THE DUNWICH HORROR (1970)

Director: Daniel Haller

Writers: Curtis Hanson, Henry Rosenbaum, Ronald Silkosky, based on H.P. Lovecraft’s original short story

Producers: James H. Nicholson, Samuel Z. Arkoff

Cast: Dean Stockwell, Sandra Dee, Ed Begley, Lloyd Bochner, Sam Jaffe, Donna Baccala, Joanna Moore Jordan, Talia Shire (as Talia Coppola), Barboura Morris, Beach Dickerson, Michael Fox, Jason Wingreen, Michael Haynes, Jack Pierce, Toby Russ, Robert Nevin (uncredited), F.A. Nichols (uncredited)

Wilbur Whateley (Dean Stockwell) is a student of the occult from the village of Dunwich. In nearby Arkham Massachusetts, Wilbur visits Miskatonic University to study a rare, occult volume called The Necronomicon. The book belongs to Dr. Henry Armitage (Ed Begley), who considers the book dangerous and refuses access to it. One of Dr. Armitage’s students, Nancy Wagner (Sandra Dee), is immediately smitten by Wilbur and begins seeing the strange young man at his remote Dunwich home. Nancy learns that Wilbur’s family has long been shunned by the other Dunwich villagers because the Whateleys have occult beliefs in ancient, other-dimensional beings that once ruled the Earth. Wilbur Whateley is intent on performing a ritual using The Necronomicon to bring The Old Ones back to reclaim the world.

The Flashback Fanatic movie review

“The Dunwich Horror” is writer H.P. Lovecraft’s most popular tale. While Lovecraft was often critical and dismissive of his own work, he seems to have been pleased with that short story published in 1929. It is a fine example of his cosmic horror that deals with unearthly things we can’t control or understand.

The Dunwich Horror film is tapping into the occult trend in movies that Rosemary’s Baby (1968) epitomized. While it seems grounded in the contemporary, Lovecraftian concepts still dominate the narrative. The Rosemary’s Baby influence seems obvious, yet it is appropriate to the themes of Lovecraft’s original story. The film certainly has differences from its prose source, but it still successfully manages to present a horror that is so alien as to be barely perceptible to man and beyond our complete comprehension.

American International Pictures had dabbled in Lovecraft film adaptations in the 1960s. 1963’s The Haunted Palace adapted “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward” (though the film was marketed as another Edgar Allan Poe adaptation) and 1965’s Die, Monster, Die! adapted “The Colour Out of Space.” Daniel Haller had art directed the former film and debuted as a director in the latter. Haller was given the director’s chair again for this next AIP Lovecraft adaptation.

Director Daniel Haller and editor Christopher Holmes use some trippy imagery that suggests Nancy Wagner’s submission to the occult influence of Wilbur Whateley and his “cup o’ tea.” We are left to wonder if Nancy’s strange visions are dreams or impressions of what happened while she was drugged. This is the strongest indication of the Rosemary’s Baby influence, yet it suits the Lovecraftian theme of occult procreation and provides some character-centered intrigue.

Dean Stockwell brings his lowkey intensity to the Wilbur Whateley role. In a major departure from the original short story, Stockwell’s Wilbur is not a physical freak, but his smooth demeanor with just a touch of arrogance establishes how remote he seems from his fellow man. When Wilbur describes the persecution previous generations of his family have suffered from the Dunwich villagers, we can understand his contempt for the commonfolk that must motivate his fanaticism. I enjoy the ritualistic motions Stockwell performs with his various ceremonial props throughout the film. I wonder if Stockwell’s appreciation of Lovecraft inspired his occult antics that lend so much interest to his character.

It’s a long way from the beach of Gidget (1959) to the Devil’s Hopyard. Sandra Dee was eager to change her image from the ingénue she typically depicted. While a tad more mature as college student Nancy Wagner, she actually still seems like an ingénue character again who happens to be victimized in a horror film. The moment she meets Stockwell’s Wilbur Whateley, Dee’s Nancy Wagner is figuratively, and soon literally, putty in his hands. Dee’s voluptuous body double should have nabbed an Oscar that year for best haunch acting. It is this mature and lurid subject matter and a change of genre that Sandra Dee must have hoped would open different casting opportunities for her.

There are plenty of other familiar faces gracing the cast. Ed Begley stars in one of his final roles as Dr. Henry Armitage. The always interesting Lloyd Bochner appears here, in a benevolent supporting role for a change, as Dunwich village physician Dr. Cory. Barboura Morris, who had acted in many AIP films and appeared in a lot of Roger Corman-directed flicks since 1957, plays an unfortunate Dunwich farmer’s (Beach Dickerson) wife. Talia Shire (billed as Talia Coppola) shows up for an early-career role as Dr. Cory’s nurse. Sam Jaffe plays Old Whateley, Wilbur’s contentious grandfather.

Daniel Haller’s art direction background at AIP must have come in handy. Along with art director Paul Sylos and set decorator Ray Boltz, director Haller depicts the weird Whateley house decked out in arcane splendor. That weathered front porch is not only adorned with a pumpkin and rustic bric-a-brac, but it also even has a living owl perched peacefully on its front rail. Once inside the front door, there is a never-ending assortment of ornate and colorful furnishings and knickknacks atop a floor bearing large occult symbols. Even if a visitor can get used to this odd décor, the strange noises emanating from an upstairs room should keep anyone from feeling at home. Perhaps that’s why Wilbur drugs his tea; maybe he’s not really sneaky and sinister. He could just be trying to be a good host, or else he’s just too damned preoccupied with the occult to learn how to make a decent cocktail.

Once that horrible thing cooped up in the Whateley house starts roaming around, the filmmakers let loose with the techniques to suggest Lovecraft’s cosmic horror beyond human comprehension. Weird sounds made by something alive and inhuman, atmospheric disturbances of its movement rippling the water in a stream and waving the tall grass, and occasional psychedelic flashes of light indicate the presence of the very powerful being that is difficult for human senses to detect. The suggestion of this awful entity perfectly establishes the utterly alien qualities of something not quite in synch with our dimension.

Les Baxter’s score sounds both contemporary and mystic. It drums up plenty of dread while allowing the most violent moments in the film to play out sans music, making the screams and sound effects register more intensely. The slurry cadence Baxter uses to rework the theme music during Wilbur’s first ritual with Nancy suit the erotic, druggy, and hallucinatory vibe.

This film was initially greeted with a mixed critical reaction and seems to have had a lukewarm reputation for decades. Aside from Wilbur Whateley, none of the characters are presented with much depth and the story’s slow burn approach may have frustrated some filmgoers. I appreciate the time taken for scene setting, Stockwell’s easy and arresting performance, and Wilbur’s obsessive pursuit of his goal to bring The Old Ones back gradually building up to the frantic finale. That finale may be resolved in an abrupt and almost arbitrary fashion (as supernatural film scenarios often do), but it is dramatically satisfying and ends on an unsettling note. Nowadays, I think more people are beginning to appreciate that The Dunwich Horror was a unique film in its day and is a very worthy effort to try realizing H.P. Lovecraft’s cosmic horror in the movie medium.