Review
THE UNNAMABLE
Rating: 
USA. 1988.
Director/Screenplay – Jean-Paul Ouellette, Based on the Short Story by H.P. Lovecraft, Producers – Jean-Paul Ouellette & Dean Ramser, Photography – Tom Fraser, Additional Photography – Greg Gardiner, Music – David Bergeaud, Miniature Sequence – Mainstreet Imagery Inc, Makeup Effects – Art & Magic (Supervisor – R. Christopher Biggs), Production Design – Gene Abel. Production Company – KP Productions/Yankee Classics/Vidmark.
Cast:
Charles King (Howard Damon), Mark Kinsey Stephenson (Randolph Carter), Alexandra Durrell (Tanya Heller), Laura Albert (Wendy Barnes), Eben Harn (Bruce Weeks), Blane Wheatley (John Babcock), Mark Parra (Joel Manton)
Plot: At the Miskatonic University in Arkham, Joel Manton ridicules Randolph Carter, who is obsessed by occult lore, when Carter tells him how 200 years before local Joshua Winthrop was killed by a demon in his attic. To prove Carter wrong, Joel decides to spend a night in the Winthrop house. But when Joel fails to return, Carter and mutual friend Howard Damon go to investigate. At the same time two fraternity jocks take two girls to the house for a supposed initiation rite, only to disturb the thing that lurks in the attic.
The Unnamable is one among a whole spate of H.P. Lovecraft films that were made in the wake of the success of Re-Animator (1985). Others amid this fad include From Beyond (1986), The Curse (1987), The Resurrected (1992), Necronomicon (1993), Lurking Fear (1994) and Dagon (2001).
The Unnamable gives the appearance of having been slung together by student filmmakers looking for a big break and feels amateurishly made. Most of the performances seem to be given by non-professionals. There isn’t much to the film – the bulk of it consists of people wandering around the house and being killed. The plot that holds all this together is exceedingly slim. There is little explanation of what is going on – it is never explained why Winthrop’s daughter is a demon, for instance. (The original 1923 Lovecraft story is almost as slight. It is actually more of a ghost story and is very vague about the presence in the house. As a result the film has to invent the entire backdrop about the Winthrop family).
Director Jean-Paul Ouellette does a fair job at times – some of the attacks are okay – but fails to pump up the atmosphere much elsewhere. One thing to be said in Oullette’s favour is that he makes a moderate stab at taking his H.P. Lovecraft seriously – which would make The Unnamable one of the few films of the whole post-Re-Animator cycle to do so. There is some effort made to attain a Lovecraftian mood by keeping the demon in the house unseen until right up to the end. Although in the end it is hard to swallow a contemporary Miskatonic University that has been taken over by fraternities, Ivy League snobs and jocks on the prowl.
Jean-Paul Oullette and star Mark Kinsey Stephenson returned for a sequel The Unnamable II: The Statement of Randolph Carter (1993). The only other film Jean-Paul Oullette has made is an obscure martial arts film Chinatown Connection (1990). Last updated: Wednesday, 18 February 2009
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