THE SHUTTERED ROOM. A supposedly Lovecraftian thriller

It might seem that The Shuttered Room is a Lovecraft adaptation, but the truth is more complicated.

Susannah and her much older husband Mike, a couple from New York, arrive in Dunwich – a small island off the coast of Massachusetts where the woman was born. Susannah has vague memories of childhood trauma and hesitates about turning back, but Mike convinces her they should at least take a look at the estate she inherited from her parents: a ruined watermill. The couple decides to renovate the building and turn it into a summer home, despite warnings from Susannah’s aunt Agatha, who claims the mill is cursed and that dark forces lurk within. Susannah and Mike dismiss her words as superstition, ignore her advice to leave the island as soon as possible, and begin the renovation. It turns out that something strange is indeed happening in one of the mill’s rooms. To make matters worse, Ethan – Susannah’s lecherous cousin and the leader of a gang of thugs – becomes obsessed with his attractive relative.

August Derleth was the founder of the Arkham House publishing company and the first editor of H.P. Lovecraft’s collected works in the United States. Derleth and Lovecraft never met, but for over a decade they exchanged extensive correspondence. Shortly after the “Hermit of Providence” died, Derleth played a crucial role in popularizing Lovecraft’s legacy: he published his stories, painstakingly collected and transcribed his letters, systematized the universe Lovecraft created (he coined the term “Cthulhu Mythos”), and even expanded it with his own stories inspired by Lovecraft’s writing. Sometimes he went too far: he would write stories based on short notes or even single-sentence ideas left by Lovecraft and then attribute authorship to him. That was the case with the novella The Shuttered Room from the collection The Watchers Out of Time. The collection was published under Lovecraft’s name, even though it was almost entirely Derleth’s work.

The film adaptation of The Shuttered Room was initially offered to Ken Russell. When he declined, the project was taken over by David Greene, a respected television director. Nearing fifty at the time, Greene saw this as his last chance to make the leap from the small screen to cinema. The cast included Gig Young (Mike), Carol Lynley (Susannah), Oliver Reed (Ethan), and Flora Robson (Agatha). The budget amounted to 180,000 pounds, and British locations were used to mimic the U.S., including the South Foreland Lighthouse in Dover, the harbor in Faversham, and Hardingham Mill in Norfolk. Filming began in April 1966; despite protests from Hardingham residents, the crew set fire to the mill for the film’s finale. Fate had its revenge on the creators: The Shuttered Room was a box-office failure and received negative reviews.

The film starts promisingly: there’s mystery, beautiful landscapes captured by cinematographer Kenneth Hodges (the visuals are one of the film’s strongest points), and Greene directs with a steady hand. But as the story progresses, the plot falls apart into absurd, repetitive scenes that lead nowhere. Probably the biggest problem with The Shuttered Room is the screenplay. Its writers (D.B. Ledrov and Nathaniel Tanchuck) couldn’t decide whether they were crafting a thriller about wealthy city folks clashing with rural lowlifes or a horror story about a supposed family curse. The former theme was handled much better by Sam Peckinpah in Straw Dogs (1971); the latter is completely wasted, as the climax – the explanation behind the mystery of the mill – is a huge letdown. There’s no fear, no suspense, not even any supernatural elements or the ominous atmosphere typical of Lovecraft. But then again, that’s no surprise: after all, he didn’t write the story.