Unspeakable: Beyond The Wall Of Sleep

Your pineal gland will burst through your forehead and dance the cha-cha when it vibrates to the unhinged Lovecraft adaptation Unspeakable: Beyond The Wall Of Sleep from the especially odd auteur Chad Ferrin.

The film opens in 1998 in prison, where Jim Fhelleps (Corey Shane Love) is being incarcerated for an incest crime he claims he didn’t commit. He is introduced to his cell mate Sturgis (Brandon Kirk), who explains to Fhelleps that he is about to rape him in the face. When Sturgis whips it out, Fhelleps hallucinates the penis head sported rows of razor-sharp teeth. Fhelleps’ mouth transforms with rows of long crooked teeth suddenly popping out, which he uses to rip off the ferocious snapping c**k clean off the lap of Sturgis.

“…long crooked teeth suddenly popping out, which he uses to rip off the ferocious snapping c**k clean off the lap of Sturgis.”

After beating him to a pulp, Fhelleps then announces his name is Joe Slater, a deranged mountain man who is swamped by cosmic visions. He is beaten down by guards and sent to the madhouse, where Dr. Willet (Steve Railsbeck) keeps him locked up. Decades later, dream researcher Ambrose London (Edward Furlong) goes to the hospital to have Dr. Barnard (Susan Priver) arrange for him to meet the much older Jim Fhelleps (Robert Miano). London attempts to interact with the Joe Slater personality, as he is fascinated with what the hillbilly visionary says he has seen. However, as he investigates further, London starts to have strange waking nightmares. His wife, Sonia (Ginger Lynn), offers him the comfort of her bosom, but then London sees a long mutant c**k with teeth spring out from between her legs…

Of all the weird innovations that rose during the 80s, the weirdest was the phenomenon of H.P. Lovecraft stories being adapted into X-rated gore-fests that got rave reviews from The Village Voice to Time. These films, directed by Stuart Gordon, would employ some Lovecraftian touches into a twisted cinema fresco dripping with entrails and kinky sex. It is predictable how the puritanical Lovecraft would have reacted to these extreme liberties with his work: open revulsion while simultaneously masturbating furiously. By following this classic retro formula, Unspeakable: Beyond The Wall Of Sleep achieves that same camp sophistication that Gordon’s Re-Animator had in spades.