Review: Daniel Haller’s Lovecraft Adaptation The Dunwich Horror on Arrow Video Blu-ray

Groovy and grotesque in equal measure, Daniel Haller’s film looks hauntingly good on Blu-ray.

1

The Dunwich HorrorLong before the one-two punch of Stuart Gordon’s Re-Animator and From Beyond opened the floodgates for adaptations of H.P. Lovecraft’s work in the mid-1980s, Daniel Haller’s The Dunwich Horror was part of a trickle of Lovecraft-inspired films that were produced or distributed by American International Pictures starting with 1963’s The Haunted Palace. Though it was billed as being inspired by Edgar Allen Poe (in order to fit in with Roger Corman’s ongoing Poe Cycle), The Haunted Palace was actually based on Lovecraft’s novella “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward.” Haller served as art director on that film, before moving into the director’s chair with 1965’s Die, Monster, Die!, a Technicolor gothic version of Lovecraft’s “The Colour Out of Space,” memorably adapted by Richard Stanley in 2019.

The Dunwich Horror, from 1970, is arguably the most successful of these AIP adaptations, owing to a felicitous combination of factors: committed performances from a veteran cast, Haller’s keenly off-kilter visual aesthetic, impressive locations and set designs, and a tautly executed script co-written by future filmmaker Curtis Hanson. In many ways, the film plays like a protracted Night Gallery episode (save for those flashes of nudity), akin to the second season’s adaptations of “Pickman’s Model” and “Cool Air.” Like these episodes, The Dunwich Horror strays far afield from the source material, so if fidelity is your criterion for success, you’re bound to be disappointed. But what makes the film truly fascinating is its attempt to weld Lovecraft’s astringent brand of cosmic terror to a modish, even psychedelic sensibility.

After a cold open concerning a heavily pregnant woman writhing on an ornate bed, the grooviness sets in with the opening titles designed by Sandy Dvore. Shifting black images against a deep blue background prefigure various occult aspects of the story, ending with imagery redolent of childbirth, all while Les Baxter’s bewitching theme music plays over top. Earlier AIP title sequences had flirted with psychedelia with their swirling colors and nebulous vapors, but never before had such a strong Op Art flavor been evident.

Advertisement

The next scene takes us to Lovecraft’s famed Miskatonic University, where we’re introduced to wooly-haired Wilbur Whateley (Dean Stockwell), an aspiring magus who wants nothing more than to get his hands on the dreaded grimoire called the Necronomicon, except uptight Dr. Armitage (Ed Begley) won’t lend it to him. At least he can console himself by bringing obliging librarian Nancy Wagner (Sandra Dee) home with him for the weekend. Turns out his plans for Nancy include sex, drugs, and maybe just a little human sacrifice.

By portraying Wilbur as a charming and seductive figure, the script effects a significant change to the source material, where he’s depicted as both olfactorily repellent and odiously ugly. But it works to align Wilbur with the historical archetype of the charismatic male sorcerer stretching at least as far back as Aleister Crowley, one of whose famous magickal gestures Wilbur replicates while invoking Yog-Sothoth during his final battle with Armitage. Stockwell’s beguiling performance as Wilbur plays him up as a rebel angel, set on defying the stodgy authority of Armitage and the prematurely elderly Dr. Cory (Lloyd Bochner).

YouTube video

Romance, seduction, and sex (save for the allegedly nauseating effects of miscegenation) are rarely to be found in Lovecraft, but they’re all over the relationship between Wilbur and Nancy—which, admittedly, is entirely a fabrication of the screenwriters. Several times, Nancy hallucinates taking part in some kind of hippie orgy on a verdant hillside, sort of like the Living Theater doing softcore porn. The abundant skin on display (albeit seen only in Vaseline-smeared flashes) pushes The Dunwich Horror into hard R-rated terrain, though those bits weren’t actually available to viewers until the film’s home video debut.

