Cast a Deadly Spell

Cast a Deadly Spell (1991) is a horror-fantasy detective television film with Fred Ward, Julianne Moore, David Warner, and Clancy Brown. It was directed by Martin Campbell, produced by Gale Anne Hurd, and written by Joseph Dougherty. The original music score was composed by Curt Sobel.

Cast a Deadly Spell combines two disparate genres – film noir detective stories, and eldritch tales of the Cthulhu Mythos. It is set in 1948 Los Angeles, in a world where magic is common. A detective is hired to locate a stolen grimoire, the Necronomicon. Several of the people searching for the book intend to use it to summon one of the Old Ones.

A sequel entitled Witch Hunt was released in 1994, with Dennis Hopper playing Ward's role of Harry Philips Lovecraft. (The character's name, as well as a number of plot elements, make reference to the work of weird fiction writer Howard Philips Lovecraft.)

Plot
In an alternative 1948 Los Angeles, magic and mythological creatures are common. The protagonist, Harry Lovecraft, a detective, refuses its use. He does still accept wealthy widower's Amos Hackshaw job offer: Locate the powerful grimoire known as the Necronomicon, which Hackshaw had stolen and had had stolen from him in return. Lovecraft meets Hackshaw's cosseted teenage daughter and cockteaser, Olivia, whose hobby is hunting unicorns. Hackshaw chose Lovecraft for the job because Phil is notorious in Los Angeles for his adamant refusal to use magic in any form.

Following a clue, Lovecraft goes to the Dunwich nightclub and finds an old girlfriend named Connie Stone is performing there as a singer. Here he meets Harry Bordon, another old acquaintance, a cruel mobster who also covets the grimoire. Bordon has already murdered Mickey Locksteader in a futile attempt to have the Necronomicon for himself.

The next morning, Lovecraft is assaulted by a magically summoned demon, but escapes. He locates Lilly, alias Larry Willis, the transgender ex-lover of murder victim Locksteader, who has the grimoire. An animated gargoyle bursts in and kills Willis/Lilly, but Lovecraft escapes with the Necronomicon.

Bordon, and as it turns out, also Hackshaw and Connie, have plans to use the grimoire to summon one of the Old Ones in order to gain awesome power. The ritual requires the offering-up of a virgin; in this case Olivia, whose father, Amos Hackshaw, has gone to great lengths to preserve her virginity. Connie shoots and kills Bordon before the ritual begins. The Old One appears, but rejects Olivia and eats Hackshaw, who had summoned it, before vanishing back into the Earth. The ritual failed because Olivia had lost her virginity to a police detective a few days before.

Before Connie is arrested for murdering Bordon, she and Lovecraft share a kiss. He leaves with the Necronomicon, confident that his aversion to magic will override any temptation to use the book's dark powers.

Critical reception
In The New York Times John J. O'Connor said that the "new HBO Pictures production that can be seen tonight at 8 on the pay-cable service, gives the city a spin that should make even its most jaded observers sit up, chuckle and wince.... Mining familiar formulas, Mr. Dougherty's Cast a Deadly Spell is engagingly different and special."

In the Chicago Tribune Rick Kogan said, "I've had some very strange times in Los Angeles, spotted some very strange people. But none of what I've done or seen in that town can compare with what happens to H. Phillip Lovecraft in a special effects-filled and wildly successful original Home Box Office movie... Casting its own spell, this movie invigorates."

Sequel
HBO produced a sequel, Witch Hunt, with Dennis Hopper playing Lovecraft in place of Ward. Witch Hunt takes place in the 1950s during the Second Red Scare, with magic substituted for communism. Many characters from Cast a Deadly Spell reappear with different backstories.

Cast

 * Fred Ward – Harry Philip Lovecraft
 * Julianne Moore – Connie Stone
 * David Warner – Amos Hackshaw
 * Alexandra Powers – Olivia Hackshaw
 * Clancy Brown – Harry Bordon
 * Charles Hallahan – Detective Morris Bradbury
 * Arnetia Walker – Hypolite Kropotkin
 * Raymond O'Connor – Tugwell
 * Peter Allas – Detective Otto Grimaldi
 * Ken Thorley – Mickey Locksteader
 * Lee Tergesen – Larry Willis/Lilly Sirwar
 * Michael Reid MacKay – Gargoyle
 * Curt Sobel – Band Leader