H.P. Lovecraft's Necronomicon is a 1993 horror Anthology Film directed by Brian Yuzna, Christophe Gans, and Shusuke Kaneko. Jeffrey Combs plays H. P. Lovecraft in the Framing Device as he visits a mysterious monastery to read an edition of the Necronomicon.
"The Drowned" is about a man (Bruce Payne) inheriting a seaside mansion from his late uncle (Richard Lynch) before finding his uncle's journal and discovering the horrors that took place there.
"The Cold" is about a young woman moving into a boarding house where she meets a kindly doctor (David Warner) who has been keeping himself immortal by harvesting other people.
"Whispers" is about a female cop (Signy Coleman) trying to rescue her partner (Obba Babatundé) from a killer known as "The Butcher" by tracking him down into the caverns where he hides out.
This film provides examples of:
- The Butcher: The film (which tries to be an anthology of H. P. Lovecraft stuff but has very little to do with anything he wrote) has an episode that starts with cops tracking a Serial Killer called the Butcher, but then the story gets hijacked by pro-life aliens. Apparently, the story was meant to be an adaptation of The Whisperer in Darkness (although some fans have speculated that this story was intended to be an adaptation of "The Nameless City": a different Lovecraft short story).
- Came Back Wrong: One of the stories is about a man who tries to use the book to bring his wife and daughter back. The ritual seem to work at first- however, the souls of his family have become demons and quickly try to consume him.
- Casting Gag: Jeffrey Combs is in another film based on the works of HP Lovecraft. This time, he's portraying the man himself.
- Cosmic Horror Reveal: Not unexpected for a film loosely based on the works of Lovecraft, but one of the segments starts out as an urban crime story with a cop in pursuit of a Serial Killer who hides out in the sewers to save her kidnapped partner. Then she's dumped inside an ancient cavern and it's revealed to all be an elaborate trap by two giant alien bats disguised as humans, and she's impregnated with their kin.
- Creator Cameo: Director Brian Yuzna appears as the cabbie who drives Lovecraft to the library at the start of the film and picks him again at the end.
- Creepy Housekeeper: Lena in "The Cold". She is the housekeeper to Dr. Madden, in love with him although he his cold to her, and aids him in his murders and blasphemous experiments with a slavish devotion.
- Cthulhumanoid: In "The Drowned", any of the drowned returned from the dead by the blasphemous ritual initially look normal, but then sprout octopus tentacles from their mouth that take over their entire face as they attempt to devour their loved ones.
- Face Full of Alien Wing-Wong: In the third segment a group of batlike aliens kidnap people so they can use their brains for reproduction. The female protagonist is told that she has an alien fetus inside her after an All Just a Dream fake-out.
- Falling Chandelier of Doom: In "The Drowned", Edward drops the massive chandelier with a huge spike on the base onto the Cthuloid monstrosity smashing its way up through the floor of the hotel.
- Framing Device: In the wrap-around segment, H.P. Lovecraft visits an ancient library to read the Tome of Eldritch Lore which inspires him to write the stories of the other segments.
- Hope Spot: A female cop looking for her kidnapped colleague is lured into an ancient cavern by two bat-people disguised as humans, as their brethren need her brains to procreate. After praying to God for help and promising to turn her life around, she wakes up from a coma in the hospital with her parents (who resemble the two people from the cave) besides her, who tell her that she's pregnant. But no, she's still in the cave and she's carrying one of the bat-things inside her.
- Metafictional Title: Lovecraft reads the fictional occult book The Necronomicon to access the stories which make up the Anthology Film.
- Murder Into Malevolence: "The Cold" segment features a journalist being told the story of a young woman named Emily fleeing an abusive home by her daughter. It's revealed that he "daughter" is actually Emily, resurrected in the same way as Dr. Madden after being fatally shot by a rival for his affections. She's been coldly (no pun intended) killing people for their spinal fluid in order to still feel Madden's baby kicking inside her.
- My Grandson, Myself: In "The Cold", the now immortal Emily is posing as her own daughter.
- Nested Story: H. P. Lovecraft himself investigates an ancient book in the Framing Device, reading the stories of the three segments as they happen. In one of these stories, the protagonist finds someone's journals and begins to read them, starting an additional flashback storyline. Another of the stories consists almost entirely of a flashback, with only a very small internal framing device of the story being narrated to a journalist.
- Playing with Syringes: In "The Cold", Creepy Housekeeper Lena wields syringes with a sadistic glee as she assists Mad Scientist Dr. Madden is in his experiments, which involve extracting spinal fluid from unwilling donors.
- Staircase Tumble: In "The Drowned", Edward is climbing the stairs when one of the steps collapses beneath his foot, and he falls all the way to the base of the stairs. This is the first indication that the house does not want him there.
- Sword Cane: The walking stick Lovecraft carries is actually a swordstick, which is revealed when he is attacked by an Eldritch Abomination during the climax.
