Evil Clergyman (1987 short)
Summary
A woman is troubled by dreams of an evil clergyman and his rat-faced familiar. From a "lost", unreleased 1988 anthology called Pulse Pounders, this segment, intended as a kind of sequel to Re-Animator (1985 film), starring much of the same cast, in a loose adaptation of the dream fragment recorded by H.P. Lovecraft, combined with elements of his story "Dreams in the Witch House".
Details
- Release Date: (produced in 1987 but not released until 2012)
- Country/Language: US, English
- Genres/Technical: Horror, Fantasy, short
- Setting: Modern? England?
- Runtime: ~30 min
- Starring: Barbara Crampton, Jeffrey Combs, David Warner, David Gale, Una Brandon-Jones
- Director: Charles Band
- Writer: H.P. Lovecraft (story), Dennis Paoli (screenplay)
- Producer/Production Co: Empire Pictures, Full Moon Pictures, Charles Band
- View Trailer: (link)
- IMDB: (link)
Ratings
MPAA Ratings
- Rated: (not rated) (can be expected to contain Violence, Profanity, Adult Content, and/or brief Nudity)
Tentacle Ratings
A rough measure of how "Lovecraftian" the work is:
- SSs__ (Two and a half Tentacles: loosely Lovecraftian)
This seems to be a very loose adaptation of "The Evil Clergyman (fragment)", combined with bits of "Dreams in the Witch House (fiction)", and "The Rats in the Walls (fiction)", but mostly the usual totally original '80s Lovecraft adaptation sleaze centering around Barbara Crampton as a protagonist vs. the titular Evil Clergyman as a love interest, to the extent that there's actually very little of the original Lovecraft stories in even this short film.
Note: This rating is not intended as a measure of quality, merely of how closely related to Lovecraftian "Weird" fiction the work is.
Reviews
Review Links:
- Alex DiVincenzo at Horror News dotnet, (link) - "...A must-watch for any Re-Animator fan. It doesn’t quite live up to Re-Animator (nor its other spiritual follow-ups, From Beyond and Castle Freak, but it’s still an entertaining slice of ’80s cinema. The wonderful atmosphere simply cannot be replicated."
- CultureCrypt, (link) - "75/100... It’s a goofy little story made even goofier by how seriously it is staged, which is why what wouldn’t have worked in 1988 comes across as delightfully demented with 21st-century eyes. Brown Jenkin has zero useful purpose in the movie. But the sight of David Gale spouting obscenities through gnashed rodent teeth while flopping around in a... rat suit is a crowd-pleasing showstopper that quite literally has to be seen to be believed."
Synopsis
Spoiler Section (Highlight to Read)
A loose adaptation of the dream fragment recorded by H.P. Lovecraft; in this version, a woman is troubled by dreams of an evil clergyman and his rat-faced familiar.
Notes
Comments, Trivia, Dedication
- This short film is actually the third segment from the unreleased 1988 anthology film, Pulse Pounders. The other two segments are sequels to the films Trancers (1984 film) and Dungeonmaster (1984 film).
Associated Mythos Elements
- TO DO
- films:
- fiction: this short film is a sort of mash-up between "The Evil Clergyman (fragment)", "Dreams in the Witch House (fiction)", and "The Rats in the Walls (fiction)"
- race: Rat-Thing
- race: Ghosts
- race: Human Cultists