Mysterious sorceries on the New England coast
A college lass at a university in Massachusetts (Sandra Dee) falls for the charms of an outcast eccentric (Dean Stockwell), who lives with his grandfather at an eerie rural estate that has some… thing locked up in a secret upstairs room. Is the man’s interest in her innocent or does he have something more sinister in mind?
Based on the H. P. Lovecraft novella from 1929, “The Dunwich Horror” (1970) is an American International flick in the vein of "The City of the Dead" (1960), "Die, Monster, Die" (1965) and "Curse of the Crimson Altar,” aka “The Crimson Cult” (1968). It’s superior to “Die, Monster, Die” and at least on par with the other two. There’s also a bit o’ “The Shuttered Room” (1967).
Being shot in the spring of 1969, the flick has that late 60’s vibe in a good way with a memorable score. Stockwell cops an effective laid-back air as the weird guy. Sandra was 27 during shooting and looking way better than her skinny younger self in “Gidget” (1959). Meanwhile Donna Baccala plays her college friend while Talia Shire (Coppola) is on hand as a helpful nurse.
Anyone who appreciates spooky flicks from the 60s and early 70s involving actors like Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and Oliver Reed will find something to appreciate in “The Dunwich Horror.” Some critics think it falls apart at the end, but I didn’t have a problem. It ties everything up in a colorful, haunting way while not overstaying its welcome, plus throwing in an omen of things to come.
The movie runs 1 hour, 30 minutes, and was shot in in Mendocino County in Northern California, including the town of Little River, which is a 3-hour drive north of San Francisco, while the sequences set at Arkham College were shot in the philosophy department of USC in Los Angeles.
GRADE: B