Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Ezmae Chang This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

venusboys3 This movie has something of a reputation as a stinker, but having watched just watched it again I am not sure why that is.It does stick fairly close to the story, up to a point. The main deflection is that Wilbur Whately is the primary villain, whereas in the story... well, he wasn't such a looker to be picking up naive students and he checks out early on. Still, I think the movie made a good choice in keeping Wilbur around and giving him a creepy allure. His motivation here is more about getting revenge on the townies who mocked him than it is getting into Sandra Dee (literally). Not that Sandra Dee's character was in the story at all. One complaint will probably be that we don't get to see much of the monster and what we do get at the very end is... well, kind of silly looking. Up to that final moment though, I was very happy with how they chose to depict things. Cthulhu creatures are weird, and still defy even the best CGI as far as I'm concerned. They're as much about presence and atmosphere as they are oogy looking tentacled thingies. This movie keeps it scarier by not showing it and instead opting for colored filters and distorted lenses. As filmed versions of Lovecraft's stories go, I'd say this is one of the better ones... along with Roger Corman's other Lovecraftian film of The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (Titled 'The Haunted Palace' because?). It captures more of the Lovecraft's weird atmosphere than other attempts, which often eschew atmosphere in favor of graphic gore and sex and bug eyed monsters.

gavin6942 Wilbur Whateley (Dean Stockwell) pops over to the Arkham Miskatonic University to borrow the legendary Necronomicon and Sandra Dee. But little does anyone know, Whateley is not quite human...Peter Fonda was apparently considered for the role of Wilbur. I wish that would have happened! I mean, Stockwell does a great job and has an incredible mustache (and Mike Mayo calls his performance "appropriately hammy"), but Fonda is one creepy dude! There is much to be marveled at here, even just in the making. The script was co-written by future Academy Award winning director Curtis Hanson. This is also Ed Begley's final film.Most importantly, the film is one of the earliest adaptations of Lovecraft's work (the fourth film) and one of the first to attempt exploring the Cthulhu mythos in cinema. American International Pictures really cornered this market early on, first with "The Haunted Palace" and then "Die Monster Die" before this one...

Rabh17 Remember that they attempted to do a Lovecraft Story about the 'Old Ones' back in 1970. And when you see that the movie was made in 1970, you are really talking about late 60's cinematic techniques. So yes, they were limited by what they could do-- plus Lovecraftian monsters cannot really be passed off as a man in a rubbersuit or anything else within the means of 1968-69 technology. Another misreading I see from some reviewers is the assumption that this was a Devil Movie. It isn't. This is Lovecraft. God, Jesus & Satan have nothing to do with the story. Yog-Sothoth does not care about Judeo-Christianity.Dean Stockwell is wooden as heck, but it can come at you as creepy: He is supposed to be a practitioner of the dark arts, not Don Juan. And the rest of the cast are your frightened stock little village characters plus a learned Doctor or two.I was surprised by the lite sexual content--for 1970, that is. Back then, this movie, if it had been in a theatre in my town would have been rated a solid 'R' back when 'R' meant NO CHILDREN PERIOD. And No Teenager would have even been allowed to buy a ticket!!! And that was why I never saw this as even a Late night Re-Run on Poor People TV. (Today, we'd call it Free OTA TV)Today-- it might make NC-17. And current teens would probably continue to phone Text out of boredom and lack of interest. Their Video games are way scarier anyways. Ah. . .for the good ole days. . .Beyond that, if you rent or stream this little gem, be prepared for a laugh or two at the ridiculous personal predicaments. Especially as 'Gigdet' does EVERYTHING a smart young lady is NOT SUPPOSED TO DO when she meets creepazoid Wilbur. Like Drive him halfway across the county in the dark. Like walk with a complete stranger into a totally wacked-out decrepit mansion. And good Lord, I only smiled as I said: "Oh you silly girl, you're gonna drink the Tea AGAIN?!? Didn't your momma teach you ANYTHING?!?"The monster is a disappointment when it finally emerges, but the growling/howling noise it made until it does was neat. Though the men hollering and rolling through the bushes in the psychedelic light was hilarious!No, this movie isn't GREAT by today's standards. And it was probably more 'shocking' in its time. But if you are a Lovecraft fan, this one bears a critical viewing-- with a good sense of humor.

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...