H.P. Lovecraft Week

Our (no-longer almost) complete guide to the cinematic adaptations of Howard Phillips Lovecraft!

The "Never Got Made" File #14 - SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH

The Chill of Cool Air, Part 1: ROD SERLING'S NIGHT GALLERY: COOL AIR (1971), THE HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY (1981) & NECRONOMICON: THE COLD (1993)

The Chill of Cool Air, Part 2: COOL AIR (1998) & CHILL (2007)

THE UNNAMABLE films: THE UNNAMBALE (1988) & H.P. LOVECRAFT'S THE UNNAMABLE II: THE STATEMENT OF RANDOLPH CARTER (1993)

SHADOW OF THE UNNAMABLE (2011)

The Unwatchable: H.P. LOVECRAFT’S THE TOMB (2007) & CTHULHU MANSION (1990)

Mystery of the Nothingtodowithlovecrafticon: MYSTERY OF THE NECRONOMICON (1999)

The Horrors of Dunwich, Part 1: H.P. LOVECRAFT'S THE DUNWICH HORROR (2009)

The Horrors of Dunwich, Part 2: BEYOND THE DUNWICH HORROR (2007) 

The COLOUR of Lovecraft, Part 1: DIE, MONSTER, DIE! (1965) & CREEPSHOW (1982)

The COLOUR of Lovecraft, Part 2: THE CURSE (1987)

The COLOUR of Lovecraft, Part 3: THE COLOUR FROM THE DARK (2008)

The COLOUR of Lovecraft, Part 4: THE COLOR (2011) (aka DIE FARBE)

THE CALL OF CTHULHU (2005)

THE VALDEMAR INHERITANCE I & II (2010/2011)

The Best of the Rest: CAST A DEADLY SPELL (1991), THE DEVONSVILLE TERROR (1983), FOREVER EVIL (1987), IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS (1994) & UZUMAKI (2000)

THE WHISPERER IN DARKNESS (2011)

BEYOND THE WALL OF SLEEP (2006)

PICKMAN'S MUSE (2010)

DARK HERITAGE (1989)

RE-PENETRATOR (2004)

THE RESURRECTED (1991)

THE EVIL CLERGYMAN (1988)








Short Films and Videos

Claymation FROM BEYOND

THE TERRIBLE OLD MAN

RYLEH

Dark Adventure Radio Theatre: THE SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH

THE BOOK

DAGON

Elder Sign

Legocraft!

Dan O'Bannon on H.P. Lovecraft

BINDING SILENCE

THE PICTURE IN THE HOUSE

THE STATEMENT OF RANDOLPH CARTER

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H.P. Lovecraft Week: The Best of the Rest

Well, we are officially closing down our two week “A Week of Howard Phillips Lovecraft” theme. We hope you’ve enjoyed the reviews of the good, the bad and the unnamable. To end things I’ll be doing some quick reviews of flicks that aren’t Lovecraft adaptations but definitely carry that Lovecraft tone.

CAST A DEADLY SPELL (1991) - I remembered being entranced by this HBO Films production back in the day and found it to be even better upon review nearly 20 years later. Set in an alternate 1940s Los Angeles where magic is real, Detective H. Phillip Lovecraft (the amazing Fred Ward) is hired by a rich dude (David Warner) to track down his stolen copy of the Necronomicon. Along the way Lovecraft must deal with magic, a lolita, thugs (including Clancy Brown), demons, and old flames (pre-fame Julianne Moore).

This has really aged well, thanks mostly to the gritty detective portrayal by Ward. He is able to spit some of writer Joseph (thirtysomething, STEEL & LACE) Dougherty's sharp film noir-inspired dialog with such natural spin that you would think he was a relic from the era. Director Martin (CASINO ROYALE) Campbell keeps everything moving quickly and isn't afraid to embrace the horror elements, which include lots of Lovecraftian creatures. This might be one of the most under appreciated horror films of the 90s and could have made a great series. I don’t think they really knew what they had on their hands (the lame artwork being a great illustration: “The comedy detective thriller with very special effects” – oh boy!). HBO delivered the sequel WITCH HUNT (1994) a few years later but it isn’t nearly as good due to a campier tone and hammy Dennis Hopper replacing Ward in the Lovecraft role.

