Necronomicon: Book of the Dead (1993)

Necronomicon: Book of the Dead follows H. P. Lovecraft (played by Jeffrey Combes from Re-animator, The Frighteners, etc) in the 1930s as he enters a secretive library guarded by Monks in his search of the Necronomicon, the “Book of the Dead”.  Upon discovering the book he comes across three stories written in it, “The Drowned”, “The Cold” and “Whispers”, and as he copies them to his own parchment he watches the stories unfold before his eyes, as well as our own, while inadvertently unleashing a terrible beast protecting the Necronomicon.

I saw this movie years ago, actually waaaay back in 1995, and forgot all about it until re-discovering it through a recent conversation. My first, and only til this point, viewing of Necronomicon Book of the Dead was a unique experience to say the least.  I rented it for 2 Bucks or something from a grocery store, that you might remember, by the name of Kroger. I went in with my parents one night and saw the vhs and instantly HAD to watch it. I went home and my parents actually let me stay up and watch it by myself. I started watching it and was really digging it when toward the end of the first story (The Drowned), it cut to a porno that someone had obviously recorded over part of the movie. Being 11 years old, I might not have minded that, but for nearly 2 minutes, I had to watch a completely naked mexican guy ride a horse in slow motion across a beach.  Not necessarily the highlight of year 11 for me.  Anyways, after the 2 minutes or so of mexican guy riding a horse naked in slow motion, the movie cut back. I missed a really cool part (which I figured out later) but I atleast had the rest of the movie to look forward to.

Thanks for listening to an old story of my childhood, I promise i'm getting to the review now.

Necronomicon's first story as I mentioned earlier is "The Drowned", an atmospheric little tale of a man who loses his wife and child in an accident at sea, and in a selfish attempt to bring them back to life he suffers even more horrors than he ever imagined. It's got some cool visuals and an awesome monster, though the monster isn't shown for long unfortunately.  Probably my least favorite of the three stories, but not a bad thing.

The second story is called "The Cold" and is directed by Shusuke Kaneko famous for the Death Note adaptations. In this story we follow a nosy reporter investigating the disappearances of hundreds of people in one single neighborhood over several decades.  His nosiness ultimately gets him involved in an experiment taken from the Necronomicon that grants eternal life to anything organic as long as its atmosphere is replicated after death, which leads the reporter to a sinister demise. Once again, the fx are awesome and the atmosphere is fun and campy. This segment kinda feels like an early Full Moon flick to me, I don't know why.

The final story is hands down my favorite. The segment is called "Whispers" and is directed by Brian Yuzna of From Beyond/Re-animator fame.This one follows a female police officer in hot pursuit of a vehicle driving by a man known as “The Butcher”.  She suffers a terrible crash that leaves her partner, who is also the father of her unborn child, in the hands of The Butcher, and time is running out if she wishes to save him.  She enters the lair of the butcher, and soon realizes that despite her plans to abort her pregnancy, The Butcher will not let that happen…for dire reasons. I gotta say that this one is damn creepy. The older couple underground are amazing and the whole segment has an incredible sense of dread. I absolutely loved this segment. The only thing I have to criticize is the fx on the creatures at the very end. I can't say much though, because this WAS 1993 and fx are not what they are now. It will prob make you laugh a little though.

Necronomicon: Book of the Dead was a fun watch. It's just as good as I remember (sans the naked mexican dude on a horse) and holds up surprisingly well.  The fx are practical and pretty great, except for the end of "Whispers."  Acting is all either pretty good or above average and I don't have a lot of complaints for the flick. There are times it kind of drags, and it definitely has a distinctive 90s "feel", which can be good or bad depending on your tastes. Overall, you would be crazy not to see this flick. Its not the best, but its far from the worst, and a pretty fun flick.