Dreams in the Witch House

Had been looking forward to this episode as this is one of my favourite of Lovecraft's short stories. Typically though I was left disappointed. Instead of the nightmarish, hallucinatory tale of other dimensions, child sacrifice and unknowable Alien gods, here we have a rather run of the mill ghost story that only borrows a title, a setting and some characters from the source material, while pretty much ignoring all the interesting details of the source. Given the author's utter disdain for what he saw as the childish notion of 'souls', the afterlife and any form of spirtual redemption this is a very frustrating watch.

Anyway...Rupert Grint ( in very good form) plays a spiritualist desperate to bring back his dead sister and in the house of the title he seems to have found a way to the 'other side' but must now fight off a long dead, vengeful witch and her horrific familiar. As a stand alone horror for those with no knowledge of Lovecraft's wider Mythos this is decent enough, If derivative, slice of scares. If, like me, you were hoping for something a bit more grown up from a series helmed by avid Lovecraft disciple Guillermo Del Toro you will be disappointed and a tiny bit annoyed.

This is the first in the series I disliked. Not only does this do a disservice to the source material, it is completely antithetical to lovecraftian horror philosophy. The idea of an afterlife, or purgatory, are not concepts that feel right in the Lovecraft universe. They're too optimistic. It's as if the writer or director took an existing story and we're told to make it fit within a Lovecraft framework. The middle of the road ghost story we're left with would be better told without the restraints of fitting it into the vague framework of the original Dreams in the Witch House.

Bad bad bad. Acting was fine.

If you are an avid Lovecraft reader, as I am. The you will be as confused on this episode being called "Dreams in the Witch House" Does it have a Witch? Yes. Does it have a rodent with a man's face? Yes. But other than the names of characters that's about it. No geometric studies of an odd room, that opens a door way to another dimension as the story goes. What you get is a chopped up story of a lost twin and drug use to another dimension. The scene in the church carries on way too long and honestly has no substance to the rest of the story. It's not a bad story but it shouldn't carry the moniker of the Lovecraft tale. If you've never read the story it will be a great episode but it fell flat.

I am a longtime Lovecraft fan, but never fanatic, and have always tried to be flexible to different interpretations of his work. He appreciated the same while he was alive and publishing in Weird Tales. Dreams in the Witch House was one of his most famous stories, and for good reason. When I saw that it had been adapted for Cabinet of Curiosities, I was very excited.

That said, this was a massive disappointment. There was almost zero character development, great special effects but often for their own right without contributing anything to the plot, a lot of painfully redundant dialogue, and a number of missed opportunities for narrative which might have otherwise served to fill in the redundant parts. By the time the end came about, it was just a bore.

The original story was published in Weird Tales in July 1933, is easy to get now, and is an excellent read; but take this adaptation with a grain of salt. For the most part I like Cabinet of Curiosities, but this just didn't fit the theme of it at all.

I would recommend it for young teenagers, sure, they might have fun; but not anyone who feels they've been seasoned for horror.

Years after seeing his twin sister die, and her ghost transported to a dark forest, Walter Gilman vows to get her back.

I was so excited to see this story adapted, and was even more excited when I saw Rupert Grint's name appear, I figured for him to feature that it was going to be something special.

Sadly this came as something of a disappointment, I was expecting something bleak and macabre, but was instead faced with something a little more Alice in Wonderland.

Some things worked, the visuals, the acting, Grint in particular was great, and there was some atmosphere.

Sadly there were more detractors, the story itself just didn't work on any horror level, it lacked tension, it lacked excitement, it needed to be more bleak. Pacing was poor, it was just too pedestrian, the script was distinctly average, at times if felt a little amateur.

The biggest disappointment so far this series, this was the one I had high hopes for, 5/10.