The Dunwich Horror (1970, Daniel Haller) (v) 47

Easy to dismiss if you're a Lovecraft fanboy, unless you think Dean Stockwell getting to second base with Sandra Dee is the epitome of Cosmic Terror. And that seems to be the thing: there's a definite "straights vs. hippies" thing going on here, with Ed Begley's Professor Armitage representing the old guard, trying to protect blonde, All-American Dee from Stockwell's sideburns. While it could be read as an attack on the "cowntuh cul-chuh" (as Senator Tankerbell would pronounce it), with its freaky body-painted free-love cultists and a pre-Cronenbergian fear-of-the-body theme running throughout, I can't help but think that the filmmakers are on the side of Yog-Sothoth. (Especially after a primally effective, if incredibly typical, freeze-frame final shot.) Remarkably faithful to the story despite the focus on sex; I saw this on TV ages ago, but didn't remember the rampage of Wilbur's brother, a major part of the original story. There's a couple good shots in that part, mostly done with wind machines, that capture the sense of invisible horror key to Lovecraft. Yet, this is incidental; what's important to the film is that the monster strips the clothes off Dee's friend while attacking her (one layer at a time!) and kills all the rednecks. Kudos to the writers for pulling up all this subtext from a 1928 short story; but still, still, Lovecraft's intent is missed.