Summaries

Synopsis

Howard Phillips Lovecraft (Jeffrey Combs) has located the Necronomicon at a mysterious monastery. He wanted to find it to use it for his writings. The book contains the secrets to the universe, past, present and future.

Lovecraft goes to the monastery's library to seek the Necronomicon because he wants to fact-check his writings, as he alleges he presents possibilities and not fiction in his writing. One of the monks badmouths Lovecraft's works and dismisses them as fiction. The attendant (Juan Fernández) then gives him the 3rd volume of an alchemy encyclopedia, and reminds him that, if he tries to steal anything, his privileges will be revoked. He swipes the librarian's keys to open the vault. There is a safe in that room. The door closes by itself and the safebox, which has no key, opens by itself as well. Inside, there it is: the Necronomicon, also called the Book of the Dead, which turns itself off when Lovecraft touches it. Suddenly, Lovecraft loses the key that was given to him earlier. On Lovecraft carrying away, we can see something opening up. The letter Y written in the Gothic style appears. There is a kind of ominous resounding which startles the librarian (Tony Azito) and the two attendants. In his humble notebook, Lovecraft starts writing:

Story 1: The Drowned

Edward De Lapoer (Bruce Payne) has returned to the United States by ship to inherit his family's estate. The young female lawyer Nancy Gallmore (Belinda Bauer) took on his case from his late father with the rest of the practice. There was a problem with the writing and pronunciation of Edward's surname, until she finally found him in Sweden.

They enter the hotel, now almost derelict since his late Uncle Jethro (Richard Lynch) used to manage it sixty years ago. She advises him to sell it as soon as possible, because o fa stigma regarding the building, in addition to it being in a dilapidated state.

Once on the first floor in the bedroom, Edward focuses on the portrait of beautiful aunt Emma (Denice D. Lewis), who was the probable cause of his uncle's death. Edward goes to the balcony and look to the sea landscape. He can't avoid remembering his own tragic past; the death of his wife in a car crash.

Nancy gives Edward a document which Jethro left with the will. She advises him to either rebuild the hotel from scratch, or sell it quickly.

A storm breaks out and Edward sets on the fire. Jethro wrote that he committed suicide. He was traveling by ship with Emma and Yon (Peter Jasienski), their son. There is a shipwreck and he survives but his family does not. He wakes up and attends the funeral of his wife and child. Distraught, he throws a Bible into the fireplace and tells his shocked guests that a God that would take away from him is no longer welcome in his presence. He caresses the dead corpse of Emma. When he wakes up, a monstrous alligator dressed with seaweed enters the foyer and tells him to open the book only when he's on his own. Jethro tells him to wait for him, but it's too late; it's gone. The book is full of electricity. Jethro follows the instructions of an incantation to mend the untimely loss. The incantation is to Cthultu, and says that death is only sleep. He uses his own blood, which falls down. Yon and Emma are brought back to life but have now become horrific sea zombies. Jethro, before committing suicide out of guilt, says that his beloved are now watching the book.

Edward moves the table to see the area where the incantation was performed. The magical circle is still drawn on the floor. He looks for the Necronomicon with fury. A tentacle gives him the idea of looking behind Emma's portrait. Behind it, there lies the Necronomicon . Clara arrives in the morning, whispering "Eddie". She asks him to let her in. He cries because the car accident was his fault.Clara begins to regurgitate tentacles from her mouth, and in a panic, Edward pushes her away. Clara angrily attacks, but Edward, with a sword taken from a nearby wall, cuts her. She turns into a tentacle leading underneath the floor. Drawn underground from the injury, the creature below destroys the main floor and rises, a gigantic monster with tentacles, one eye and a large mouth. Edward cuts a rope holding the chandelier, jumps to it and climbs to the ceiling. "Clara" again tries to restrain him, but Edward destroys a stained glass window, the sunlight driving her away. Edward then leaves through the ceiling, and looks to the sunny day in the sea. He decides to live.

Cut back to Lovecraft, who sees a monster below the room where he's in. One of the monks wonder whether he'll be so stupid as to try it, and the other says that he will, because he's only human. The room is getting colder and colder....

Story 2: The Cold

In Boston, there is a heat wave, and only one man is literally calm and cool about it. However, this man is imprisoned by his own devices.

Dale Porkel (Dennis Christopher), a reporter from the Boston Journal, calls on Amy Osterman, to talk about 11 corpses which have been appearing around the neighborhood for the last 40 years. It's freezing inside, but Amy says that she's got an illness which makes sunlight and heat harmful to her. Amy has coffee prepared for Dale, who talks about Dr. Richard Madden (David Warner) and tells her that he will go to the police if Amy doesn't talk to him about Dr. Madden, and his story will run as-is.

