Sunday

We were perusing a Halloween display at the store recently, and we realized that intermixed with the familiar US decorations there were some more traditional El Dia de los Muertos things: cut crepe banners of flower-eyed calaveras in sombreros, candlelit ofrendas, and the month Noviembre. Today's after-midnight movie-thon screening was Dreams in the Witch-House,* a return to Lovecraftian form by frequently over-the-top master of horror Stuart Gordon, his entry in the privately-produced, possibly superb Masters of Horror series. Pseudo science, upgraded to pseudo non-Euclidian string physics, is being practiced by grad student Walter in the supposed quietude of an overgrown three hundred year old sublet in some weedy suburbia. But between him and his doctorate are significant diversions: a loudly-praying tenant, a babysitter-seeking single mother, a witch, rats, and the strange parameters of insanity. Walter finds himself in the middle of various love/hate triangles, culminating in some of the most intense baby-in-peril moments I've seen on film. All of H.P. Lovecraft's familiar decorations make cameos: skewed angles, Miskatonic University, the hidebound Necronomicon, and Brown Jenkin. The original story* introduced the popular character of Brown Jenkin, a rat with a human face. This is a concept that looks risible on paper, assuming that any levity can be found in Lovecraft's literature, and is especially comical in cinematic realization--even when rendered by a master of wry camp like Mr. Gordon. Otherwise this film is quite good: concentrated and intense with pitch-perfect turns in every role. The movie evokes many of the beautifully-painted book covers popularized on reprints of H.P.'s work in the eighties. It also plausibly illustrates the madness Lovecraft proposed was the byproduct of associating with the paranormal universe. The movie notably includes some fantastic baby stuntman work. So far the Masters of Horror* series is most recommended. [Cavin]