Masters of Horror: Episode 2 H.P. Lovecraft's Dreams in the Witch House

I have somewhat mixed feelings about H.P. Lovecraft's Dreams in the Witch-House (yes, Lovecraft's name is part of the title). It certainly takes more risks than the first episode, and that alone scores it points with me. It's an attempt to adapt a very non-visual story into a visual medium. It was one of Lovecraft's stories that dealt heavily with the indescribable, and so we can't see a true visual representation. Most writers would have simply taken the name, and rewritten the story from the ground up. Instead, it's clear real effort was made to remain as true as reasonably possible to the source material, while moving it to a modern setting.

Walter Gilman (Ezra Godden) is a graduate student studying String Theory, who moves into a house dating back to Colonial times, that's now used for renting cheap rooms. His two neighbors are Frances (Chelah Horsdal), the poverty-stricken woman with an infant son named Danny (David Racz), and Masurewicz (Campbell Lane), a strange old man who prays very loudly at night. He quickly develops a friendship with Frances, giving her money to pay her rent, and helping her look after her son.

Masurewicz, however, believes that the house is haunted by a Salem witch (Susanna Uchatius) with a human-faced rat as a familiar. Obviously, Walter doesn't take him seriously until he begins to have dreams of the human-faced rat and the witch. He also begins sleep-walking during his dreams. On one occasion, he abandons Danny while Frances is out, and on another he finds himself at the Miskatonic Library, somehow having attained access to the copy of the Necronomicon the University keeps under lock and key (anyone familiar with Lovecraft will know the names).

The full story is eventually revealed through a conversation between Walter and Masurewicz. I think this works better than most exposition scenes because both characters are involved in the exposition. Masurewicz explains the witch's motivation, she uses young men who move into the house to sacrifice children. Walter, being a physicist, is able to clarify how she does this. She “haunts” the house by using it's bizarre architecture to travel between dimensions

This is, however, where the story's real weakness comes in. Geometry that allows for interdimensional travel should, by it's very nature, not be something we humans can visually represent. So, we end up with an apartment that has a weirdly-shaped corner. It's a sacrifice you make, I suppose.

The ending is effective mainly because it allowed neither the hero nor the villain to “win.” Walter is able to kill the witch, but the rat still kills Danny. Walter is blamed for the death, and immediately committed to an asylum, but the rat returns and finishes him as well. So, everyone dies but the rat.

Ultimately, this is a good episode. Director Stuart Gordon has worked with Lovecraft's material before, and he does have a tendency to substitute sex and blood for the scary ideas in the source material (not that I'm complaining), but here there's a nice balance. If you want to just watch the “good” MoH episodes, this would definitely be one to check out.