Given how many of Lovecraft's stories were short, I'm surprised there weren't more anthologies of the man's work. Coupled with Yuzna and a returning Jeffery Combs, one would expect something along the lines of Re-Animator. Did they succeed?
We open with the Yuzna directed wraparound. Author H.P. Lovecraft (Combs) is visiting a monastery, hoping to finish his research on his latest work. The monks are welcoming, if a bit snotty. Lovecraft insists that his work is based on fact, and to prove it he steals a key from one of them. Making his way to the basement, he enters a chamber housing the only known copy of the Necronomicon. Startled by a sound he drops the key through the floor grate. As he reads, one of the seals in the vault begins to open...
"The Drowned" (Gans), loosely based on "The Rats in the Walls". Edward De LaPoer (Bruce Payne) is tracked down by a lawyer. It seems he is the lucky recipient of a crumbling hotel in New England. Why? It seems he is the last of the De LaPoer family, a line with a marked history.
Through flashbacks we learn that Edward's ancestor Jethro (Richard Lynch) lost his wife and son in a freak boating accident. Renouncing God, Jethro is comforted by a strange fisherman who gives him the Necronomicon. Using the book, Jethro brings his family back...but they have changed. Throwing himself off the top balcony of his home, Jethro warns to stay away from the evil within the book.
Edward, naturally, writes all of this off as nonsense. He lost his wife Clara (Maria Ford) a year ago and when Edward finds the same unholy tome, well, he's a bit smarter than Jethro so things should work out just fine, right?
"The Cold" (Kaneko) based on "Cool Air". Reporter Dale Porkel (Dennis Christopher) is tracking down a lead in an older section of Boston. There's been a string of murders dating back decades, mostly around one particular neighborhood. Invited into the oddly cold drawing room of Mrs. Osterman (Bess Meyer), the old woman tells him of a young woman named Emily who arrived in Boston some twenty years ago.
Emily (Meyer) is a young woman on the run. She's running away from a life filled with skuzzy family and low pay. Renting room at the cheapest boarding house she can afford, she runs afoul of the manager Lena (Millie Perkins), who warns her to stay way from the other tenant Dr. Madden (David Warner). She insists it is because the doctor is engaged in crucial research, but is there a tint of jealousy in her eyes?
Regardless of what Emily wants, she ends of meeting the doctor anyway when the man saves her from her abusive step-father. While grateful, Emily freaks out when she finds Madden and Lena chopping her abuser's body to bits. Confronting the doctor, Madden quite frankly admits to what he did. While he was researching the Necronomicon, he discovered the process to preserve tissue indefinitely, provided it doesn't come in contact with heat. Also, spinal fluid is needed.
Porkel is somewhat disbelieving, but can he figure out why the rooms Mrs. Osterman lives in are so cold?
"Whispers" (Yuzna) based on "the Whisperer in Darkness". Police officers Sarah (Signy Coleman) and Paul (Obba Babatunde) are helping track down a serial killer dubbed the Butcher. They are also arguing, as they were formally a couple. Sarah is also pregnant, a fact that adds fuel to the fire. Their argument grows, leading to their cruiser flipping over.
Sarah comes to after a while, with Paul no where to be seen. Tracking the trail back to a warehouse, Sarah confronts Mr. Benedict (Don Calfa). Benedict is an unassuming fellow, who freely admits that the Butcher uses the warehouse frequently. Nearly shot by the blind Mrs. Benedict (Judith Drake), Sarah turns the table on the two old people and demands answers. Mrs. Benedict obliges, to wit the Butcher killed Paul, but the Butcher is in fact an alien. Tricked and dropped into a cavern, Sarah finds Paul, or at least what's left of him. The man sized bats that ate his brains didn't leave much.
Sarah then wakes up in a hospital. Her parents, who happen to look like the Benedicts, are comforting her. Her baby is dead and Paul is in a coma. Everything seems pat, or is it?
Not bad, although the stories depart from the originals (which could honestly work on their own) so much as you might as well remove the Lovecraft references.
No comments:
Post a Comment