A sensationally gory triple-decker horror story that blends modern horror techniques with memories of the way they used to make these things: swirling ground-mists, haunted noblemen and nubile maidens returned from the dead. Couple these with a variety of slimy tentacled, multi-jawed monsters that mostly seem to lurk beneath floorboards, and you have the formula to satisfy today's horror fiends. Jeffrey Combs plays author H P Lovecraft (on whose stories the film is based), who ventures into a monk-guarded library, where lurks the Necronomicon, or book of the dead. I seem to remember that the same volume caused a lot of trouble in Sam Raimi's Evil Dead films, but in this case it plays the role of storyteller. Too much guck and gore, though, and not enough unseen horror. We enjoy being made to scream, but a shiver or two wouldn't do any harm.


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