THE DEVONSVILLE TERROR (1983) - Not to be confused with THE DUNWICH HORROR, this is the DEVONSVILLE TERROR. DEVONSVILLE…DUNWICH…HORROR…TERROR. Oh, I see what you did there Lommell! 300 years after townies killed three witches, the citizens of Devonsville feels that crusading urge again when three new women (an environmentalist, a deejay, a schoolteacher) move into the community. Teacher Jenny (Suzanna Love) finds only local stud Matthew (Robert Walker Jr.) to be a willing dating prospect, which is bad because his ancestors were the ones who organized the witch killings. Meanwhile, Dr. Warley (Donald Pleasence) investigates the town's history to cure himself of the curse of having worms crawl out of his skin (really).

This was another childhood viewing that holds up as well as one would expect a 80s Ulli Lommel flick could. The Lovecraft influence can be felt with the small New England-esque setting, witches and worms, and odd town folks. This flick is just plain weird at points though and full of bizarre scenes like when Paul Willson shows up at Jenny's house and gives this long rant about love before playing his violin. Lead Love was married to Lommel at the time (and apparently writing the checks) with both players fresh off the success of THE BOOGEYMAN (1980). She is probably the main appeal here. The end is pretty amusing as Jenny is revealed to be a revenge-seeking witch with superpowers and she causes heads to roll, explode and melt. Then she splits town, with her relationship with Matthew left with no resolution and a guy trying to ape Pleasence's voice doing a voice over. Pretty sure Pleasence did one day of filming as all of his scenes are shot in the same room and he is wearing the same outfit.

FOREVER EVIL (1987) - This Texas-produced flick is how I like my women – twentysomething years old and dumb as hell. Three couples head to a cabin for the weekend to bid the place farewell before Marc (Red Mitchell) sells it. What they don't know is that a pulsing stellar Quasar is happening when they get there and it unleashes some monsters that kill everyone except Marc. Still with me? Marc then teams up with Reggie (Tracey Huffman), a female survivor of a similar incident, and Leo (Charles Trotter), a cop who has seen this before, to figure out what is going on. Together, the trio finds out that an immortal being on Earth has been planning these attacks for over a century in an effort to bring back evil god Yog Kothag (someone has been reading Lovecraft) to end humanity as we know it.

This movie falls into the same category for me as late 80s flicks like THE VIDEO DEAD, DEMON WIND, THE DEAD PIT and DEMONWARP (all recommended). It might be a bit budget starved, but you can appreciate the amount of effort and imagination that went into making it. The first time I saw this back in 1990 or so, I was surprised how they pulled a PSYCHO on me and offed everyone about 20 minutes in and took it from there. Mitchell, looking like a cross between Jack Black and Jason Alexander, is an interesting choice for a lead and he is alright I guess. If you are looking for a few laughs, see the scene where Reggie declares her love to him. While the flick is overlong at 107 minutes, it has enough weirdness (demon babies, random zombies, a cute looking demon dog) for me to recommend seeing it at least once.

IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS (1994) – Insurance investigator John Trent (Sam Neill) is hired by a publishing firm to locate Sutter Cane (Jürgen Prochnow), the world’s best selling horror novelist who has disappeared on the eve of his latest release. Accompanied by Cane’s publicist Linda Styles (Julie Carmen), Trent travels to the town of Hobb’s End, New Hampshire and quickly finds out that Cane may have been dealing with the darker arts more in fact rather than in fiction.

John Carpenter is an admitted fan of H.P. Lovecraft’s writing and his own work from THE FOG to THE THING to PRINCE OF DARKNESS has always imbued a Lovecraftian tone. Well, if the man isn’t going to ever do a full-on Lovecraft adaptation, then this is as close as we will get from him. This has so many Lovecraft nods and themes in it. The title itself references Lovecraft’s “At the Mountains of Madness” story. You also have asylum sequences, tentacle menace and great old demon Gods summoned up by Cane (which Carpenter only shows in glimpses, another Lovecraftian ploy). Pretty much the entire thing lives and breathes a Lovecraft ethos but isn’t based on any of his works. It is also notable as it is the last great film of Carpenter’s career. At least he went out with a bang as, tragically, he was killed in a bus accident alongside Jackie Chan and Metallica shortly after this was released. That is the truth and I’m sticking to it. ;-)

