"Necronomicon" brought me good memories of two 1960s productions: Roger Corman's "Tales of Terror" (AIP, 1962), and Sidney Salkow's "Twice-Told Tales" (UA, 1963), based on stories by Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne, respectively. The old mansion by the sea was a location often seen in several AIP productions; and the first tale, "The Drowned", reminded me of "Morella", the first story in the Corman film. The next segment, "The Cold", seems like a version in modern times of "Rappaccini's Daughter", the second Hawthorne story in the UA release. Unfortunately, the third story (or fourth, strictly speaking), directed by Brian Yuzna, is too coarse, noisy, badly acted, filled with green sticky fluid, and too cheap visual effects, affecting the balance. Thankfully the film closes with the "wraparound" little story "The Library", slightly erasing the previous bad impression.
Review of Necronomicon: Book of Dead
