HP Lovecraft’s Necronomicon: Book of the Dead (1994) [31 Days of Gore]

H.P. Lovecraft (Jeffrey Combs in heavy makeup) sneaks into a crypt beneath a library, Indiana Jones style. There he finds The Necronomicon, the book of the dead. The design of the grimoire is intricate, ancient-looking, and creepy—just as it should be. The other props and special effects are a cut above most horror films, too; there’s a lot of miniatures, reverse photography, and even some shots filmed upside down so that blood and goo appear to rise from the floor magically. This story is the container for the other short films in the anthology, which are directed by Christophe Gans, Shusuke Kaneko, and Brian Yuzna.

I’m an absolute sucker for movies like this. I love dangerous books and the characters who’re obsessed with them. As much as I should dislike this movie—and it gives me plenty of reasons—this is at least my third viewing since its limited release in 1993. It isn’t a great movie, but it’s highly watchable… two-thirds of it, anyway.

The first tale is The Drowned. This is the best story in the movie. Bruce Payne plays a grieving widower who has just inherited a cliffside hotel. He discovers his benefactor uncle (Richard Lynch) left a suicide note, which recounts how he acquired the Necronomicon from a mysterious fish-man and used it to resurrect his dead family with tendril-laden results. Payne resurrects his own dead wife, failing to heed his uncle’s warnings. Despite a stupidly rushed ending, The Drowned manages to create one of the most Lovecraftian moods ever put on film. 

Let me suggest fast-forwarding through The Cold, the uninspired second tale of the movie. David Warner is so understandably bored, you can almost hear him wondering how his costars got into movies at all. This is low-effort filmmaking at its worst. The less said about it the better. 

The third tale, Whispers, is alternatively boring and insane. You would expect Brian Yuzna to produce the best story of the bunch, and while he certainly supplies the most notable creature effects, the main character is a monotonously loud policewoman who—get this—has a melodramatic discussion about motherhood in the middle of a car chase. She pursues her suspect into a cavernous lair beneath an abandoned warehouse. There she encounters creatures who crave bone marrow, which sounds metal as fuck, but the action is needlessly interrupted by a pointless dream scene. The segment’s message is about as hammy as the church propaganda in a hell house.

Overall, Necronomicon’s biggest sin is its inattention to detail. Lovecraft is supposedly reading these stories sometime in the 1920s, yet each of the short films are set in contemporary times. Sometimes you think the costumes are reflecting olden times, then suddenly you see a modern car drive by in the background. I’m sure there’s a magical explanation for this, but it’s still wonky and distracting. Nonetheless, this is one of those movies I love even though my brain tells me “no.”