UZUMAKI (2000) aka SPIRAL – Saving the weirdest for last! This focuses on Kirie (Eriko Hatsune) and potential boyfriend Shuichi (Fhi Fan), who live in a small Japanese town. Things get weird right away as Kirie spots Shuichi’s dad oddly videotaping a snail on a wall. Seems Mr. Saito has become obsessed with uzumaki (spirals) and begins seeing them everywhere. This obsession results in him filling his house with anything with a spiral on it before he commits the world’s first spiral suicide in a washing machine (!?!). After his death, the rest of the town starts to go uzumaki crazy.

Based on a manga by Junji Ito, this Japanese oddity (have I told you it’s weird enough?) came from single named director Higuchinsky and definitely has Lovecraftian overtones. The two stories it really reminds me of are “The Shadow over Innsmouth” and “The Colour Out of Space.” The seaside town threatened by a typhoon is very evocative of Arkham, Massachusetts. There are also never fully fleshed out references to giant sea snakes being responsible for this chaos. And how can you not see Lovecraft in people who slowly turn into snails? The deliberately odd and obsessive tone has caused many critics to liken in to Lovecraft’s work. And, naturally, it has caused many teens expecting another THE RING to virtually riot online and declare the movie trash. Don’t listen to them as this is a real treat with its deliberate strangeness, leisurely pace and clever editing.

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H.P. Lovecraft Week: THE STATEMENT OF RANDOLPH CARTER

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H.P. Lovecraft Week: The COLOUR of Lovecraft, Part 3

There are some people that subscribe to the philosophy that the world is back and white. That there are only two kinds of people in the world. You are either a conservative or a liberal. A sinner or a saint. An exacting Lovecraft purist that thinks any adaption that slightly deviates from the letter of Lovecraft’s words is nigh un to heresy and the Non-purists (read: heretics) who only want the barest essence of Lovecraft’s story to be brought into play as a skeletal framework for some insane, unrated gore effects. There are two kinds of people; those that try to compartmentalize the world into two little categories and those that call bullshit on that. RE-ANIMATOR (1985) is a masterpiece. So is THE RESURRECTED (1992). I love them both. Are you trying to tell me that I have to choose peanut butter or chocolate? The hell you say!

I think no film has done a better job investigating that grey area, if you will, than Ivan Zuccon’s THE COLOUR FROM THE DARK (2008). After VJ co-conspirator Mr. Wilson stumbled across Zuccon’s early works, I’ve been hooked on his movies and was highly anticipating the release of this one. Not only does it not disappoint, but if it had been shot on film, I think it would have been a real sleeper hit. And there lies the cruxt of the problem.

Zuccon cut his teeth making very low budget, shot on video movies that were essentially typical back-yard horror films. I still have yet to track down an import copy of his first effort THE DARKNESS BEYOND (2000), but his second THE UNKNOWN BEYOND (2001) had some good elements but was really too amateurish on all levels for me to recommend. THE SHUNNED HOUSE (2003) is where Zuccon starts to shine. An anthology of loose adaptations that infuriated the purists and brought the wrath of American horror-obsessed fans who mistakenly lumped him with Uwe Boll and Ulli Lommel. Low-budget and shot on video, but featuring some really striking visuals and imagery that showed true talent. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure that Lovecraft never wrote about a woman playing the violin, except the violin is actually her torn open arm and the strings are her tendons. That may not be part of Lovecraft’s story, but it is a powerful image and Italian filmmakers great and small have always gone off on their own artistic tangents. Greeks break plates, Italians wax artistic. That’s what we like about them. If Lucio Fulci had simply made ZOMBI 2 (1979) a straight-up rip-off of DAWN OF THE DEAD (1979) as the producers had wanted, I seriously doubt we would still be talking about it today. Nor would it be used in a Windows 7 commercial. No, really. I couldn’t make that up.

