With the 1990's officially underway, things were changing. Hair metal was giving way to grunge, science fiction shows were popping up like rabbits on the syndication markets, and Home Box Office was starting to make shows as well as airing movies. They had already struck gold with horror anthologies and kid's programs, but how would they handle the work of Lovecraft?
The year is 1948. Our boys are home from the Big One and beside the usual post war boom they also have something new: magic. Honest to Shazam magic. Everyone in Los Angeles is using it in someway, be it making a garden look nice to killing one's enemies.
Naturally the job of private investigator, difficult under normal circumstances, is still in demand. The catch is that in all of Southern California there is one man who won't do magic. Howard P. Lovecraft (Fred Ward), former cop and current dick, is that man.
His stance on magic makes him a curio, but not one that is regularly employed. He's honest though, and that's what millionaire Amos Hackshaw (David Warner) needs at the moment. The old man is in a bind, as someone stole something very valuable from him. Hackshaw, until recently, owned the only complete copy of the infamous Necronomicon by the equally infamous Abdul Alhazred. He wants it back and fast. His daughter, the unicorn hunting Olivia (Alexandra Powers), wouldn't mind if Lovecraft stayed around the house for a bit longer though. In fact she thinks the whole thing could be a grand adventure and insists on tagging along.
But it turns out there are other people hunting the book down too, namely Lovecraft's old partner and current 'legitimate businessman' Harry Bordon (Clancy Brown). Bordon's personal warlock/enforcer Tugwell (Raymond O'Connor) tries to rub Lovecraft out with an oatmeal demon, but that just makes the gumshoe more determined to crack the case.
Further complicating matters is Bordon's main attraction at the Dunwich Room, Connie Stone (Julianne Moore), a lounge singer who used to be Lovecraft's main squeeze before she traded up.
Can Lovecraft solve the case? Why does Hackshaw need the Necronomicon so badly? Do zombies really make better contractors?
Not the purest Lovecraft film out there, but it's fun. Ward, Warner, and Brown bring their a-game and it helps. Honestly, the three of them just sitting around and talking would make a great picture. It seems set up almost like a pilot, and it's a darn shame there wasn't a series.
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