Diagonaldi Very well executed

Senteur As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Seraherrera The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

BA_Harrison Weirdo student of the occult Wilbur Whateley (Dean Stockwell) tries to get his hands on a copy of the Necronomicon in order to perform a ritual that will open an inter-dimensional portal and free 'the old ones'. For his ceremony, he also needs a virgin: cue cinematic goody goody Sandra Dee as librarian Nancy Wagner, the actress ultimately shaking off her wholesome screen image by baring some flesh during the film's climactic ritual.Based on the work of H.P. Lovecraft, The Dunwich Horror is an undeniably atmospheric movie, with a great sense of foreboding helped in no small part by a sinister score, but director Daniel Haller's best efforts are undone by a script that treads water until the finale, a plodding pace and an over-reliance on groovy psychedelic visuals, the image becoming negative and changing colours during key scenes: what may have seemed cool to the hippy generation now looks horribly cheesy and incredibly dated.And, of course, anyone looking forward to the arrival of the 'old ones' is heading for disappointment: all the budget can stretch to are some rubbery snake heads, their awfulness partially disguised by one of Haller's crappy visual effects.

bkoganbing As Sandra Dee got older her youthful virginal image did not play well in the 60s counterculture. The Dunwich Horror was an effort to save her career and break the typecasting.Sandra getting a little long in the tooth for a college student meets a rather strange Dean Stockwell who is looking a rare book that professor Ed Begley has. It contains some spells that will bring some creatures from another dimension and Begley doesn't want to part with it. Stockwell then steals it and returns home with Dee.Dean's got big plans for Sandra. She's to be part of a ritual that will open up the portals to another dimension. And he's got reason to want to bring these beings into our universe.The Dunwich Horror didn't serve the careers of Dean Stockwell or Sandra Dee very well. Ed Begley does well in a sympathetic role, one of his last. But I was singularly unmoved by it all.

JoeB131 This was one of the first movies to mine H.P. Lovecraft's works for a plot, using the story of the same title, but radically changing the plot interactions and characters. (The story was a linear progression from the view of outsiders, while the movie was told from the perspective of Wilbur). It's keeps a lot of the ambiance of Lovecraft's tale, but is completely different in its take. It also includes a lot of 1960's occultism that would have embarrassed HPL.Dean Stockwell is creepy as Wilbur Whatley, the more human looking twin spawn of Yog-Sothoth. Where the movie falls down is in the actual monster twin,(the main focus of the story, but an afterthought here.) It looks like a guy in a costume, and no amount of filtered photography was going to take away from that.The selling point of this movie is Sandra Dee, who manages to be quite sexy as the intended sacrifice/receptacle for the Old Ones. The level of sex in this movie would have gotten an NC-17 today...

Scott_Mercer Another movie featuring Gothic horror that collides with late 1960's psychedelic/Hippie clothing, fashions, design, etc. It makes for a potent combination that is somewhat silly but great fun to look at.The rumor is that Peter Fonda was supposed to play the lead but Dean Stockwell stepped in at the last minute. It would have sure been a different movie with old Pete. Stockwell gives the role a creepy yet seductive intensity. Could Fonda have done the same? Not so sure about that. I tend to think that Peter Fonda would have been a little too "slick" for this role, that is, too much on the side of the sleazy seducer and too little on the side of the menacing necromancer. But, who knows, that's just my silly idle speculation, as Peter never did the role.This would make a great double feature with "Simon: King of The Witches," also currently available on DVD. Filmed shortly after this film, also has a warlock, and a lot of trippy psychedelic visual effects. Also great fun to look at and quite entertaining performance in the lead role by Andrew Prine.