Zuccon made two other films following THE SHUNNED HOUSE and before COLOR FROM THE DARK, but COLOR FROM THE DARK is his return to Lovecraft and his most accomplished outing yet. Here Zuccon, due to budgetary reasons, or simply to streamline the story, dispenses with the meteor entirely. This is a wise move in my opinion as the concept of evil being brought to earth from scary outer-space has been done so much that it is now hokey. It was pretty much lampooned in CREEPSHOW (1982) and these days it's not even remotely as scary as it must have seemed in the ’20s when space exploration was the realm of total fantasy. Instead Zuccon focuses on what was in fact the ultimate source of the evil in Lovecraft’s story, the well. And, yes, he has added his own elements and subplots. Seriously, get over it. If the additions were bad, I’d be the first to put the boots to him, but here most of it is cracked out of the park. The only areas that are lacking can be chalked up to budget.

Set in Italy during WWII, a rural farm is struggling to survive during the German occupation. The head of the household, Pietro (Zuccon regular Michael Segal), is a hard working man of the land who bores his wife Lucia (Debbie Rochon) to sleep at night with his mad bedroom skillz. He provides for them and his sister-in-law, a 20 year old emotionally retarded mute girl named Alice (Marysia Kay) who’s closest friend is a creepy rag-doll named Rosina. Rosina not only talks to Alice in a weird language that only Alice can understand, but sometimes functions as her eyes allowing her to see things that she’s afraid of (this little character contrivance is played out much better than I made it sound). One night the well begins emitting strange colored light and a noxious mist, the water tastes fine, so Piedro continues to use it for his crops and at the dinner table. The next day the crops have grown large and ripe, but taste bitter and this is when things start sliding straight down to hell. Almost literally in this case.

The film starts with Rosina being thrust into our faces as Alice navigates the staircase from her bedroom to the kitchen. We don’t know why it terrifies her, but it’s a really neat little link back to the original story and makes for a brilliant opening sequence. Alice covers her face with one hand and uses the other hand to hold Rosina by her red yarn hair, navigate the treacherous stairs and go outside to peer into the well. While Rosina is peering into the well, she slips and falls in. Alice, distraught, follows her. Suddenly Alice wakes up in bed, soaked in well water. These weird, visually arresting dream sequences are sprinkled throughout the film and while they seem to not really be Lovecraftian on the surface, one of Lovecraft’s favorite recurring elements was horrific dreams. Here they provide a necessary cut away from the main plot. Adapted from a six page story, that plot can get a little dry when stretched to over an hour and a half if you refuse to add any additional subplots.

Zuccon rolls out his story at a leisurely pace, he’s in no hurry, but at the same time he is focused, he never meanders or gets sidetracked. He is meticulous in the details and uses them to build atmosphere and suspense. The near neighbor, Ammi, here is represented by Giovanni (a surprisingly Irish Gerry Shanahan), who lives with his granddaughter Anna (Eleanor James). In addition to their daily life of toil, they are harboring a Jewish woman who is being hunted by the Nazis. She eventually is caught and provides the basis for a weird and creepy subplot in which Alice visits her quickly putrefying corpse over the course of several days with her doll Rosina. Zuccon takes the liberty of adding a few new characters to the mix. If you were totally cynical you could say he did it just to raise the body count, but I found the addition of a wandering priest who becomes completely unglued by the “sick” Lucia to be a cool little subplot that adds depth to the story.

This brings us to the point that most Lovecraft purists will absolutely hate. The fact of the matter is that the evil represented here is not so much Lovecraft’s Elder Gods, evil so old it isn’t even evil, per se, but it just is, but a more Christian view of evil. Represented by electric mist and dancing lights that look like reflected water, which is reasonably Lovecraftian, the evil behaves in a deliberately and wholly anti-Christian fashion. The family is more "possessed" than "diseased" as in the story. For example, Lucia in a fit of madness spits on the crucifix in the dining room and a black rot spreads out around it, eventually causing it to melt and decay. Personally I have no problem with the subtle alteration as it adds a richness to a story without really having to explain much as, presumably, we all are familiar to some extent with Christianity. Hell, several centuries ago damn near every continent on the planet learned about Christianity whether they wanted to or not, so this is a pretty simple but effective device that crosses all boundaries. I don’t think THE EXORCIST (1973) would have been anywhere near as successful or as resonant if Regan’s extreme case of ADD was caused by solar radiation or some bad LSD… come to think of it that last one would have been pretty cool. Regardless, even though it veers out of Lovecraft’s waters, it still is effective and once again, in my opinion, if it makes a good movie and you don’t destroy the themes or intent of original story, I’m for it.

