Necronomicon - O Livro Proibido dos Mortos

I just KNEW this would be bad, but I had no idea how bad it would be. "Necronomicon" is a composite film made up of three separate shorts based on Lovecraft stories... and I use the word "based" VERRRRY loosely here. The first tale begins as a strange adaptation of "Rats in the Walls" and then seems to make a right turn through "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward", "The Dreams in the Witch House" and "The Call of Cthulu" without coming off very coherently at all, although the surreality of it is kind've cool. The second feature is a somewhat more coherent version of "Cool Air" which is more or less true to the original, though featuring a female lead along with a typically wonderful performance from David Warner. Lastly we're presented with something purporting to be "The Whisperer in Darkness" but ends up as some nonsensical dream/nightmare conglomeration that aspires to be Fulci but fails. By the end of this piece I had no idea what was going on! In the meantime, Jeffrey Coombs hams it up as usual in a series of linking cut scenes portraying HP meddling with arcane tomes in a bizarre temple or something--William Castle, eat your heart out! A very hit and miss affair that fails to interpret Lovecraft even more spectacularly than most of the others before it.

This movie was okay, considering Lovecraft's ideas are hard to portray on the screen. Each story stayed true to Lovecraft's horror, though the last was leaning towards the modern version of horror (gory, bloody, etc) The acting was much better than I expected, especially the last story. The sequences with Lovecraft are taking many licenses with his real self, but then again, his real personality doesn't need to be shown to enjoy his stories. I enjoyed the low budget, yet quality, effects as well.

(for the MSTies, watch for the Necronomicon door sequence near the end, amusingly similar)

I rented this film because I'm a fan of HP Lovecraft's writing, and two of the directors have done things I liked (I enjoy several of the films either produced or directed by Brian Yuzna, I loved Shusuke Kaneko's 1995 Gamera film, I've yet to see anything by Christophe Gans), I found it to be rather disappointing. Despite some interesting special effects (by Tom Savini and Screaming Mad George, among others), I had a hard time maintaining interest. The second and third segments of the film are nothing like the Lovecraft stories they're supposed to be based on (Gans' segment isn't based on a particular story, but the Cthulu cycle as a whole). The final segment of the film, directed by Brian Yuzna, is probably the best. The framing segments with Jeffrey Combs as Lovecraft were kind of amusing, but overall, I'd only recommend this film to hardcore fans of Yuzna, Gans, or Kaneko.

When you see a classic splatter movie like this, you really appreciate the genius of Special FX artists like Screaming Mad George, who worked on this film. God, all these CGI films out now SUCK big-time.....What has happened in the past 10 years?? You just can't beat some good rubber monster and some buckets of fake blood! All these computer-generated FX look far too clean, too cold, and don't have the clout of the old-style FX! Now I am a big, big fan of H.P. Lovecraft, and have quite a few films based on his mythology. This one is really quite excellent, with an amazing impersonation of Herbert by Jeffrey Combs, many other genre-favourite actors, and some very disturbing imagery indeed! Sweet dreams...

Lovecraft's stories don't translate well to film. Much of their effect comes from the personal horror the characters feel at what they're seeing, and it would take a true filmmaking genius to bring something like that across; if such a person has existed they have not taken aim at Lovecraft's works. The other problem is that it's hard to stretch his short stories out into movie length. Those who try, usually introduce elements that distract from the true flavor and atmosphere of the stories. "Necronomicon" falls into that trap, despite preserving the short stories as separate segments. The first story, which combines elements of "The Strange High House in the Mist" and "The Shadow over Innsmouth", among others, is the most successful at preserving the evil and terrifying atmosphere of Lovecraft's works. The second is a direct adaptation of "Cool Air", a story whose one cool concept doesn't adapt well to a segment of this length. The third segment (actually based on "The Nameless City" and not "The Whisperer in Darkness" as some here have said) winds up being a hamhanded gorefest with no finesse and only a casual relationship to Lovecraft's work. It's not as though gore wasn't an element in Lovecraft's stories, with characters being "torn to ribbons" and all; but it always takes the form of horrifying and unspeakable things that happen and is never present for cheap thrills' sake as it is here. If you're a fan of Lovecraft's stories, you'll probably want to see it. You might not like it very much, but you'll want to see it anyway. If you really like cheesy horror films, it'll entertain you. But if you want a good horror film or a good adaptation of H.P.Lovecraft's works, keep moving.