The Dunwich Horror (1970)

This 1970’s version of “The Dunwich Horror” stays pretty close to the source material that was originally written in 1928. There are a few added characters that were not needed but helped flesh out the story. There is a psychedelic dream sequence about twenty minutes in that feels odd and really out of place. And it stars Dean Stockwell as Wilbur Whateley and Sandra Dee as one of the extra characters, in this case, Wilbur’s love interest. Enough of the main plot points are present in the film to forgive those that are left out or for those that occur differently than in the story. Watching this film now makes me appreciate the fact that I wasn’t seeing it for the first time in 1970. It’s not a bad little film, but wow, we’ve made a lot of progress since then!

The basic premise of “The Dunwich Horror” film is that Wilbur and his family are outcasts from town, with good reason. Wilbur’s great grandfather was hung by a town mob after trying to perform a ritual to call forth “The Old Ones”. Wilbur wants to attempt this ritual now and goes to the Miskatonic University to retrieve a copy of the Necronomicon. He meets Nancy, who is nice enough to drive him back to Dunwich where he lives. When she doesn’t come home, her friend and Dr. Artimage go and try to find her. They discover that Wilbur had a twin sibling that was supposedly dead but in reality was locked away in Wilbur’s house. The movie ends with a busy and confusing ending with Wilbur’s brother, the “Horror”, killing a mob of town folk and Wilbur being struck by lightning as he was attempting to sacrifice Nancy and summon the Old Ones.