Halloween Movie Review: The Dunwich Horror

I want you to sit back and try to think for a minute. If you were going to perform a ritual requiring the most virgin-est of all virgins.. who would it be? Why, Sandra Dee, of course! I thought I had seen Dunwich Horror back when it came out in 1970, but I sure didn't recognize it as I watched it recently. What a treat!

The Dunwich Horror is about this sweet librarian, Nancy Wagner (Sandra Dee), who is charged with watching over the infamous Necronomicon (bad evil book, later turned up in Evil Dead.. this book gets around!). This book is owned by the visiting philosopher, Dr. Henry Armitage (Ed Begley Sr). There just happens to be a spooky family nearby in Dunwich who want this book. Ya see, Wilbur Whateley comes from a long line of folks who believe in the Old Ones, or a group of superior beings from another dimension who once ruled the world. Wilbur aims to bring them back!

Now the blurbs surrounding this movie bill ol' Wilbur as the son of the Devil. I guess the folks writing movie blurbs back then were not required to actually watch the movie. This had nothing to do with the devil, except for maybe the name of where the sexual rituals took place: The Devil's Hopyard. Gotta tell ya, I loved the set for this place! It was surreal and spooky. Also, the inside of the family estate is just awesomely eerie. Great job on set design.

Sandra Dee did an amazing job as the librarian. A very good pick for this role since Dee was known for her quality of innocence... and it makes her de-flowering scene more, well... just more! And she did do this cherry-popping scene herself, no stand in.

Dean Stockwell is Wilbur Whateley, a hi-bred mix of human and Old One. Wilbur was actually a twin... but the twin took after his dad. Now this role was originally slated for Peter Fonda, but I see it as a good thing it went to Stockwell instead. I don't know if I coulda bought Fonda in this role, but I bought Stockwell hook, line, and sinker. You may recognize this young man in his later role as Al in Quantum Leap. He plays Whateley very quietly and understated. Perfect!

The only other actor I'll go into had a bit part as a nurse. She's billed as Talia Coppola, but you know her now as Talia Shire of Godfather & Rocky fame. It's always neat to watch an old movie and see familiar faces in bit parts.

Writing credit is given in part to HP Lovecraft. I assume this was to avoid lawsuits from the estate since the idea of The Old Ones was originally in one of his books.

No special features on the Dunwich Horror DVD besides the usual trailer and language selections. You can watch it in English or French, and with French or Spanish subtitles. Run time is 1 hour 28 minutes.

Rated R and I assume that's for Dee's scenes on the altar of love. Well... it's pretty tastefully done actually. There's nothing really graphic here... mainly a bit of moaning and veiled nekkid hip, but even that has a cheese-cloth over the lens during filming so the scene is subdued. So, 13 and up easily.. no personal problems with younger kids watching. They may get to giggling during that part, but nothing that is gonna warp their little minds for life.

I recommend The Dunwich Horror to 70's aficionado's for the Sandra Dee-gone-bad factor, and to any horror buff. This is old school horror, not today's in-your-face hack-n-slash drivel. I believe you can pick this up just about anywhere for under 10 bucks. Yup, if you're into horror, ya gotta go grab this one.