Ah, Brian Yuzna's back up to his Lovecraftian hijinks once more, after his ass kicking renditions of RE-ANIMATOR and FROM BEYOND! Though not as good as the his aforementioned Lovecraft works, NECRONOMICON is still pretty Gods damned sweet considering it's an anthology! And we all know how I despise anthologies... As with the previous movies, NECRONOMICON also features the master of modern B horror: Jeffrey Combs! This time Combs plays the guy responsible for all this, the man who's 12 times the horror writer Stephen King is: H.P. Lovecraft! Yep, the story begins in 1932, as Lovecraft goes to some library owned by monks, where, when no one's looking, he sneaks down into the depths of the library's inner sanctum and finds... the Necronomicon. He takes the precious book from it's safe keeping, and decides to sit back and read a few stories out of it: one from the past, on from the present, and one from the future. The first story is, "the Drowned". In it, some Swedish guy named Edward DeLapoer inherits a seaside mansion when his great uncle Jethro croaks. Through the ever wondrous methods of flashback and foreshadowing, we discover that Uncle Jethro (I can't believe people named their kids 'Jethro' in that day and age!) lost his wife and son in a boating accident. Stressed out by the whole ordeal, the guy then forsakes God and burns a bible. Big deal, I do that everyday! Anyway, Jethro is soon visited by what looks like a Northern Pacific species of C.H.U.D., who gives him the Necronomicon. Using it's evil powers, he slaps together a quick ritual and resurrects his dead family. Of course they're squid demons, but I guess that's just too bad for Jethro, now isn't it?! Anyway, Eddy uses the book to do the same with his wife (she died in a car accident) and she too comes from the sea looking for Eddy to heat her up once more. Though she's not a squid demon like the others were, she IS something like the light of an Angler fish, only this fish is REALLY big and hankerin' for Eddy on a hook! But, Ed does his best Errol Flynn impression, turning swashbuckler on us and dropping a chandelier on the beast, stabbing it in the eye and sending it back to the murky depths from whence it came, killing his wife in the process. Story #2 is, "the Cold", which features another B movie mainstay, David Warner, as the mad scientist Dr. Madden. Doc Madden uses the Necronomicon to perfect an immortality process that basically halts aging, courtesy of a machine that requires human spinal fluid. Now, since you can't really buy shit like that in 12 packs at the local 7-11, he needs to kill people to give himself that "forever young" look. One of these people is the abusive rapist/stepdad of a babe named Emily. Well, Dr. M and Emily soon fall in love, much to the chagrin of the would-be Mrs. M, Lena. Well, after the good doctor and Emily get it on, Lena, in all her jealous rage, fucks up the doctor's machine, causing him to melt alive! However, we learn that Lena and Emily basically hung around together for the following years, using the doc's method to stay alive themselves. This has awkward repercussions though, as the child that Dr. M's seed planting made (pull out you fool! pull out!), has now been sitting inside Em's crotch for a fucking LONG time! Okay, the final story is, "the Butcher". It's about a cop couple, hunting for a serial killer called "the Butcher". While in pursuit, they wreck their car and Paul (the guy) is seriously injured and dragged away by an unseen form. Sarah slowly pursues, hobbling as fast as she can to save her boyfriend's life. She follows them into the recesses of an abandoned building, and she finds the real "Butcher": a race of strange, brain-eating bat aliens! Then, when you think it's all dream, Sarah wakes up and... it's not! The aliens then eat her after stealing her unborn child and eating Paul. Back at the library, Lovecraft is found out, but in an abstractly lucky turn of events, a monster pops up from it's cell below the book's storage place and grabs the librarian for lunch! This leaves H.P. the chance to escape with the book and live happily ever after. All around, yes, the stories did suffer somewhat, but all stories in an anthology do. That's why I hate them. Besides, at least there were only three stories to divide the budget on, and not 4 or 5 like in NIGHTMARES or TALES FROM THE CRYPT! Besides, what the flick lost in story structure, it made up for in bloody gore and special FX! The melting scene from "the Cold" was particularly noticeable, as well as the demon in "the Drowned" and the aliens in "the Butcher"! Also, you wouldn't believe the make-up job they did on Combs! If it weren't for that monotone voice, I never would've guessed it was him! Way to go Yuzna! Keep the Lovecraft coming!

Also Known As: H.P. LOVECRAFT'S NECRONOMICON: BOOK OF THE DEAD

Sequels: None

If You Liked This Flick, Check Out: TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE: THE MOVIE or TRILOGY OF TERROR II