Jens B
This anthology feels like three episodes from the later seasons of TALES FROM THE CRYPT but with really great special effects! My favorite is probably the first tale because it captures the feeling of a Lovecraft story the best. The rest of the bunch doesn't make a whole lot of sense, especially the third part. But it never gets boring and just when you think you're too confused by what's happening story wise, you'll feel pure joy experiencing the next slimy, gory creature effect. Fun to watch!
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
11/02/23
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Ted B
Its very very bad. If you like terrible horror, this might be for you... 3 schlocky horror stories wrapped up with some incredibly odd "plot" about H.P Lovecraft reading the Necronomicon on the sly... which has nothing to do with any of them. I genuinely felt bad for the actors having to say some of those lines, but hey, I guess they got paid.
Rated 1/5 Stars •
Rated 1 out of 5 stars
07/24/23
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justin t
Usually I don't like movies that have three stories with a wrapper around them but here it works fine. The first story is pretty good, the second is pretty dull and the last is awesome. The wraparound is one of the best in this type of movie. The first story was good with a great amount of creepy monster effects and scary moments. The second story left me cold. The third story was great with like demons and stuff. The wraparound would have been better as a separate story but it is very entertaining with a great ending (just like the first and third stories). Four stories in one film and three of them are great! This is a gritty classic.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
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Audience Member
A marvelous anthology film that pays contribution to my list of “melt” movies!!!
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
02/11/22
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Audience Member
"He's bettin' God's a goner. Putin' all his chips on another horse." In the framing story for this anthology we find a Indiana Jones-esque Lovecraft (Jeffery Combs) acquiring a copy of the highly coveted and guarded Kitaab al-Azif through duplicitous means from the library of a mysterious US-based Arabic cult. The three tales told are very loosely based on Lovecraft's works and the tone remains rather consistent across the entirety of the film despite multiple directors being involved. The segment directors include Brian Yuzna ("Re-Animator", "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids", "Warlock", "Dagon", "The Dentist", "Society", etc), Shusuke Kaneko ("Gamera" [1-3], "Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah", "Death Note", etc), and Christophe Gans ("Brotherhood of the Wolf", "Silent Hill", "Fury of the Demon"). The effects were well done and above average for a straight-to-VHS movie, especially considering the difficulty in visually representing indescribable horror (apparently they were supervised by none other than Tom Savini!). The segment based on "Cool Air" was my favourite for both the plot and effects. A worthy addition to any cosmic horror collection.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/02/23
Full Review
Audience Member
H. P. Lovecraft (Jeffrey Combs!) tells his cabby (Brian Yuzna) to wait outside the monastery — he's got a Necronomicon to find. As he races to find a copy before the monks stop him, he's locked inside a room where he gets to discover the future through the book.
The first story, "The Drowned," is loosely based on "The Rats in the Walls." It tells the story of Jethro De Lapoer (Richard Lynch!), whose wife and child died in an accident, causing him to set a Bible ablaze at the funeral. He brings them back to life with the Necronomicon, but the green glowing eyes of his family as they rise upset him so much that he leaps to his death. His nephew has no such compunctions and brings back his wife Clara (Maria Ford), who comes back in the same way, nearly causing his death. Stuart Gordon's Castle Freak was also inspired by this same story. This story and the framing story come from Yuzna.
"The Cold" is based on the short story "Cool Air" and has Dr. Madden (David Warner!) injecting spinal fluid and staying inside a chilled room to stay alive forever, at least until the power goes out. Dennis Christopher, Gary Graham and Millie Perkins are also in this story, which you may have seen in Alberty Pyun's H. P. Lovecraft's Cool Air or the Jeannot Szwarc-directed, Rod Serling-written Nighy Gallery episode. This was directed by Christopher Gans, the director of Brotherhood of the Wolf and Silent Hill.
"Whispers" is based on "The Whisper in the Darkness." This one has monster bats and all the gore you've been looking for, as if the last segment wasn't packed with enough melting people. This one comes from Shusuke Kaneko, who made the Heisei era Gamera movies Gamera: Guardian of the Universe, Attack of Legion and Revenge of Iris, as well as Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack.
At the end, Lovecraft avoids the monks and runs into the night. This film may not be completely successful at making an anthology of his stories, but it's pretty entertaining. It was well-received in the U.S., but a much bigger success in Europe and Asia, where it played theaters.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
02/06/23
Full Review
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