I am a sucker for anthology films but this one was pretty dull, even with the Lovecraft connections.

I am not a huge fan of Lovecraft. I find his books to be more verbose, confusing and downright dull for my tastes. I will be the first to admit that I am not a cerebral book reader and I find his stuff quite intellectual and almost poetic and that ain't my speed. Haha

The movie has a few decent moments but I found all three stories and the wraparound to be unintriguing and quite pedestrian.

The big draw here is the abundance of practical effects that range from tantalizingly fantastic to cheaply amateurish. The melting man is exquisite. The knife through the hand looks like a 4th grader made it. Bizarre!

Anyway, this one gets a from me. It barely held my attention.

And a quick thank you to alyxstarr for providing this to watch since I couldn't find it streaming anywhere.

I thought this was a solid anthology film with a wraparound showing Jeffrey Combs as HP Lovecraft stealing the Necronomicon from sinister monks. The gooey creature effects in each story were excellent, apart from the animated bat-monsters in the last story. I just wish Jeffrey Combs had more to do in the wraparound story. Few movies have been able to convert Lovecraft's cosmic horror into cinema, but this was a decent attempt.

I agree with both of these statements.

Actually, if you look at pictures of Lovecraft, they did a pretty good job with Combs' make-up of actually making him resemble Lovecraft.

Maybe it's nostalgia for the best in 90s horror with people like Jeffrey Combs, David Warner, Brian Yunza, etc or a fondness for Lovecraft but I like Necronomicon. Maybe it suites the topic but I'm surprised this film has for so long been weirdly unavailable. It's well produced pageantry sometimes shameless in capitalizing on Lovecraft's popularity with imperfect (a little cheesy & on the noise) execution of his atmosphere (more referential than scary or effective; but brilliantly weird). I move the creature effects here and seeing a giant tentacle creature reaching from the depths is something horror cinema needs more of (cosmic monster carnage for the win). Unfortunately after a more far out first segment it slows a bit with a supernatural doctor bit. The Butcher segment offers a nice bit of police action which geels unique and the excessiveness of the effects is fun.

I thought it was a solid anthology and the David Warner story was the best

Did anyone else see Bruce Campbell every time Combs showed up?
I really liked this. The effects were pretty outstanding. I liked the Warner segment, but boy that lead actress was not good.
Also many thanks to alyxstarr for access to this one.

I liked the David Warner segment best too. The last segment with all the amputations was a bit too hardcore for me. Also all the goopy green slime and blood was a bit OTT.
But overall, it was a solid Lovecraftian anthology. It was nice to see Bruce Campbell.