H. P. Lovecraft's The Dunwich Horror and Other Stories

Well since there has yet to have been a review written about this I guess I'll take a shot at it. Story: all three of the stories are written by one of the most lauded horror writers of all time, H.P Lovecraft. So the stories are automatically good, well the source material is atleast. As a result of the very, very, VERY limited animation it makes it hard sometimes to follow the story, and for someone who has never read anything by Lovecraft it may not be very enjoyable. I give the story 9/10 because they are based off of masterpieces (though I may be biased) Art: Ireally enjoyed the handmade characters and sets. It's obvious the creators put a lot of effort into making the animation have a unique feel to it that contributes to Lovecraft's eerie source material. On the other hand the animation is terrible. Characters rarely move and when they do it sometimes plays out like a slide show. The majority of anything consisting of movement is just the camera panning or looking at things from a different angle. This made it really hard for me to enjoy because it was barely an animation. I give the art 9/10 and the animation 2/10 Sound: It's accompanied by a nice creepy almost ambient soundtrack consisting of a lot of acoustic guitar, this fits the art style quite well, though it's nothing special. The voice acting (what little there is) is actually surprisingly well done. I give the sound 7/10 Overall: If your a fan of Lovecraft and can look past the crappy animation it has several redeeming qualities, plus if you enjoy art specifically sculpture and stuff like that you may enjoy the art. If you are really into well done animation and have never read Lovecraft this may not be something you'll enjoy (though you really should read some of his stuff, it's fucking awesome)

Back in 2007 Toei animation decided to make a short OVA based on some short stories by well known racist Howard Phillips Lovecraft. Lovecraftian horror is quite tricky to pull off. Simply because so much of it relies on stoking the audience's imagination and adaptations usually make the mistake of showing too much of the ancient ones and other Stygian creatures. Let's see how Toei handled it. Story: There are three short Lovecraft stories in the OVA. We start with The Picture in the House, move to Dunwich and end with The Festival. If you're familiar with Lovecraft's work, you know what kind of content to expect. Thebig narrative problem this has, and first major stumbling block it faces as an adaptation, is that the pacing is a bit shite. Good horror needs quiet, slower moments to build up suspense and get the viewer tensed. The problem with the slow moments in this is that so many of them are outright full stops while we pan over a still image. That doesn't build tension, it derails the situation and bores you. To their credit, the pacing aside, they do a decent job of adapting the scripts of the short stories. They're pretty close to faithful and will likely satisfy those fans of Lovecraftian horror. Characters: The characters don't have any real complexity to them. The ones who are meant to be unsettling pull that off well enough. But the ones we're supposed to root for and identify with, we really don't have any reason to care about. They're just a bit boring. Art: This is the second major issue with this as an adaptation. The art style does not lend itself well to horror. The OVA looks like it has less of a budget and cheaper claymation than an old Gumby cartoon. And it doesn't help that Gumby also looks more like an Eldritch abomination than anything you see in this OVA. And I'm not just saying that as a joke. That's the trouble with clearly showing the creatures in Lovecraftian horror. When you see a very vague, unsettling description of the Dunwich Horror, it works. When you see a mess of walking squid ink spaghetti, it just looks silly. Sound: The acting in this is passable. It's not good, but it's not bad either. The music is the same. It's a bit generic for horror music, but it's functional enough. Ho-yay: There isn't any to be sad. The characters barely have relationships to begin with, much less well enough developed relationships for that. Areas of Improvement: Build up the suspense properly. Don't pause and derail the plot to pan over your clay landscape. Don't show your monsters. Take a lesson from Lovecraft in this matter. Show enough to give the idea of the monster and let your audience's imagination do the rest. Trust me, we will come up with something way more frightening than your spaghetti monster. Do not use Claymation. There are things claymation works for. Horror is not one of them. The models and environments just look too much like a child's panorama art project. Final Thoughts: This OVA has three fatal flaws. The first is the long pauses that derail the suspense. The second is that it shows its Lovecraftian monsters in great detail. The third is the claymation art style. I can't say it's bad, but you'd be much better off reading these stories. I'll give it a 4/10.

This short film is a collection of three stories written by the infamous H. P. Lovecraft who is considered to be the founder of modern horror. Even though this film is not done in the way we know anime to be made, Toei Animation managed to pull off a decent film using a very experimental form of stop animation that somehow fits the tone of Lovecraft's work. The designs for the puppets strangely reminded me of Tim Burton's adaptation of the Roald Dahl children's book, James And The Giant Peach (minus the live action aspect). So, if you happen to be a fan of that movieand you enjoy reading Lovecraft, then I have no doubt that one will enjoy this film. People who have not read any of Lovecraft's work and have not heard of him probably won't enjoy this. But, the way the movie is directed and the way the puppets are positioned in most of the shots should be able to follow what is going on in the story, even if they haven't read any of them. The music is calm and pleasant with an eerie edge to it which makes the viewer feel as if there is something not right with the world and the characters. Though the music usually becomes really dark towards the end of each story. There is little to say about the voice acting since there is not much dialogue (especially in the third story). The first story only has one of the characters speaking to the silent protagonist while the second story is narrated by one of the three protagonists from the Dunwich Horror story. The final story, The Festival, only has narration for the intro before becoming a fairly silent film with just the sound effects and music. But, since I could not find any information as to who were the voice actors, all I can say is that that they did an okay job and they seemed to be having fun while making creepy and insane voices. In conclusion, this movie is definitely not for everyone. If you really want to check this movie out then I recommend reading the three stories that make up this film, plus some of his more popular stories including The Call Of Cthulhu and The Rats In The Walls before watching this. Otherwise, if you prefer anime in the conventional sense, rather skip this.

If you like Lovecraft and good paced arthouse films you will probably get a kick out of this. It strikes me as a college film student's final project, one made with skill and passion, but ultimately supremely lacking in budget. I suppose that is a little unfair though, as good artistic expression really shouldn't be limited by conceits of budgetary concerns, but the most obvious drawback to this special is the lack of budget and lack of movement. The pacing, framing, music, and use of color is all excellent, and the little models and dioramas were obviously put together with a specific creative vision in mind.Even if you have never read the books I would say this is worth at least one watch for the inspirational value, seeing something truly unique being done and how the limitations of budget can be worked around. The Festival is likely the best adaptation because of the fact that it has the most movement, the most interesting shots, and the body horror. Art students would hopefully enjoy this and take away many lessons from it. It's a little bit Tim Burton-esque in a way, and has a certain charm that most these days will probably miss, but it knows how to drag out tension and the fact that it can do this with little figurines is laudable. Of course I would recommend reading the original stories first to get all the finer details. Lovecraft may have died poor and generally unknown, but his cosmic horror has exploded in recent decades into the horror of the future. Most people know Lovecraft now, and the works he has inspired continues to grow at a rapid pace. Some low IQ individuals (like those writing not recommended reviews) may hate him for his love of his own people, but they cannot fight against his rise. The same mongoloids who would criticize Lovecraft's in-group preference are the same hypocrites who would never call out other - darker individuals - for their own in-group preference. Naturally, you cannot argue with a midwit leftist mind, you cannot argue with twisted logic. Lovecraftian is the horror genre of the future, and he will only continue to get popular and those using cosmic horror will continue to grow.