To be fair, some of the acting could have been a little more impressive. Michael Segal has not only buffed out his biceps, but has beefed up his acting chops as well. Even so, he is effective, but not exactly a master of his craft. Elenor James (another actress that is cast more for looks than anything else) isn't very impressive either, but at least is not annoying or irritating. The biggest surprise here is that ex-softcore star and frequent supplier of gratuitous nude scenes, Debbie Rochon, actually does a shockingly good job as the wife who has flashes of possessed insanity. You could argue acts like a completely normal woman when flipping between her normal meek self and her “possessed” alter ego. Did I just go there? Sorry about that. Anyway, Rochon may not be up for an Oscar any time soon, but here she shows a range and skill that was previously unknown. She also has grown a bit long in the tooth and unlike most actresses (particularly ones who have made their money off of their looks) does not try to hide it here, which gives authenticity and maturity to her character. In many ways the maturity of a filmmaker can be quantified by their use of restraint, here that means the glamor make-up is saved for another day. Also notable on the acting front is Marysia Kay, who is totally believable in her role as Alice, and it is through her acting and Zuccon’s directing that Rosina actually becomes more than a prop but a full character. It's also neat touch that Rosina, as the week progresses, becomes more and more faded with her red yarn “hair” turning gray as if even a rag-doll is being consumed by the evil from the well. The only glaring errors on the acting front would be Gerry Shanahan as Giovanni. I have no problem that there is an Irishman and his English granddaughter living on a farm in rural Italy, but at least have the decency to cover this by giving them Anglo names. Honestly if that's all I can bitch about, Zuccon should be happy.

Sadly Zuccon still can’t seem to raise enough money to shoot on film and I firmly believe that if this had been shot on film, it may have garnered more praise. Even so, Zuccon makes the most of his medium, pushing it to limits heretofore unseen. His camera prowls smoothly around the periphery of dialogue scenes, he uses big master shots, lots of atmospheric cut-aways and more camera set-ups than multiple SOV efforts, showing real confidence and skill as a filmmaker. His sets and costumes are detailed and well thought out. With the help of some mostly unobtrusive CG processes, he gets the best use of shadows that he can, adding layers of texture to the screen in a way that is screaming out for a bigger budget. To be fair, some of the CG misses the mark. A dream sequence in which Lucia slices her cheek open with a straight razor and an eye opens up inside is a great idea, but the CG work is just not up to snuff and ruins the effect. If you can’t pull off the effect that you want, I feel that you should save that idea for another day and come up with something that you can do effectively. Fortunately these missteps are few and far between.

Another thing that adds to the experience on the whole is the music. The score is also bigger and better than any shot-on-video movie has any right to be. Providing a simple, restrained, but totally effective, haunting score using strings and horns, Spanish composer Marco Werba, like Zuccon, shows more talent than anyone else doing low-budget SOV movies and should also be destined for greater things. He has also composed scores for some of Timo Rose’s painfully amateurish SOV outings that, Werba’s score aside, are the embodiment of everything that is bad about SOV movies. Timo Rose is like Uwe Boll without the high concept or budget. Zuccon just doesn’t have the budget. His directorial skills have come to a point where he needs to find some backers to grow as a filmmaker.

  The crazy thing with this movie is that I am a certified SOV hater. Video magnifies every flaw, has no visual texture, makes make-up look like make-up and makes a lack of make-up look awful. It simply lacks subtlety and makes it so easy for talentless jackasses to release something that isn’t worth a rental fee. Zuccon is actually aware of these issues and works really hard at overcoming those huge drawbacks. It kills me that people watch HOUSE OF THE DEAD 2 (2005) and call it “fun”, “entertaining” and “not as bad as the first one” and then watch this and say it’s shit and has nothing to do with Lovecraft! In the end, if you are one of the black and white people, this isn’t like RE-ANIMATOR (1985) and it’s not THE RESURRECTED (1992, probably the most authentic Lovecraft adaptation to date), it’s in the gray area in between and if you are like me, that “colour” will suit you just fine.

