History YMMV / TheDunwichHorror

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Enough that Stanley Sargent wrote ''The Black Brat of Dunwich'' which recast Wilbur as the ''hero'', seeking the ''Necronomicon'' in order to banish his more monstrous brother back to big daddy Yog-Sothoth. Meanwhile, [[spoiler:Professors Armitage was EvilAllAlong, having been born in Innsmouth (and thereby strongly implied to actually be a Deep One hybrid) and in cahoots with Old Man Whateley right from the beginning, and the account the original story provided, [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis was the result quite a bit of history revisionism by Armitage, who was trying to cover his tracks and keep his plans secret]]]].

* {{Narm}}: Describing [[spoiler: a fight with an invisible monster]] is hard enough to do seriously in third person narration. It becomes even worse when the reader's viewpoint doesn't actually make it to the climax of the story and is instead forced to settle for [[spoiler: listening to a description of the fight from a guy watching it through a telescope]], making the ending come across like listening to someone describe a bad mime routine to a blind person.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Enough that Stanley Sargent wrote ''The Black Brat of Dunwich'' which recast Wilbur as the ''hero'', seeking the ''Necronomicon'' in order to banish his more monstrous brother back to big daddy Yog-Sothoth. Meanwhile, [[spoiler:Professors Armitage was EvilAllAlong, having been born in Innsmouth (and thereby strongly implied to actually be a Deep One hybrid) and in cahoots with Old Man Whatley right from the beginning, and the account the original story provided, [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis was the result quite a bit of history revisionism by Armitage, who was trying to cover his tracks and keep his plans secret]]]].

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Enough that Stanley Sargent wrote ''The Black Brat of Dunwich'' which recast Wilbur as the ''hero'', seeking the ''Necronomicon'' in order to banish his more monstrous brother back to big daddy Yog-Sothoth. Meanwhile, [[spoiler:Professors Armitage was EvilAllAlong, having been born in Innsmouth (and thereby strongly implied to actually be a Deep One hybrid), and was in cahoots with Old Man Whatley right from the beginning, and the account the original story provided, [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis was the result quite a bit of history revisionism by Armitage, who was trying to cover his tracks and keep his plans secret]]]].

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Enough that Stanley Sargent wrote ''The Black Brat of Dunwich'' which recast Wilbur as the ''hero'', seeking the ''Necronomicon'' in order to banish his more monstrous brother back to big daddy Yog-Sothoth.

* CulstClassic: If you close your eyes to the fact that the movie is loved by fans of the 60's and psychedelic culture of that time, it is still a perfect example of NarmCharm.

* TheWoobie: Lavinia. She's unattractive, deformed, isolated, lives in squalor with a batshit insane father, and is eventually [[spoiler: killed by her unholy spawn whom she had begun to fear.]] To make matters worse, [[spoiler: it seems that her father' and son's souls escape the demonic whippoorwhills at their deaths, but she, they managed to catch. Even after death, she can't catch a break.]]

** If Wilbur is anything like [[spoiler:Helen Vaughan]], then he might not actually be biologically male--he could have assumed a shape agreeable to most people's image of physical maleness[[spoiler:, just as Helen Vaughan wears a pretense of physical femaleness but is, in fact, an eldritch monstrosity that changes sex according to the situation]].

* TheWoobie: Lavinia. She's unattractive, deformed, isolated, lives in squalor with a batshit insane father, and is eventually [[spoiler: killed by her unholy spawn whom she had begun to fear.]] To make matters worse, [[spoilers: it seems that her father' and son's souls escape the demonic whippoorwhills at their deaths, but she, they managed to catch. Even after death, she can't catch a break.]]

* TheWoobie: Lavinia. She's unattractive, deformed, isolated, lives in squalor with a batshit insane father, and is eventually [[spoiler: killed by her unholy spawn whom she had begun to fear. To make matters worse, it's all but stated the demonic whippoorwhills managed to capture her soul.]]

* UnfortunateImplications: The townsfolk refer to Wilbur as "Lavinia's black brat." Why, hello, Lovecraft's racism, glad to see you could make it again.
** He ''is'' dark despite his human family (where his human aspects would have come from) being white. Note that some of his facial features are reminiscent of blackface.
--> He was, however, exceedingly ugly despite his appearance of brilliancy; there being something almost goatish or animalistic about his thick lips, large-pored, yellowish skin, coarse crinkly hair, and oddly elongated ears.

* FridgeLogic: Where did Wilbur's Y chromosome come from? Males inherit that from their fathers (females have XX). I doubt an EldritchAbomination has anything resembling human genetic material. (Or would Lovecraft [[ScienceMarchesOn have not known this]]?)
** If you're going to worry about a Y chromosome, you might first want to worry about just how an EldritchAbomination is even able to breed with humans in the first place.
*** You're sure [[GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke we're talking about typical in vivo breeding to begin with?]]

** Wilbur ends up over nine feet tall. Where's he getting his clothes from? MagicPants?
*** [[MathematiciansAnswer A tailor.]]
* {{Narm}} Describing [[spoiler: a fight with an invisible monster]] is hard enough to do seriously in third person narration. It becomes even worse when the reader's viewpoint doesn't actually make it to the climax of the story and is instead forced to settle for [[spoiler: listening to a description of the fight from a guy watching it through a telescope]], making the ending come across like listening to someone describe a bad mime routine to a blind person.

** And not to mention the fact that he ''is'' dark despite his human family (where his human aspects would have come from) being white. Note that some of his facial features are reminiscent of blackface (as is true of the [[Literature/TheShadowOverInnsmouth Deep Ones]] as well).

* TheWoobie: Lavinia. She's unattractive, deformed, isolated, lives in squalor with a batshit insane father, and is eventually [[spoiler: killed by her unholy spawn whom she had begun to fear. To make matters worse, it's all but stated the demonic whippoorwhills managed to capture her soul.]

* TheWoobie: Lavinia. She's unattractive, deformed, isolated, lives in squalor with a batshit insane father, and is eventually [[spoiler: killed by her unholy spawn whom she had begun to fear]].

* {Narm} Describing [[spoiler: a fight with an invisible monster]] is hard enough to do seriously in third person narration. It becomes even worse when the reader's viewpoint doesn't actually make it to the climax of the story and is instead forced to settle for [[spoiler: listening to a description of the fight from a guy watching it through a telescope]], making the ending come across like listening to someone describe a bad mime routine to a blind person.

* [[Narm]] Describing [[spoiler: a fight with an invisible monster]] is hard enough to do seriously in third person narration. It becomes even worse when the reader's viewpoint doesn't actually make it to the climax of the story and is instead forced to settle for [[spoiler: listening to a description of the fight from a guy watching it through a telescope]], making the ending come across like listening to someone describe a bad mime routine to a blind person.

* HollywoodHomely: In the book, Wilbur Whateley is a HumanoidAbomination. In the 1970 movie, he's Dean Stockwell.

* FridgeLogic: Where did Wilbur's Y chromosome come from? I doubt an EldritchAbomination has anything resembling human genetic material. (Or would Lovecraft [[ScienceMarchesOn have not known this]]?)

** And not to mention the fact that he ''is'' dark despite his human family (where his human aspects would have come from) being white. Note that some of his facial features are reminiscent of blackface (as is true of the [[TheShadowOverInnsmouth Deep Ones]] as well).

** If you're going to worry about a Y chromosome, you might first want to worry about just how an EldritchAdbomination is even able to breed with humans in the first place.