Advertisement

Haller utilizes solarization, a perception-warping technique often associated with the psychedelic music scene, in a very different way here. Colored negative imagery depicts the attacks of Wilbur’s inhuman twin brother, who we only catch in fleeting solarized glimpses. Otherwise, Haller deploys some lovely poetic touches to convey the titular horror’s passage through the woods once he’s escaped confinement, like wind rippling across a pond, or the rustling of disturbed branches, in a deliberate embrace of Val Lewton-esque suggestiveness.

As for the overt thematic references to Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby (the prior year’s horror sensation), they find their apotheosis in the ominous freeze-frame that closes the film. The final shot nicely muddies the waters of the otherwise clear vanquishment of “evil” by the patriarchal forces of “good.” It also implies that a woman’s body constitutes the real site of ongoing threats to those forces. Whether this ending is meant to be merely ambiguous, or constitutes a real embrace of the counterculture’s more diabolic aspects, remains open for deliberation. We’ll just have to wait and see if he has his father’s eyes—or tentacles!

Image/Sound

Arrow Video’s 2K restoration of The Dunwich Horror, sourced from the original camera negative, looks fabulous, several massive steps up from earlier DVD releases. Colors really pop, particularly the Mario Bava-esque gel lighting and the colored negative effects used to represent the titular creature’s attacks. Black levels are deep and uncrushed. Fine details of costume and décor really stand out. Grain looks well resolved. The Master Audio mono mix sounds fantastic, cleanly carrying the dialogue, and resonantly delivering Les Baxter’s resonant score, which plays continuous variations on one driving, captivating theme.

Advertisement

Extras

The extras assembled here may not be numerous, but they do amount to a deep dive into the source material and The Dunwich Horror’s production history. The commentary track from married authors Guy Adams and A.K. Benedict alternates between being legitimately informative and extremely witty in a distinctly British fashion. Topics discussed include Sandy Dvore’s opening titles design, the proper pronunciation of “Dunwich,” the film’s psychedelic aspects, Sandra Dee’s troubled life and career, and all manner of Lovecraftian lore.

Ruthanna Emrys, author of The Innsmouth Legacy, talks about the Cthulhu mythos, the different towns that make up Lovecraft Country, and Lovecraft’s own personal demons. Music historian David Huckvale outlines composer Les Baxter’s career from his early days as a pioneer of exotica to his move into movie music. Huckvale then goes on to scrutinize Baxter’s score for The Dunwich Horror, demonstrating on his piano how the main theme combines aspects of Bach and Handel, and how Baxter achieves certain musical effects.

Easily the beefiest extra, “The Door Into Dunwich” is a wide-ranging, two-hour-plus Zoom chat between authors and film historians Stephen R. Bissette and Stephen Laws. Things start off with the Stephens reminiscing about their initial exposure to Lovecraft’s writing, their early love of the horror genre, and where they first saw The Dunwich Horror. Along the way, they address practically every aspect of the film, as well as many adjacent topics. One particularly interesting excursus concerns early attempts to adapt Lovecraft for TV in the late 1950s and early ’60s. Another delves into co-screenwriter Curtis Hanson’s early years as writer and editor of Cinema magazine. The discussion never slackens, and what’s here is sure to be catnip for horror fans.

Overall

Groovy and grotesque in equal measure, Daniel Haller’s The Dunwich Horror looks hauntingly good on Blu-ray, buttressed by some tasty Lovecraft-centric bonus materials.

Score: 
 Cast: Sandra Dee, Dean Stockwell, Ed Begley, Lloyd Bochner, Sam Jaffe, Joanne Moore Jordan, Donna Baccala, Talia Shire, Barboura Morris, Beach Dickerson  Director: Daniel Haller  Screenwriter: Curtis Hanson, Henry Rosenbaum, Ronald Silkosky  Distributor: Arrow Video  Running Time: 87 min  Rating: R  Year: 1970  Release Date: January 10, 2023  Buy: Video, Book

Budd Wilkins

Budd Wilkins's writing has appeared in Film Journal International and Video Watchdog. He is a member of the Online Film Critics Society.

1 Comment

  1. You found no issues? I bought two copies and tested them on three machines and the subtitles worked on none of them. I know it matters not to most but in my home it is an issue.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.