5. The Dunwich Horror
I've chosen the 1970 version over the more recent TV movie simply because of it's infinite superiority. Whereas both deviate in places from the original narrative the earlier version has a soft subtlety over the later version's wild and overgenerous attempts to weave in a wider Mythos narrative. Sandra Dee stars alongside an incredibly serious Ed Begley and a somewhat devilish Dean Stockwell. Her character; Nancy Wagner, and subsequent casting possibly an attempt to widen the movie's potential audience. Nancy, by serving as the audience's main companion to Wilbur Whateley rather than the unattached factual narrative of the original short tale, generates a certain sympathy with the character. The story flirts with potentially romantic notions in direct contrast to Wilbur's increasingly odd behaviour. The dream sequence is a particular favourite of mine, perhaps meant to invoke the horror of a world in the thrall of the Old Ones, it instead plays out like a psychedelic daydream. The attempt to bring Wilbur's twin, though a somewhat humorous effect now, is a sterling effort from the days before computer generated imagery.