CheerupSilver
Very Cool!!!
TrueJoshNight
Truly Dreadful Film
Francene Odetta
It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.
hellholehorror
Usually I don't like movies that have three stories with a wrapper around them but here it works fine. The first story is pretty good, the second is pretty dull and the last is awesome. The wraparound is one of the best in this type of movie. The first story was good with a great amount of creepy monster effects and scary moments. The second story left me cold. The third story was great with like demons and stuff. The wraparound would have been better as a separate story but it is very entertaining with a great ending (just like the first and third stories). Four stories in one film and three of them are great! This is a gritty classic.
A Lazy Bear
The movie is a Anthology movie based around H.P.Lovecrafts short-stories. Although based seems like the wrong word in this case, but more about that later...The movie some bad acting, mostly bad dialogue, bad story, bad characters (they don't even have any personalities whatsoever and for the most part I don't even understand their reactions/actions) and often terrible editing that simply confuses you, especially in the second story are some weird cuts. The whole concept of the movie doesn't even make sense, the stories are read from the necronomicon, which doesn't make sense since its a spell-book and none of these stories are written by anyone involved, at least we are never told so. BUT it also has its redeeming qualities, most of all the practical special effects are awesome! They actually are some of my most favourite practical gore effects ever and there are a lot of them! Also the set and sound design are quite alright.Now more about Lovecraft compared to this movie. The style is in no way comparable to Lovecrafts. There is no build-up, no subtlety (creatures EVERYWHERE), little explanation as to why all this happens (which is usually the scary part in a Lovecraft story), there is no feeling of the insignificance of humans compared to what exists out there (maybe). It feels much more like silly campfire stories.To sum it up I would recommend watching this either if you are a big fan of practical special effects (especially gore) or you like the Cthulhu universe. In my case both of these things apply which is why I enjoyed this movie despite its crap-factor.
Paul Andrews
Necronomicon starts in 1932 as writer H.P. Lovecraft (Jeffrey Combs) as learned that an order of Ontraggi Monks guard a copy of the legendary occult book the Necronomicon, Lovecraft manages to locate the vault where the Necronomicon is hidden & begins the read it...First he reads about 'The Drowned' in which a man named Edward De Lapoer (Bruce Payne) inherits an old hotel that has been abandoned for sixty years after the suicide of his ancestor Jethro De Lapoer (Richard Lynch) managed to bring his dead wife & son back to life using spells from the Necronomicon...The next story 'The Cold' is about newspaper reporter Dale Porkel (Dennis Christopher) who investigates the murder of several people which leads him to a boarding house & a certain Dr. Madden (David Warner) who has managed to prolong his life but with dire consequences...Finally Lovecraft reads 'The Whispers' about a female cop named Sarah (Signy Coleman) descent under an old warehouse where she finds herself in an ancient temple full of Bat creatures who feast on human flesh & need human brains to breed...This French & American co-production is a three part horror anthology film based around three short stories by H.P. Lovecraft who also features in the fictional wraparound segment, the wraparound segment & the third story 'The Whispers' was directed by Brian Yuzna while the first story 'The Drowned' was directed by the French born Christophe Gans while the second story was directed by the Japanese born Shûsuke Kaneko. The script for Necronomicon uses various Lovecraft themes & ideas but the individual stories don't really represent their supposed source materials but I still found them all enjoyable in different ways. I think it's quite nice to watch a horror film that has no annoying teenagers in it, that isn't a remake of anything & isn't a typically predictable slasher & to that end I did enjoy this although it could have been better. Each of the stories has an air of the supernatural about it with the first in particular, each story features the Necronomicon somehow but I would say that 'The Cold' is maybe the best of the three with 'Whispers' not far behind it & while 'The Drowned' is far from bad it's probably the least of the three stories. There's certainly plenty of gore & monsters here & the effects men have a blast bringing all sorts of slimy monsters, people melting, severed limbs & splattery creations to life. At a little over 90 minutes each story lasts the 25 minute range & are all suitably different although I think the twist endings could have been a bitter & played more for dramatic impact.Although based on short stories by Lovecraft the adaptations retain little of their literally source, 'The Drowned' is an adaptation of The Rats in the Wall from 1924 only retains the De Lapoer name & something under a house (a city rather than a monster though), 'The Cold' is adapted from Cool Air published in 1931 & is the closest to the original story while 'Whispers' is adapted from The Whispers in Darkness from 1928 that deals with rumours of aliens hiding in the hills of Vermont rather than cops & old warehouses. Fans of other Yuzna produced Lovecraft adaptations such as Re-Animator (1985) & From Beyond (1986) will be happy to see the same sort of visual style & the same sort of gory special effects, from people melting to piles of severed limbs to people's faces being pulled off to people with the backs of their heads missing to some bat like alien monsters to a huge tentacled monster thing & more besides as the effects men throw plenty of blood & slime our way. The dark Gothic setting or 'The Drowned' is very nice & atmospheric while the more sedate setting of 'The Cold' works too but the somewhat surreal setting of 'Whispers' looks a little theatrical with it's bright neon lighting & smoke everywhere.With a supposed budget of about $4,000,000 this appears to have had some money spent on it & while the effects & sets probably cost a fair bit the stories do feel a little empty at times, Necronomicon feels like a showcase for the effects men rather than the talents of Lovecraft. The acting is pretty good, Jeffrey Combs, Bruce Payne, Richard Lynch & David Warner add a little marquee value for genre fans.Necronomicon is a good film, it's not a perfect film but at least it's something different from the teen slashers, remakes & giant Shark creature features that litter video shop shelves, I suppose it's an acquired taste & the stories might have been fleshed out more for dramatic purposes but it looks great, has lots of slime & gore & is well worth a watch.
zwsdotcom
I see others lambasting this movie, but can't agree - so I need to weigh in on the side of reason.While this is certainly not a must-see timeless classic, it's a competently-executed B movie with reasonably good special effects and a few faces who have been seen in bigger and better things. The style of the movie is similar to "Creepshow"; i.e. several small, unconnected stories told with a wraparound that sort of takes the place of a narrator. Imagine three episodes of "Tales from the Crypt" spliced together and you've got a good idea of the way the film is structured.All of the film versions of Lovecraft's works - and yes, I HAVE seen all of them in existence, as far as I know - were B movies, and the quality of this particular one is towards the upper middle of the pile. Yes, there are rubber monsters. However, they are quite well done for the era and budget that spawned this movie.If you want to see an example of a Lovecraft film adaptation I think is at the top of the quality scale, see Dagon. But don't shun this movie either; if you're a Lovecraft fan, this oeuvre is not to be despised.