Twenty years prior, Emily Osterman (Bess Meyer) arrives to Boston via taxi, rents a room from Lena Kamen (Millie Perkins), who lives with Dr. Richard Madden (David Warner). He never leaves his room on the third floor. A chain-smoking man watches the house from his car. Emily is having a shower, but feels something strange. There is water spilling, and her stepfather Sam (Gary Graham), who has tracked her down to Boston, threatens her. He tries to rape her, so she runs upstairs to the third floor. Dr. Madden stabs Sam in his hand. Lena looks upon Sam, who has stumbled down the stairs and died from his injuries.

Dr. Madden bandages Emily's head. She says that Sam was her stepfather. Dr. Madden says that the frigid temperatures are because of a skin condition he has. Emily wonders at the ammonium leaking down to her room, and Dr. Madden says that it was a mistake of his. He prescribes some pills to her.

That night, Emily looks at blood spilling down to her room. She goes up and sees Dr. Madden and Lena performing a strange surgical procedure on Sam. Emily passes out.

She wakes up in a blooded bed and they convince her she had a bad dream. Dr. Madden cuts a finger: he's got not blood, but rather, a pinkish liquid. Emily gets a job at Al's, a restaurant nearby. Mr. Hawkins (Curt Lowens) will give her a job if she gets a good tip from two cops (Sebastian White & James Paradise), who happen to be looking for Sam Linder.

Emily runs to bang on Dr. Madden's door. He admits that his research has led him to poverty. Emily wants to leave. Dr. Madden feels sick because of the warmer temperature downstairs. She is not annoyed about him hurting Sam - he was a terrible person anyway -, but about him lying to her. Emily covers him in a bath of ice because Lena has gone out and is unable to do so at that moment. She gives her hand to him.

He explains about the Necronomicon and about a virus which dies and can be revived with water, and it helps to stop growing old. Dr. Madden doesn't love Lena, although she seems to love him. He injects a serum to a rose, which immediately becomes a bud again. It'll never die, says Dr. Madden, and it's become cold.

Lena sees Dr. Madden and Emily making love in the conservatory. A jealous Lena appears with a knife, and tells her that she must be prepared to kill or be killed for him. Emily runs away.

Back to Amy, who says that Emily left Dr. Madden, but she was pregnant, so she had to go back to him. Lena and Dr. Madden are trying to kill Hawkins. Emily attempts to rescue Hawkins and take him to safety, but Lena stabs him, thus killing him. Lena wants to kill Emily too. Richard tells her not to do it. A fire starts, burning Richard's face. He says that, without fresh spinal fluid, he'll lose all his senses. Dr. Madden melts away and dies muttering Emily's name.

Lena spares Emily in the end, only because of the baby, and that Amy was that baby. Dale says that three more corpses appeared after Dr. Madden's death. Dale suddenly realizes that "Amy" is actually Emily. As soon as she takes off her shades, Amy is, in fact, Emily, who hasn't aged a bit, and picks the rose which Madden had given that injection. She got that disease from him as a result of their affair. Emily has poisoned Dale with the coffee, which was spiked. She tells Dale that she is confident she will give birth to her baby someday. She also reveals that she has continued murdering for spinal fluid, and intends to keep a fresh supply stockpiled. Dale is about to become the most recent addition to her supply.

A gray-haired Lena approaches Dale with a syringe, who can only scream for help at this point.

Back to Lovecraft, who feels more and more warmed-up. One of the monks checks on him. Armed with a knife, he approaches the safebox. The monk checks that the door is securely locked. Now, the letter W appears engraved.

Story 3: Whispers

In Downtown Philadelpha, while in pursuit of an alleged serial murderer known as "the Butcher", two police officers, Paul (Obba Babatundé) and Sarah (Signy Coleman), are arguing over their failed relationship and the coming baby. The argument leads to a crash, flipping their police cruiser upside down. Paul, having unbuckled his seat belt in the argument, is knocked out and dragged off by an unseen person. Sarah unbuckles herself, breaks the window and exits the vehicle. Unable to call for backup, she follows a blood trail alone.

A man with pink-colored boots takes alive Paul away. Sarah is badly hurt as well. Sarah follows a trail of blood and opens a door, some pigeons scare her. There is a dark long corridor; the butcher pulls from Paul and enters onto an elevator. Sarah shoots the controls of the lift.

