NECRONOMICON (1994)
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I really enjoyed this movie. Great stories done rather well.
I just watched this movie today after trying to get my hands on it for
several years, so here is my fresh dead review.
This is truly a brave attempt at translating HP Lovecraft's works into
film, a truly difficult and daunting task to do with any skill.
Attempts to illustrate the alluded-to but barely observed horror of
most of the genre tend to fail because the substance is not generally
visual. It is a state of mind. But I was pleasantly surprised by this
movie and I will explain why.
The house we begin at where the Necronomicon is rediscovered is
atmospheric and the directing is also rather visceral and refreshing.
The camera work is very creative and flexible utilizing many different
styles, a lot of askew profile shots or detached views from above, even
the use of black and white to denote a tragic flashback is skillfully
used here.
The music is also quite nice. The casting equally talented. The story
of a man whose family is taken from him, he turns from God, and a
strange demonic creature comes to him, bringing strange solace in the
form of the ancient book: The Necronomicon, where the man discovers a
ritual to bring his family back from the dead. The man utters archaic
iambic pentameter, tossing his own blood upon the pentagram.
"That which is not dead can eternal lie, And with strange aeons even
death may die, In his lair Cthulhu waits dreaming."
And though his family does return, they return in a monkey's paw sort
of damnation and terror, but why? Why the extent of this just to say,
"Gotcha!" in a truly horrifying manner? To extinguish the light, any
semblance of hope, or effort. Indeed we are speaking of the
Necronomicon, a cursed book brought to man by the truly damned.
The third story has music I know I have heard somewhere before,
somewhere not too long ago I might add, but I just can't place it!
Maybe on an episode of Dexter?
Some of the lines are so cheesy but entertaining, like this little
jewel.
"I just came by to watch you practice your flute playing, only you're
going to practice on my instrument."
Also unlike most horror these days, it is not hidden it is not behind a
screen it is not off camera, it is close up, visceral. You really feel
it the way horror is meant to be felt.