(I can't seem to find a trailer that really does justice to the movie's pacing and feel, the two that I found try to make it look like a fast-paced slasher film, so this teaser will have to do)

For those who are looking for some more meat, the Italian website Splatter Container (maybe that lost something in the translation) has a short interview up with Michael Segal (scroll down for the English language version).

Coming in the next few months, the Germans will have their turn at an adaptation with the black and white short film DIE FARBE (2010). Some information on the making of it is available on their website. While it's disappointing that this is just a short film (again), this teaser simply oozes atmosphere and is much anticipated around here.

[Edit] We have since reviewed the film here.

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H.P. Lovecraft Week: THE PICTURE IN THE HOUSE

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H.P. Lovecraft Week: Cthul-who?

Two weeks into our one week journey into the world of H.P. Lovecraft cinema adaptations and something seems off. The bad flicks seem to be outnumbering the good 2-to-1. Well, all that suffering is immediately wiped out thanks to…

THE CALL OF CTHULHU (2005) – Ever find yourself cornered by some random stranger on the street who is demanding to know what the best Lovecraft film adaptation is? Well, fear no more because now you have an answer in this brilliant 47-minute short.

First published in Weird Tales in 1928, Lovecraft’s “The Call of Cthulhu” was an anthology piece that featured three stories about encounters with the most well known (and unpronounceable) of the Great Old Ones. The film tackles each one as a man (Matt Foyer) tells of the investigation of the Cthulhu Cult by his deceased uncle, Prof. George Gammell Angell (Ralph Lucas). “The Horror in Clay” centers on a young man who comes to Prof. Angell with horrifying dreams. As Angell tracks his subject’s breakdown, the boy delivers a sculpture of his nightmare tormentor that reminds Angell of something he saw in the past. “The Tale of Inspector Legrasse” recalls an event 20 years previous when Angell was at an archeological symposium. A New Orleans detective shows up to get an appraisal of an odd religious idol he encountered during a raid of a strange backwoods religious cult. “The Madness from the Sea” has the narrator continuing his Uncle’s work and encountering the odd story of a lone survivor of a boat crew that disappeared. The man’s investigation sends him all over the world until he arrives at the home of the lone survivor, who has since passed away. But the journal provided by his widow offers the man a frightening look into the sailor's encounter with Cthulhu.

This 47-minute black-and-white silent short was made by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society. Now with a name like that, you damn well better deliver and they do as this is one of the most literal Lovecraft adaptations of one of his stories. This is a true labor of love, both for Lovecraft and filmmaking. The stories are perfectly adapted and whatever changes are made (the fate of the narrator, for example) fit in perfectly with the tone of Lovecraft’s story.

The film’s success in adaptation is mirrored by the creativity on display. Made for less than it would take to get Peter Jackson to roll out of bed in the morning ($50,000), the filmmakers get the most out of their meager budget. They opt to shoot the story as if it were a silent short from the year it was published. While I am the first to rag on filmmakers saying their style mimics something else (“This is totally a throwback to the 70s grindhouse style” being the repeat offender), this succeeds because they work hard to make it look legit from the acting style (all done by amateurs) to the inter-titles (which the DVD offers in 24 different languages!). In fact, several times I found myself actually thinking I was watching a movie from the 1920s.

Director Andrew Leman uses a variety of techniques to convey the bizarre other world of Cthulhu. I mentioned Peter Jackson earlier and, after watching the “Making of” segment on the DVD, I couldn’t help but be reminded of his BAD TASTE days when he was creative enough to make machine guns out of cardboard and popsicle sticks. The ingenuity on display here is amazing, really sticking it to any filmmaker who cries, “We can’t do it for your budget!” While there is the occasional wonky green screen bit, I’d say they pull off their objectives 99% of the time. The dream sequences are really well done with some expressionistic Caligari-style design. The final segment features the most effects and your jaw will drop when you find out the expansive island was built in someone’s backyard and that glitter covered sheets were used to create waves.

If I had any gripe about the film, it would be that they decided to make it a short. I understand why they did, but this could have easily been a full length feature. Regardless, the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society has remedied this as their sophomore production is a feature length adaptation of “The Whisperer in Darkness.” They unveiled the trailer this past April and our appetite here at Video Junkie has been whetted (or is that wetted?). Check it out:

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H.P. Lovecraft Week: BINDING SILENCE

Binding Silence from Ray Zablocki on Vimeo.

