The Necronomicon

Directed by Brian Yuzna, Christophe Gans, and Shusuke Kaneko

R2 Import DVD

The Necronomicon is set in 1932 where Jeffrey Combs, as a strangle Indiana Jones type version of H.P. Lovecraft is in hot pursuit of the Necronomicon. Visiting a strange Middle Eastern library Lovecraft decides to steal the book and borrowing a key from one of the monks enters a secret chamber. As he reads the forbidden tome it reveals three tales of horror, The Drowned, The Cold, and The Whispers.

The Drowned is about a man who does not want to be found. He is living abroad and has changed his name after the death of his wife. He receives an inheritance in the form of an old hotel and this opens a strange new world. Accompanying the inheritance is a letter describing his uncle’s experience of the loss of his family, his rejection of God and a strange encounter with a “demon from the depths”. He learns that his uncle was able to return his family to life, but at great and terrible cost. Troubled by his own grief he experiences the same fate and ultimately confronts the great god of the depths, Cthulhu.

The Cold, roughly adapted from Lovecraft’s Cool Air with added gore for effect, opens with a local reporter investigating a series of bizarre and violent murders. He follows a lead to a local home and under pressure the strange tale of Dr.Madden and his life extending formula is unveiled.

The final tale The Whispers is the most over the top. Extreme gore, violence and some very strange homeless people. It is the most extreme of all the tales and sad to say, the least satisfying. It seems to rely primarily on the shock effect of the gore with little by the way of plot.

The Necronomicon was directed by Brian Yuzna, Christophe Gans, and Shusuke Kaneko and hence the tales are of varying quality. The first two are certainly the most successful and the wrap around story which links them together is fairly weak. As far as short adaptations of H.P Lovecraft tales go, the Drowned and the Cold make it worth the effort to get hold of this title.

At present the DVD is not available in Australia, UK or the USA. There is a nice Region 2 edition which seems to be Swiss in origin. It does have an English soundtrack but with subtitles which cannot be removed. They aren’t especially intrusive but it is a bit annoying. A French soundtrack is also on the disc. It is a deluxe 2 disc set and includes lots of extras including Audio Commentaries with Christophe Gans and Brian Yuzna (In English), 5 Making of documentaries, trailer, a separate soundtrack menu, picture galleries and storyboards.

It is not easy to find but http://www.diabolikdvd.com does have copies in stock and are a reliable source for hard to get import titles.

It also seems it is available from Amazon.fr (Amazon France—DVD has an English soundtrack)