIONS and stuff, and plenty of sweat and dirt, straining jaw and neck muscles, gritting teeth), wasn't EXACTLY like the original story (and what movie IS? After all, big movie executives feel compelled to dumb down their products for the vast movie going public---that goes for ALL movies, so why pick on this one), the acting was "flat" (yeah, there should have been more EMOTIONS displayed, you know like was done with The Lord Of The Rings or a Springer show---EMOTE for the audience is on a base level and might not "get it" otherwise), screenplay was lacking (yeah, we could have gotten more into Sandra Dee's character background, and so forth), the movie has a "dated", "campy" feel (how dated and campy do you think the overwhelming majority of movies churned out of Hollywood and by the "Indies" nowadays are going to appear 30+ years from now?), etc. I agree that the movie is a bit campy, but I love it. Yes, the movie is a departure from HP's original tale, but it stands on its own, and does respectfully adhere, in its own way, to the Arkham mythos. I LIKED the special effects, the tastefully short clips don't interfere with the imagination. I loved the soundtrack, it is quite memorable (if you have an attention span past, say, that of a puppy). Graphics, photography, sets, acting, casting, direction---in fact, I find very little wrong with this movie. It is a WORK OF ART! If you don't agree, go pop in your copy of Total Recall (hey man, check out the guy with the talking head growin outta his belly or wherever) or something. BLAMMO! Subtlety is truly a dying art. I'm giving this movie 5 well-deserved stars. AND I'm going to order the DVD widescreen version---should be a real treat. So there! Troglodytes...
Rating:
Summary: The Dunwich Horror
Review: Whooeee! I had no idea that this movie is considered to be such a bomb. Biggest complaints seem to be that Stockwell should have had his hair straightened (so 90s & millenial, in the 60s folks weren't so hung up about the Uniform Hair look), the flick was low budget (duh!), not enough special effects for the monster (yeah, it would have been SO great if they'da had COMPUTER GRAPHICS, you know, like in Aliens 'n' The Thing, complete with lingering scenes of slimy tentacles & dripping puss---for all you jaded unimaginative types out there), clips of painted dated hippie types (anyone ever hear of pagans, Druids, Picts, etc.---they probably didn't have executive hairdos or baseball caps), the ending was anticlimactic (?) (Yeah, it COULD have been more like a Schwarzennegar or Bruce Willis flick with lotsa EXPLOSIONS and stuff, and plenty of sweat and dirt, straining jaw and neck muscles, gritting teeth), wasn't EXACTLY like the original story (and what movie IS? After all, big movie executives feel compelled to dumb down their products for the vast movie going public---that goes for ALL movies, so why pick on this one), the acting was "flat" (yeah, there should have been more EMOTIONS displayed, you know like was done with The Lord Of The Rings or a Springer show---EMOTE for the audience is on a base level and might not "get it" otherwise), screenplay was lacking (yeah, we could have gotten more into Sandra Dee's character background, and so forth), the movie has a "dated", "campy" feel (how dated and campy do you think the overwhelming majority of movies churned out of Hollywood and by the "Indies" nowadays are going to appear 30+ years from now?), etc. I agree that the movie is a bit campy, but I love it. Yes, the movie is a departure from HP's original tale, but it stands on its own, and does respectfully adhere, in its own way, to the Arkham mythos. I LIKED the special effects, the tastefully short clips don't interfere with the imagination. I loved the soundtrack, it is quite memorable (if you have an attention span past, say, that of a puppy). Graphics, photography, sets, acting, casting, direction---in fact, I find very little wrong with this movie. It is a WORK OF ART! If you don't agree, go pop in your copy of Total Recall (hey man, check out the guy with the talking head growin outta his belly or wherever) or something. BLAMMO! Subtlety is truly a dying art. I'm giving this movie 5 well-deserved stars. AND I'm going to order the DVD widescreen version---should be a real treat. So there! Troglodytes...
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