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H.P. Lovecraft Week: The COLOUR of Lovecraft, Part 2

In 1987 the stars aligned, planets converged and a movie crew came together that I still am having issues wrapping my head around. Imagine Ovidio G. Assonitis and Lucio Fulci as producer with the David Keith (yes, the David Keith of TAKE THIS JOB AND SHOVE IT and WHITE OF THE EYE fame) as director and Fulci shooting second unit with Claude Akins and Wil Wheaton as leads. Now imagine that this actually happened. This very underrated adaptation of “Colour” has one of the most unusual collections of cast and crew that I can think of off the top of my head and it completely blows my mind to think of them working together. I'd love to know how the whole thing came about, but what we do know is that according to a Fangoria interview, Keith stipulated that he would take the gig, but only if they were to shoot it in his home state! Hence the transplant from Massachusetts to Tennessee.

A meteor crashes near a southern farmhouse in which god-fearing farmer Nathan Hayes (Akins) rules the roost with the iron will of the lord. The lord's word is loosely translated via Nathan's open hand connecting with the mouths of his stepson (Wheaton) or anyone who even thinks of stepping out of line. The local chairman of the city council warns that no-one should speak of the meteor as it might attract the wrong kind of government attention, when in fact, he is worried that the EPA won’t put in a new reservoir and he won’t be able to profit off of buying up the local farmland for a pennies on the dollar. Almost overnight the meteor melts into “colourful” sludge and the crops grow huge and hearty. The lord gets the credit, but we soon find out everything that grows is rotten on the inside. As the family continues to drink the tained well water and eat the tainted food, the family starts to go insane and violent. All except the stepson and stepdaughter who have been sneaking in untainted food and water.

I have to admit, I like so many others, was definitely on the hatewagon that this film generated. I didn’t (and still don’t) like Wil Wheaton and at the time Claude Akins was just that “Sherriff Lobo” guy. The movie wasn’t ultra-gory like RE-ANIMATOR (1985) and FROM BEYOND (1986), didn’t have the brilliant casts that those two had and was pretty low-rent comparatively speaking, which accounts for the mixed reviews at back in the day. Current audiences seem hate this movie because of Wil Wheaton. Not because they hate Wheaton, but because they love him on “Star Trek: The Next Regurgitation.” They watch this movie because of fan devotion and discover it is (gasp) not like “Star Trek”! Then promptly run to their favorite blog/review site/discussion board and dis away.

This movie represents an epiphany of sorts for us at VJHQ. Mr. Wilson re-visited it a while back and found it to be entertaining; I watch it now and I have to say... I really enjoyed it. Particularly if viewed in context of other Italian-made genre films of that same year: the third Ator film, IRON WARRIOR, Lucio Fulci's AENIGMA, Umberto Lenzi's WARTIME, Joe D'Amato's KILLING BIRDS, Ruggero Deodato's CAMPING DEL TERROR, Sergio Martino's THE OPPONENT, Fabrizio De Angelis' KARATE WARRIOR, etc. I'm not saying these are all terrible films (except for AENIGMA, I'm saying that is a really terrible film), but hardly representative of their creator's best work and out of all those, I'd say THE CURSE comes out on top. Plus any film with a score by the great veteran genre composer Franco Micalizzi can't be all bad! Micalizzi, maybe best known for his classic score for VIOLENT NAPLES (1976), here provides a Ry Cooder-esque slide guitar combined with electronica for what I consider to be a score that may be even better than this movie deserves.

