Dreams in the Witch House (2005)

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

"Re-Animator" and "From Beyond" director Stuart Gordon seizes the opportunity, as perhaps could have been expected, to update a 1930s "Weird Tales" short story from the genre legend H.P. Lovecraft, whom he seems so greatly to admire, as his entry in the show's first season.Ezra Godden display some schoolboy charm as the physics grad student with a dimensional doorway in the corner of his digs and Chelah Horsdal reciprocates in kind with a distinctly distressed desirability whilst Jay Brazeau heads a succinct supporting cast that includes Campbell Lane and Susan Bain.The master does his best to bring the classic yarn bang up to date but the supernatural elements of the Lovecraftian Cthulhu Mythos start to look decidedly hokey when brought into the modern world on a limited subscription channel budget and the whole thing subsequently falls a little flat.That's what happens when you travel through space and time.

Dreams in the Witch-House (2005) ** (out of 4) Stuart Gordon's episode deals with a college student who moves into an old house and soon starts suffering terrible nightmares dealing with a witch and a rat with a human head. There's a lot to enjoy in this film but in the end I was suffering from the been there done that routine. The stuff dealing with the witch really wasn't too interesting to me and I think the director failed to create any atmosphere or any creepy vibes. What does work is the final ten minutes, which I thought were terrific and had the balls to go in a way that most films wouldn't. Another strong aspect is the performance of Ezra Godden as the college student.

University student Walter Gilman (an extremely affable portrayal by Ezra Godden) rents a seedy room cheap in a rundown old boarding house. Walter discovers that the gateway to another dimension exists in his room. Walter has frightening visions of ghoulish ratman hybrid Brown Jenkin (a marvelously grotesque Yevgen Voronin) and falls under the sinister spell of evil witch Keziah Mason (a deliciously wicked Susanna Uchatius). Director Stuart Gordon, who also co-wrote the intelligent and engrossing script with longtime collaborator Dennis Paoli (said script is based on an H.P. Lovecraft short story), does his usual aces job with creating and sustaining an eerie and mysterious atmosphere that becomes more increasingly creepy and nightmarish as the story heads toward its positively horrific climax. Better still, Gordon gives the whole grisly affair a dark, brooding, no-holds-barred tough and grimly serious tone that stays true to itself to the literal bitter end. Godden's intense and excellent acting in the lead really holds everything together; he receives fine support from ravishing redhead Chelah Horsdal as nice struggling single mother Frances Elwood, Jay Brazeau as cranky landlord Mr. Dombrowski, and Campbell Lane as the helpful, regretful elderly tenant Masurewicz. Jon Joffin's slick cinematography, Richard Band's exquisitely lush'n'spooky score, and the supremely gruesome make-up f/x are all on the money solid and effective. Well worth a watch.

Masters of Horror: H.P. Lovecraft's Dreams in the Witch-House starts as university student Walter Gilman (Ezra Godden) saves his neighbour Frances Elwood (Chelah Horsdal) from a rat, Walter contacts the building manager (Jay Brazeau) but he isn't interested. Having just moved in Walter gets on with his school work but he has a dream about a rat with a human face, he continues to have these dreams & visions. After speaking with another tenant he becomes convinced that a Witch & the rat with a human face is living behind his bedroom wall & wants to possess his body so he can sacrifice his neighbour's young son...This Canadian American co-production was episode 2 from season 1 of the hit-and-miss Masters of Horror TV series, co-written & directed by Stuart Gordon I personally didn't think to much of this one. The script by Gordon & Dennis Paoli tires to do a lot in it's 60 odd minute running time & it felt rushed, it moves along at a decent pace & the second half improves but overall I expected more. The rat with a human face is freaky though & I did quite like the downbeat ending. The character's are OK as is the dialogue but it never really got me excited, it never really gripped me, I thought it was all rather average to be honest. This Masters of Horror is worth a watch if your a fan of the genre but overall I doubt this will live too long in my memory, in fact I'm positive it won't.Director Gordon does a decent job, the colour scheme is very muted & there are a few good scenes. By the way did you notice at the end when the rat kills Walter & all the blood that spurts everywhere but in the very next scene as it's running long the corridor it doesn't have a single drop of blood on it... There's not much gore here, someone has their back scratched, someone have their eyes gorily poked & there's some blood at the end but nothing else.Technically this is well made with good production values considering it was made for TV, the special effects are very good & the acting is alright as well. There's an OK atmosphere but there's not many scares here.H.P. Lovecraft's Dreams in the Witch-House is an OK Msters of Horror episode, I can't say I loved it but I can't say I hated it either. It's watchable but nothing special.