MASTERS OF HORROR: H.P. LOVECRAFT’S DREAMS IN THE WITCH HOUSE
Directed by Stuart Gordon
2005 – 55 Minutes/Widescreen
DVD Provided by Anchor Bay Entertainment
Article written by Mark Engle

Stuart Gordon’s history and love for H.P. Lovecraft makes this one a no-brainer for a horror anthology series, especially one that is allowed to push the boundaries. Make no mistake, Gordon has pushed the envelope in the past, and I’m sure he will do so in the future. He has the talent and a childlike gleeful gruesome quality to do so. And while this telefilm is gruesome, contains the “forbidden” baby in danger scenario, and is highly recommended, it is definitely an old hat for Gordon rather than something new. Granted, it’s a nostalgic one that fits the director well.

Walter Gilman (Ezra Godden from DAGON) is a Miskatonic University student looking for a quiet and cheap room to rent in order to work on his thesis. He ends up in a decrepit 300-year old house run by an obese and trashy landlord in stereotypical wife-beater shirts covered in old sweat stains. The other residents include an elderly religiously demented renter on the first floor, while a single poor mother and her infant live on the second floor. Once the screaming starts, it doesn’t take long before we hit the Lovecraftian land of yore. Walter runs to the rescue when a large rat attacks his neighbor and her baby. All seems normal until the old guy downstairs asks if the rodent had a human face!

Things get more complicated for our hero when he discovers that his thesis theory regarding vortexes that can lead to different dimensions also happens to be at work in his room. An ancient witch travels back and forth looking for men to do her bidding. The rat does have a human face, being a servant of the old sorceress, and Walter is now being tricked and literally forced to sacrifice human babies in order to give the witch her powers. Of course, Walter doesn’t want any of this, and falling for his hot neighbor and liking the little tyke next door doesn’t help in the “just run away from the problem” scenario. Will he stop the witch or the power that is held over him and his destiny? And what of the old man downstairs, how much does he know and what is his dark secret? Fans of Lovecraft’s stories and Gordon’s movies will know where it’s going, but there are a few minor surprises along the way.

While not the best in the series, this is a very fun entry, sporting a great cast and solid direction. There are pokes and obvious nods to the genre along the way, especially at Lovecraft and even Gordon’s own works. Ezra Gordon does an even better job as one of Lovecraft’s characters here than in DAGON, showing a wide range of strength and weaknesses. Chelah Horsdal offers excellent dialogue delivery and an uncanny maternal quality as the stunningly beautiful redhead neighbor Frances Elwood. Longtime character actor Campbell Lane also should receive kudos for his delivery as the odd neighbor downstairs, especially considering his last minute commitment to replace Jeffrey Combs who had to drop from the cast just before production began.

As a horror fan and a huge Stuart Gordon supporter, I also have to point out that while DREAMS IN THE WITCH HOUSE is gruesome and well played out, it isn’t necessarily very scary. It has its creepy moments and in most cases, as such with most of Gordon’s titles, the gore works very well, especially with KNB doing the effects. Unfortunately, the close-up of the human faced rat is ludicrous in execution. From a distance and even when electronically operated, the rodent is fine. But whenever it turns into an actor in costume for its speaking lines and close-ups, it appears to be from a children’s live action production of Alice In Wonderland. Considering budget and time restraints, this is a minor quibble, but one that does interrupt the flow of the story.

Considering a possible future box set of the entire series, one must wonder if it is worth picking up each individually? I can honestly say it is. While Anchor Bay is very well known for re-releasing some of the same titles over and over again, these individual titled discs are a sweet deal. Each one comes with its own director character card, an outer cardboard box sleeve with great artwork, and tons of extras. This particular disc comes with a running commentary from both Gordon and lead Godden. There are also five featurettes, including an interview with Gordon covering his career leading up to this episode and an overall featurette of key players from a lot of the director’s past and present work (Brian Yuzna, Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton, Ken Foree and others). Also on hand are onset interviews with actress Chelah Horsdal and KNB FX artist Brown Jenkin. Rounding out the extras are trailers for all the other MASTER OF HORRORS titles and several other Anchor Bay titles, Still and Storyboard Galleries, DVD-ROM versions of the screenplay and the original story by H.P. Lovecraft, plus a cool looking screensaver. Basically, you get more than a feature length’s worth of material to peruse through. Overall, I have no qualms recommending this fun horror outing from a Master of Horror to genre fans. It has Gordon’s trademarks of gore and nudity with a smart script and solid direction. While it might not be a perfect scarefest, it is true Gordon and a minor classic horror gem worth watching.