She falls down a hole but, luckily, she had tripped onto a thread of coil, so she is left hanging upside down but without dying. She reaches the elevator shaft - which is located in an abandoned factory. She finds a weird-looking man. Harold Benedict (Don Calfa) who insists that he is merely the landlord of the warehouse and the Butcher is a tenant. Harold offers to lead her to him. Downstairs, the two are shot at by Mrs. Benedict (Judith Drake), a blind old woman. Sarah, sick of getting a run-around, takes the shotgun and orders the two to lead her to the Butcher.

Harold says that he's just called the police. The couple lives in a makeshift room in the abandoned building, and Sarah sees the Necronomicon, but thinks nothing of it. Harold shows him a backdoor door to the corridor, where there are signs of further blood droplets. Sarah starts having stomach pains. Mrs. Benedict immediately feels that she's pregnant, and she starts arguing with Harold about the reasons why they didn't have any children, ...which only further irritates Sarah. She then demands they stop arguing and lead her through the tunnel.

Harold has to clear out the entrance and she forces him to go with her. Lilly tells Sarah that it's scary to bring a new life to this world, and she guesses correctly that her partner is the father. Sarah forces Harold to go with her. Lilly tells her that the butcher is also an alien and was around even before the dinosaurs.

In the tunnel, there are corridors akin to an Egyptian pyramid. Harold goes by lighting candles. They follow Paul's trail. Suddenly, there are two trails of blood, because Paul is not the first one to be down there. Harold thinks that the Butcher works for the aliens, but that he's human. The encryptions on the walls are of human sacrifices. Suddenly, Sarah feels something, like whispers in the wind. It looks as though somebody were following them.

Harold steps on more blood, so he produces the pair of pink boots and puts them on. Sarah recognizes the pair of boots. At that moment, a hand with a stick throws one of the candles to the floor. Harold calls for his wife, but Sarah thinks that if Harold is not the butcher, Daisy must be. She shouts that they are not married. Harold tells her that if she kills her baby, Sarah will be the real butcher.

Sarah further makes her way to a lower part of the cavern. The Benedicts take the ladder out of the hole, trapping Sarah. She puts off a fire with her jacket. There are plenty of bloodied skeletons around, and a octopus-like arm goes after her. She gets up an engraved stone and promises to have the baby. She shoots the walls, which bleed a green gooey.

She steps down from that weird-looking shrine and tends to Paul's call. However, he is already dead. A lobotomized Paul attacks Sarah, who shoots him repeatedly in defense,

The gory alien bats have taken Paul's' brain. It says that they need them to reproduce, and Sarah is their next meal. Suddenly, they spring from the walls and corner her. When she wakes up, Harold and Daisy appear to be preparing Sarah for the creatures of the cavern.

Sarah suddenly wakes up in a hospital. Her mother and a doctor (both of whom resemble the Benedicts) rush into her room. As a result of the wreck, Sarah's baby had to be aborted, but her mother says she will forgive her if she forgives herself. She inquires about Paul, who turns out to be braindead and in the same state as he was in the caverns. Sarah screams in terror, in spite of her mother's pleas to not scare the baby. Sarah does not understand what her mother is talking about, as she thought the baby had to be aborted. Her mother opens her blouse and reveals that the baby is inside the womb of the monster-bat creatures. Sarah is even more scared, especially after removing her bed sheets and finding out she has lost half of one of her arms. Suddenly, the hospital setting changes back into the cavern. Sarah is still on the table, about to be fed to the monster bats by the Benedicts. Harold wants to leave, but Sarah won't let go of the keys.

The monk from the beginning tells Lovecraft that now that everything is over, he only has to unlock the door. Lovecraft says he lost it. The monk calls him a fool and tells him to put the Necronomicon back to its place.

Something is rising from below the floor. The book starts to work and tentacles stop Lovecraft from leaving. The monk enters through the bars of the rail. Lovecraft cuts the tentacles of the monster creature with the knife he'd disguised as his walking stick. The monk says that the secrets of the Necronomicon have to be paid with his life. Lovecraft reveals the monster behind the skin of the monk, who then forces him to face and await the starfish-like monster which is traveling from behind the vault. However, Lovecraft is able to fend off said monster.

The door opens itself, letting Lovecraft go. As he is leaving, another monk tells Lovecraft that he will have to pay for his misdeeds. Lovecraft ignores him. Howard makes his way back to his taxi and the driver (Brian Yuzna) speaks to Lovecraft, who asks the cabbie to take him home. The cab leaves unpursued into the night.

---written by KrystelClaire