Masters of Horror: Dreams in the Witch-House
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I tend to like majority of what Stuart Gordon does. From Robot Jox, Re-Animator, Castle Freak, Dolls, and hell I even liked Space Truckers, he tends to deliver to a fan of low budget, like myself, with the goods. The one thing about him is his love of H.P Lovecraft. With movies like Re-Animator, Castle Freak, and Dagon, Gordon likes to bring this writer’s works to screen. With seeing this pattern, and his love of the writer, it came as no surprise that his short film for MASTERS OF HORROR would be a story from Mr. Lovecraft himself. The one problem about seeing any of Lovecraft’s visions on screen is that at many times it comes off as humorous instead of horrific. This problem rears is laughable head in his film H.P LOVECRAFT’S DREAMS IN THE WITCH-HOUSE.

Now the title of the film explains it all, except maybe changing the witch-house to rat infested crack house. I guess witch-house does have more of a ring to it. A grad student Walter Gilman (DAGON’s Ezra Godden) moves into a tiny, low rent apartment to further study his work on alternate planes. Frankly his studies were way over my head, so I won’t go into them.

Anyways, while studying one day his neighbor Frances (Chelah Horsdal) begins to scream. Running over there he finds that a rat has made it into her apartment room. He boards the hole up, and after some small emotional sparks, heads back to his room. That night he has a dream of a rat with a human face. Not only does the little guy have a human face, but it can talk, and it knows Walter’s name. Take that Ben!

Thinking that it was just a dream from seeing the earlier rat in Frances room, he pays no attention. Soon though, he begins to dream of the witch’s sadistic plan for Walter and France’s child, and this time he is concerned. The witch and her rat familiar need the blood of children to live, and she is determined to have Walter do the handy work. Controlling Walter through his dreams she wants him to kill France’s child.

While I stated that there are some humorous moments, do not take that as if this film is not horrific. The last moments of this movie are brutally horrific. I will say however, that the rat with the human face is borderline absurd. Seeing a close up of the face talking to Walter seriously made me laugh. How could you not? It reminded me of Scott Baio playing Pat (The Guinea Pig) in the 1985 television movie ALICE IN WONDERLAND. The rat is no slouch however. He likes to tear things up figuratively, and literally, and with the little guys help, while laughably looking, made this entry the brutal addition that it is.

Overall this is another fine addition to the MASTERS OF HORROR collection. Witches and talking rats aren’t up there for my top scares, but while fantastical and slightly absurd at parts, it had some horrific moments. The acting works, making all the characters three dimensional, and when loss happens, there is some feeling that you take away from this. Like CIGARETTE BURNS, DREAMS IN A WITCH-HOUSE is a perfect disk for a fan of Stewart Gordon with being loaded with extras. Overall this is a very strong rental. 3 ½ Cans.

Added:  Wednesday, March 22, 2006
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