When you take a short story and expand it into a feature length film it is the opposite of adapting a 300 page book. A full book has to have lots of narrative and subplots dropped and some streamlining is required which can mean some restructuring of plot elements and characters. When adapting a short story, generally speaking, it’s going to either be padded out with lots of nothing which is not a good thing, or it’s going to have to have a clever writer figure out how to add characters, subplots and dialogue, bulking the film out to make a well paced feature. Here David Chaskin, fresh off of the not terribly well received A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2 (1985), does exactly that. Chaskin, who would go on to write the excellent cult classic I, MADMAN (1989), retains a large amount of the Lovecraft story and builds a pretty solid foundation on which to build the necessary additions. Like all adaptations, the first half of the story revealing Lovecraft’s fascination with modern scientific techniques is gone, but are actually referenced in a scene near the end of the film. Many other little points from the story are woven into the plot here including the colour from the well, the crazed horse, the shrinking meteor, the reservoir, and a few others. He didn’t have to do that. It could have just ran with the seemingly "Jordy Verrill" inspired approach with a southern farm beset by formless evil, but he actually made the effort to work many of the stories points into the script and that counts for a whole hell of a lot in my book.

Shot with lots of fog and smoke, the filmmakers take every opportunity to inject atmosphere and make the film look bigger than it really is. There aren’t a whole lot of locations and admittedly the special effects are pretty “budget conscious” (you can plainly see the metal swing-arm attached to the meteor when it plows into the earth), no opportunity to get some visual excitement on the screen is missed. The subplot about the family dogs may seem superfluous, but adds another bit of menace and action when they start going crazy and end up mauling the doctor’s hot, but manipulative, wife. Interestingly, instead of outright gore, they decided to use a similar goo-factor approach as in the CREEPSHOW vignette. A cabbage is sliced open to reveal a puss-like multi-hued goo running out, as do the eyes and mouths of the afflicted chickens (who attack the young stepdaughter, played by Wil’s real life sister, Amy Wheaton) and the crazed family members.  That said, Fulci’s fingerprints are all over a scene that takes place in the basement. The scene, echoing a similar one in THE HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY (1981), features the crazed, mutated mother ripping out someone’s throat (no spoilers) with her clawed hands. It seems like this scene was tampered with by the MPAA as it looks like it was trimmed of some gore. After the victim falls to the floor she rips open his shirt and we get a quick glimpse of her ripping open his chest as it quickly cuts away. Whether this is censorship or maybe an effect that didn’t work, I can’t say for certain.

The cast is another factor that elevates the film. Sure the cast can’t compete with the larger than life presences of Jeffrey Combs and David Gale, but they really don’t have to. If taken by their own merits, the adult leads are actually quite good. Claude Akins, oddly sporting some product in his closely cropped hair, is nothing short of excellent as a strict, cruel farmer who makes up for his lack of education with a strong hand and a bible. Complimenting him is Kathleen Jordon Gregory (who died of cancer after making the film) as his wife, Francis, who damn near carries the movie with her subtle performance. She succumbs to madness without going way over the top, but is just loopy enough to be both creepy and rather amusing. The scene where she is darning a sock that is in her hand and begins to sew through her flesh while alternately laughing and screaming actually made me squirm a bit on my sofa, and lemme tell ya, that’s saying something. Coming from a background in Shakespearian theater, her performance as a mistreated woman makes a sharp contrast to Wheaton’s wooden acting and worse, the big bully step-brother Cyrus, Malcolm Danare, who’s “retarded fat guy” performance is more appropriate for a bad college comedy than an HP Lovecraft adaptation.

Speaking of Danare, who previously annoyed me in CHRISTINE (1983) and went on to annoy me in POPCORN (1991), he is easily the low point of this film. Not only does he rape the scenery like a high school attention-whore, but for some belial-only-knows reason, someone felt that he should only have one costume for the entire film: a mid-drift football jersey and low-rise jeans. This means we get to be subjected to more fat, hairy, ass-crack than a fistful of Jack Black movies. There is a scene that is far more disturbing than it should have been where Francis is starting to lose it and is suturing some barbed wire wounds in Cyrus’ ass. Cyrus yelps “what are you doing back there!?” to which Francis replies “connect... the... dots…” Slowly Nathan and Zach realize that is not the right answer and rush to look, cut to a shot of Cyrus bent over with thread zig-zagging from wound to wound. That was a very effective scene of horror until we got a big master shot of Cyrus' sasquach-like man-ass. And while we’re on the subject of too much skin, who was the chicken hawk who thought it would be a good idea to have Wheaton frequently shirtless and running around in his tidy-whiteys?

So, greatest movie ever? No. The best Lovecraft adaptation ever? No. But damned entertaining with some effective moments and, for the most part, a pretty cleverly adapted story.

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