Stuart Gordon tackles Lovecraft again to lesser success in this second episode from the Masters of Horror series. A graduate student rents a room in an old boarding house which was once home to a 17th century witch. Well, that evil left an imprint and there’s still something malevolent working within the walls on a different plane. A persistent rat pesters his neighbor and her baby and the young man, Walter, plugs up the hole in which it gains entrance. His heroics help nothing as he suffers from nightmares and his elderly neighbor, who prays through the night, warns him about a witch and her familiar… a rat with a human face. Walter soon comes to believe the witch is working some sinister magic and he’s being positioned to take the life of his neighbor’s child. It’s alright but there’s only so much one can do with limited funds and time, especially when it comes to adapting Lovecraft. The familiar is a bit too silly to be uncanny, the witch a bit too lackluster to be frightening and the hero a bit too white bread to give a damn about. Female nudity in a Lovecraft adaptation makes me laugh because I can just picture that wacky woman-fearing racist scream to high-hell at the site of breasts and an impressive bare ass. The silly climax saves things from forgettability and who am I to complain about a fantastic caboose getting some screen time? Also, Jay Brazeau plays the landlord. It’s not his caboose.
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