In which the first ever adaptation of an H.P. Lovecraft story goes out into the cinematic world disguised as something else: faux-Poe.
In the village of Arkham, Joseph Curwen, suspected of trying bring the Elder Gods back into this universe by mating them with human females, is dragged out of his house and burned to death by an enraged mob. He dies cursing the village and all those who have had a hand in his death.
One hundred and ten years later, Curwen’s great-great-grandson, Charles Dexter Ward, arrives with his wife, Ann, to look over the Arkham property he has just inherited. In rapid succession, he ignores (1) a frightened coachman, (2) hostile townspeople, and (3) a mutated girl.
I think it’s fair to say he deserves what he gets…
#1 by Read MacGuirtose on February 20, 2011 - 1:30 pm
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In the townspeople’s deformities, methinks perhaps one might also detect a soupçon of Shadow Over Innsmouth.
Well, the first two Italian posters may not be entirely indefensible; they may be misleading, but at least they don’t blatantly include anything not actually in the movie. But that third poster… a gorilla? Really?
#2 by Ken on February 21, 2011 - 9:26 am
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#3 by Ken on February 21, 2011 - 9:28 am
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Sorry, forgot to close the blockquote there. The second and third paragraphs are mine. (At least this system closes everything; I get really embarrassed when I accidentally infect an entire comment-thread with an unclosed bold markup.)
#4 by Read MacGuirtose on February 21, 2011 - 11:51 am
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The description of the legend is more in line with The Dunwich Horror, certainly, but The Dunwich Horror didn’t have a town full of deformities — only the Whateley family showed any physical signs of contact with eldritch forces. That’s what made me think of Shadow Over Innsmouth — not the theme of miscegenation, which certainly wasn’t confined to that story, but the idea of a whole town full of misshapen people.
#5 by Ken on February 21, 2011 - 3:08 pm
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Ah, true; Wilbur and his… brother were definitely meant to be the first and last generation of hybrids, what with the Greater Plan of the Whateley family (see Jen S comment).
By the way, are any B-Masters planning to review The Dunwich Horror? Come to think of it, I think some already have; let me check the IMDB… Oh. My. God. There have apparently been five movies with some version of that title; the 1970s one with Dean Stockwell and Sandra Dee (which, yes, has been reviewed by some of the Masters), but also four others all made in the last three years. And the 2009 TV movie stars Dean Stockwell as Dr. Henry Armitage!
#6 by lyzard on February 20, 2011 - 3:23 pm
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The first one looks like a re-hash of a poster for The Pit And The Pendulum. The others…I got nothing. The only thing this film has less of than gorillas is hot blondes in their underwear.
#7 by Jen S on February 21, 2011 - 1:38 pm
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Is it me? Am I the only one who doesn’t understand the appeal of doomsday cults?
It just seems that with five minutes thought, the most bong-hitting slacking-est hanging out behind the Circle K moron could see that this is a no win situation for the cultees. If you’re unsuccessful, you’ve spent your life chasing an idiot dream that’s stolen your life and promise and everyone thinks you’re an idiot and avoids you at the grocery store. If you succeed, you get–what, exactly? Elder Gods unleashed upon your dimension and everything, INCLUDING YOU, bites the Big Tentacle?
Even if you’re a shortsighted revenge seeker, is it not clear you will not survive long enough to enjoy said revenge? And if you are supposed to be a malignant genius of the dark arts, shouldn’t it be even clearer???
#8 by Read MacGuirtose on February 21, 2011 - 2:25 pm
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Ah, but what if the cultists don’t care whether they’ll survive to enjoy the revenge? What if they’re so devoted to the greater “good” of their cause that they think a horrible death at the hands (well, tentacles, maybe) of the Old Ones / Elder Gods is worth it in order to bring about their reign?
Heck, there are loads of real people on Earth right now that want to hasten the end of the world. Granted, they’re convinced they’ll end up with an eternal reward in heaven, but I don’t think it’s entirely impossible that someone might be fanatic enough to want to bring it about even without such a promise. People can be pretty twisted.
The Call of Cthulhu role-playing game deals with this question more or less by ruling that all cultists of the Old Ones/Elder Gods are necessarily completely insane. (There are game mechanics for this; characters actually have a Sanity score. All such cultists have a Sanity of zero.) Which is fair enough, I suppose, but maybe a bit of a cheat — and perhaps raises the question as to what it means to be insane; after all, many of these cultists seem otherwise able to at least pretend to live ordinary lives.
This is a question I’ve sort of had to deal with, since I have a movie I want to make one day that involves two cultists of the Elder Gods as the main characters. (It’s a dark comedy.) And so I did have to give consideration to their motivations… there’s actually a scene in the movie when they’re asked why they’re doing this (by a new convert to their group), and they both give fairly detailed (and very different) answers. (As for the new convert… well, she has her own motivations, too, which are different from those of either of the main characters.)
(It’ll be a while before I have the means to make the movie, but I’m hoping to at least get a short involving the characters done in the relatively near future… we’ll see…)