H. P. Lovecraft's Dreams in the Witch House is the second episode of the first season of Masters of Horror, directed by Stuart Gordon. It is adapted from the short story "The Dreams in the Witch House" by American horror author H. P. Lovecraft. It originally aired in North America on November 4, 2005.
Plot:
Walter Gilman, a college student, rents out a very cheap room in an old house, but it proves to be no bargain. One of his neighbors prays loudly and bangs on the furniture. Another neighbor, a single mother, issues a blood-curdling scream soon after his arrival. It turns out that she and her baby are being attacked by a persistent rat. Walter plugs up the rat-hole, but they still aren't safe. Walter is having nightmares - dreams that seem to have been inspired by the first neighbor, who warns him of a witch and her familiar: a rat with a human face. Walter soon suspects that the witch of his nightmare is real and that she is going to force him to kill the baby.
The university student Walter Gilman moves to a very low-budget room in an old house. He becomes close to Frances Elwood, his next door neighbor, and her baby son Danny after saving them from a huge rat. While studying for his thesis, Walter listens to noises in the first floor, and finds the tenant Masurewicz praying and hitting his head on a chair. The old man advises him about a rat with a man's face and a witch that would be after him, and offers a crucifix for his protection. Walter ignores the advice, and has nightmares along the night. When Frances asks Walter to be the babysitter of Bobby for a couple of hours, Walter is lured by the witch, who pretends to be Frances, and he is marked on his back. Later he realizes that the evil witch is Keziah Mason and the rat is her assistant Brown Jenkin, and they want him to sacrifice Bobby in an ancient ritual to the devil.
Inspiration:
"The Dreams in the Witch House" was likely inspired by the lecture The Size of the Universe given by Willem de Sitter which Lovecraft attended three months prior to writing the story. Several prominent motifs—including the geometry and curvature of space, and a deeper understanding of the nature of the universe through pure mathematics—are covered in de Sitter's lecture. The idea of using higher dimensions of non-Euclidean space as short cuts through normal space can be traced to A. S. Eddington's The Nature of the Physical World which Lovecraft alludes to having read (SL III p 87).
An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia says that "The Dreams in the Witch House" was "heavily influenced by Nathaniel Hawthorne's unfinished novel Septimius Felton".
"H. P. Lovecraft's Dreams in the Witch House"
Masters of Horror episode
Episode no. Season 1
Episode 2
Written by Dennis Paoli
Stuart Gordon
Directed by Stuart Gordon
Production no. 102
Original airdate November 4, 2005
Guest Stars:
Ezra Godden
Chelah Horsdal
Campbell Lane
David Nykl
