The Dunwich Horror (1970)
So from the start, this movie is not 100% sure if it wants to be Lovecraftian horror of more typical 70s occult-themed horror.
I do love how the Necronomicon is given to a coed to return to the library like it was a copy of the Encyclopedia Britannica. Dean Stockwell is Wilbur in this one. He is really young and does a good job acting, BUT he is not a good Wilbur. That is due to the script really, not the acting. I guess they needed someone to charm Sandra Dee, and a deformed 10-year-old would not do the trick. Ed Begley (in one of his last roles) is our Dr. Armitage and he brings the right amount of pomposity to the role.
The biggest crime here is that the movie is so slow. The Whateley home in this movie is far nicer than it ever was in the Lovecraft tale.
The effects are not great, but fun. The image of Wilbur's brother is kind of cool.
There is a lot of conflating of the Old Ones with some sort of satanic aspect, which is fairly irritating, to be honest. But is it more irritating than Wilbur getting a "love interest?" Hard to say.
Among other things, this movie is notable for a very, very rare, blink and you will miss it, Sandra Dee topless scene. This was also near the end of her very prolific career. She would only appear in a few more TV episodes.
The movie ends with Dee's character, Nancy Wagner, pregnant with Wilbur's baby. I guess he would be in his 50s now. Sounds like a sequel to me! The Bride of Dunwich!
This one has also been called "Witches: The Darkest Horror" and "Witches: The Dunwich Horror." This time the story moves to Louisana.
Dean Stockwell this time plays Dr. Henry Armitage. The movie is really not good, to be honest, but it is kind of fun. It watches like a Call of Cthulhu adventure; exotic locales, strange artifacts, old evil tomes, guest-starring Jeffery Combs (as Wilbur no less). Even John Dee, Olas Wormius, and the Knights Templar get name-dropped here. Olas even shows up in a swamp for some reason.
Moving the location to the far south is an interesting one. I am sure in Lovecraft's time New England had its share of strange locales, but now on a larger scale the same "other place" is served by the backwoods southern parts of the country. Or I might be giving the filmmakers too much credit. I also can't tell if the effect of Wilbur being "slightly out of this dimension/time" is interesting or irritating.
While it is not Lovecraft's Dunwich Horror and it is not very good, it kept me watching to the end.
So where are we at now? I think it is time for another Dunwich Horror movie, this time make it closer to the Lovecraft tale and get Dean Stockwell to play old man Whateley!
October 2021
Viewed: 4
First Time Views: 2
2 comments:
Slightly envious as I've been poking around over here, hunting for the more modern Dunwich Horror but haven't been able to track it down. I agree with your critique of the first version that conflating the Cthulhu Mythos with Satanism is irritating as it detracts from the cosmic horror aspect of Lovecraft's work.
Not sure about on your side of the pond, but here the 2008 version is available on Amazon Prime.
At least in this version, they do more Lovecraft-based research.
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