Brought to us by the man who had earlier made that tacky-but-fun Lovecraft adaptation DIE, MONSTER, DIE!, THE DUNWICH HORROR rather horrendously tries to mix in Lovecraft with the 1970s with devastating results, and not in a good way either. This is an AIP release, and Roger Corman serves as executive producer, meaning that the film has the same "look" and "feel" about it as earlier minor classics like THE HAUNTED PALACE. However, while Corman's AIP releases were all pretty damn good, THE DUNWICH HORROR commits the biggest film 'sin' in my book - it's overlong, and boring with it. I don't mind films being tacky or cheesy (incidentally, this is both of those), but boredom is a sin that I just cannot forgive.
THE DUNWICH HORROR is well regarded as being one of Lovecraft's best stories, but the makers of this film - while being fairly loyal to the story - decide to add in an hour of supposed romance and intrigue before we get to the monster bits. Aside from a few hallucinatory dream sequences, where naked natives dance about, there's not a lot of horror in the first hour either. Scenes move sluggishly with no regard for pacing. The music tries to be a mixture of classic horror and seventies cool, and fails miserably. Only some good, quality acting could keep us interesting, but I'm afraid we don't even have that.
You see, casting Dean Stockwell (with a perm) in the lead role of Wilbur Whateley was a bad idea. Stockwell, a familiar face on US television, just doesn't have enough menace in his body to play the part convincingly; he just looks like an ineffectual geek, and the monotonous delivery of his lines threatens to send the viewer to sleep. I'm not sure who Sandra Dee is, or where she came from, but she's similarly bad, walking around in a drugged daze for much of the film. We're supposed to feel for her when she gives herself up to Wilbur so easily? I think not. The only actor of any note is Ed Begley, playing one of his final roles, and he brings just the right touch of pomposity to his role as a Professor who has to track down Wilbur. Sam Jaffe is good for a laugh playing a crazed old man.
This film does benefit from trying to do some odd, different things (I liked the idea of birds coming to take the soul of a dying person), but the action comes so late in the story that I had lost interest. When the horror of the title finally appears - glimpsed in brief flashes, to disguise the ineptitude of the special effects - it looks like nothing more than a giant floating cabbage. Things quickly go downhill from here, and the film ends with Wilbur and Armitage shouting ancient words at each other. THE DUNWICH HORROR is a missed opportunity, worth a cursory glance by Lovecraft fans or those interested in '70s psychedelia, but nearly totally worthless as anything more than an oddity.
THE DUNWICH HORROR is well regarded as being one of Lovecraft's best stories, but the makers of this film - while being fairly loyal to the story - decide to add in an hour of supposed romance and intrigue before we get to the monster bits. Aside from a few hallucinatory dream sequences, where naked natives dance about, there's not a lot of horror in the first hour either. Scenes move sluggishly with no regard for pacing. The music tries to be a mixture of classic horror and seventies cool, and fails miserably. Only some good, quality acting could keep us interesting, but I'm afraid we don't even have that.
You see, casting Dean Stockwell (with a perm) in the lead role of Wilbur Whateley was a bad idea. Stockwell, a familiar face on US television, just doesn't have enough menace in his body to play the part convincingly; he just looks like an ineffectual geek, and the monotonous delivery of his lines threatens to send the viewer to sleep. I'm not sure who Sandra Dee is, or where she came from, but she's similarly bad, walking around in a drugged daze for much of the film. We're supposed to feel for her when she gives herself up to Wilbur so easily? I think not. The only actor of any note is Ed Begley, playing one of his final roles, and he brings just the right touch of pomposity to his role as a Professor who has to track down Wilbur. Sam Jaffe is good for a laugh playing a crazed old man.
This film does benefit from trying to do some odd, different things (I liked the idea of birds coming to take the soul of a dying person), but the action comes so late in the story that I had lost interest. When the horror of the title finally appears - glimpsed in brief flashes, to disguise the ineptitude of the special effects - it looks like nothing more than a giant floating cabbage. Things quickly go downhill from here, and the film ends with Wilbur and Armitage shouting ancient words at each other. THE DUNWICH HORROR is a missed opportunity, worth a cursory glance by Lovecraft fans or those interested in '70s psychedelia, but nearly totally worthless as anything more than an oddity.