Usually I don't like movies that have three stories with a wrapper around them but here it works fine. The first story is pretty good, the second is pretty dull and the last is awesome. The wraparound is one of the best in this type of movie. The first story was good with a great amount of creepy monster effects and scary moments. The second story left me cold. The third story was great with like demons and stuff. The wraparound would have been better as a separate story but it is very entertaining with a great ending (just like the first and third stories). Four stories in one film and three of them are great! This is a gritty classic.

Jeffrey Combs, Bruce Payne, Richard Lynch, David Warner, they all lend both weight and goofiness to the movies they play in. In this loosely Lovecraftian anthology, they don't disappoint. The stories have various degrees of quality in writing and acting, but the low budget high impact special effects and the overall atmosphere of the movie is quite satisfying.Written, directed and acted by different people, the three parts are basically different short films, wrapped around by a silly story of Lovecraft reading the Necronomicon in order to gain inspirations for his writing. Jeffrey Combs is playing Lovecraft. Just recently having seen another TV movie based on Lovecraft, it was fun to see him play another character in that one, as well, 16 years later.I recognized the second story as Cool Air, but it was kind of difficult to recognize The Rats in the Walls and The Whisperer in Darkness in the other two. While I deplore the low quality of the scripting, I applaud the attempt to adapt the material, rather than follow it exactly like it was written.Overall it will never be a great movie, but for a TV film inspired by Lovecraft, it is OK.

H.P Lovecraft spins out very dark, morbid and harrowing tales in this three story Gothic anthology, that has the horror master Lovecraft (no other acted by Jeffery Combs) coming across the book of the dead; 'Necronomicon' in the formidable wraparound story 'The Library' . The quest for forbidden knowledge will always come at a price, and the imagery suggests that.Brian Yuzna was another name tagged to the project directing, writing the wraparound yarn and the third story; the relentlessly gusty 'Whispers'.Plus making sure that the ghoulish make-up FX was unforgettable, Screaming Mad George, Tom Savini, David Sharp and Todd Masters lend their class to the imaginatively gob-smacking visual effects. Their efforts really go a long way to outdoing the cluttered stories and the art direction is simply sensational and masterfully shot, namely in the first story; the tragically brooding 'The Drowned'.The pick of the lot would be the second tale; the icy, but skin-crawling 'The Cold' which starred David Warner as a lonely scientist, dabbling in the quest for immortality involving human spinal fluid… that's fresh! It's quite well defined piece with an effective twist to cap it off. However my favourite is the gritty, pulsating 'Whispers', due to its gruesome mentality and edgy atmosphere with some kooky performances by Judith Drake and Don Calfa. It's a hard on to pick up on to which way the daftly twisty story would end. Two cops find themselves in a car accident after chasing the brutal killer known as 'the butcher', one is dragged off into underground tunnels with the other trailing behind. It's a hell of a ride! The weakest is by far 'The Drowned'. However it isn't that bad… far from it. The direction is stylishly done and when it goes for shocks (far in between) it does it well. It's a slow-going, tightly knitted atmospheric story delving into personally haunting torment and trying to make amends for hanging guilt. The make-up looks great, with a spectacular climax. Bruce Payne is richly engaging. Richard Lynch gives a booming performance and Maria Ford is gracefully creepy.A fine, flowing collection of episodes linked together to equal an enterprisingly grisly and moody anthology. Better than I expected, but I found myself wanting more from it.

I am a major horror film buff, but this was one of the worst films I have ever seen. Typical of "Special Effects" movie, the story line suffered (or should I say, "What story line????") The gore wasn't even cool gore, just lame! I had to shut it off, and come back to it later. That was the longest 96 minutes of my life. Three story in one movie, but you never really knew when one ended and another began. I actually didn't realize that it was 3 separate stories until I read it here. Lucky for me, I purchased this at the local swapmeet for $1.00, which was actually overpriced by 99 cents. Don't bother with this film, unless you need something to put you to sleep.