"The Dunwich Horror" - Mini Review (1 Viewer)

[Kenneth]

I got my copy today and I decided to check it out having never seen this movie before. MGM has done a nice job with this latest addition to their Midnight Movie collection. The film is presented in a nice 16:9 version and the print seemed to be in pretty good shape for such a little known flick. No extras, just the trailer. The audio on my system was DD2.0 (so I assume it was dual channel mono, if that's not an oxymoron

).
The film claims to be based on H. P. Lovecraft's The Dunwich Horror . I, unfortunately, have not read that particular H. P. Lovecraft tale but I would assume from others that I have read that this is a very loose adaptation, at best. However, it did make a good midnight movie watch and Sandra Dee (the virgin sacrifice, no less ) had a couple of "stirring" scenes. Also, don't miss the young Talia Coppolla (aka Talia Shire) as the doctor's receptionist.
On the whole I give it a solid C as a movie and a solid B as a DVD. Not too bad given MGM's record. If you are looking for a cheesy horror movie with Sandra Dee, then look no further than The Dunwich Horror . Note: 4 out of 5 Old Ones recommend this movie, or else

Kenneth

 

[SteveGon]

I thought about picking up TDH at Best Buy today - at $9.99, I thought it might be worth it. However, being a fan of Lovecraft's work, I figured I'd probably be disappointed from what others have said about the movie. As good as Lovecraft's stories are, you'd think someone would be interested in doing a faithful adaptation. Anyway, I ended up going with Scanners instead. I don't know, maybe I'll give TDH a spin someday...
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"Death's at the bottom of everything, Martins - leave death to the professionals!"
"Mind if I use that line in my next Western?"

 

[Julie K]

I haven't seen this, but I've got to pick it up. Even though I've heard it's not at all faithful to the story, well, I've got to give it a chance.
I would love to see a good film adaptation of Lovecraft. Unfortunately, I think John Carpenter is right when he said that he won't do another Lovecraftian story because the studios don't understand Lovecraft.
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My DVDs
"Some people think I'm over-prepared, paranoid...maybe even a little crazy. But they never met any pre-Cambrian life forms, did they?"

 

[Gerard Priori]

The movie only bears slight resemblance to the Lovecraft story (which is one of my favorites of his, I definitely recommend reading the original story), but there's something about this film I like. It isn't a good movie, but I like it. I'm looking forward to seeing this DVD because it contains the previously unavailable and recently discovered uncut version of the film (this is the same version as MGM's recent VHS release of this film, but I didn't see the VHS version).
-Jerry