The B-movie mavens at American-International Pictures do with H.P. Lovecraft here exactly what they did with Edgar Allan Poe back in the early 60s. They streamline his work for the drive-ins with hammy acting and a Les Baxter score. In a role that Jack Nicholson (or maybe even Vincent Price) might have played in 1963, a permed and dandyish Dean Stockwell works to get his hands on a rare Necronomicon so he can summon up a monster from another dimension. Along the way, he somehow seduces Sandra Dee (guess she likes guys who speak in monotone) so he can offer her as a sacrifice. She also gives the producers a way to shoehorn in some sex appeal—her character doesn’t exist in the original Lovecraft story, which rates a solid zero on the sexy scale—when she’s laid out on the altar in a revealing dress and with Stockwell’s spell book propped up between her legs. It all ends up as a mildly entertaining Gothic horror job that’s fast-paced, but low on charm and that scarcely comes close to the dread in Lovecraft’s writing.