The Unnamable is a 1988 horror film loosely based on H. P. Lovecraft's short story of the same name. The film was written, directed and co-produced by Jean-Paul Ouellette, and stars Mark Kinsey Stephenson as a young Randolph Carter, and Charles King as Carter's sidekick, Howard Damon. It was followed in 1993 by The Unnamable II: The Statement of Randolph Carter.
Synopsis[]
In 18th century Arkham, a man named Joshua Winthrop, who is regarded as a "warlock" by his neighbors, is killed by a creature he keeps locked up in the attic. A couple centuries later, Miskatonic University student and published horror author Randolph Carter tells a story to two of his colleagues, Joel Manton and Howard Damon, about an 18th century boy who saw the image of an unnamable creature imprinted on the glass of an attic window and lost his sanity.
Joel, who is a science major and a skeptic, confronts Randolph about the narrative and claims that, while he does believe that it might be possible for glass to retain the image of someone who's stared at it for decades, the idea of "unnamable" or "unmentionable" things that could drive someone insane is just childish. Randolph insists that the story is real, as he based it on the writings of both Cotton Mather and one of his own ancestors. He identifies a nearby abandoned house as the one in which the events took place. Joel proposes to spend the night there, but Randolph and Howard refuse to accompany him and head back to the campus. Once inside the house, Joel is stalked and killed by the monster. At the university, Howard tries to talk to Wendy, a fellow freshman he's romantically interested in. Wendy dismisses Howard as a creep, although her friend Tanya finds him cute.
On the next day, Howard meets Randolph in the library and tries to convince him to go into the Winthrop House to look for Joel, as no one has seen him since last night. Randolph declines and points out that Joel has probably "disappeared" on purpose to try to pull a prank on them. Wendy and Tanya are approached by a pair of older students, John and Bruce, who invite them to spend the night inside the haunted house. Tanya is reluctant, but Wendy is eager to befriend the jocks, and convinces her to go along. Inside, they see evidence that someone (Joel) has been there recently. Meanwhile, Howard, having spoken to Joel's parents and found that they don't know anything of his whereabouts, finally convinces Randolph to go into the house to look for him.
After some scary stories are told, Wendy, Tanya, John and Bruce go about exploring the house. John and Wendy find Joel's severed head, and John is attacked by the creature, prompting Wendy to run away and faint. Tanya and Bruce find her, but all get separated after seeing John's body. Tanya runs into Randolph and Howard, who speculate that Joel might have been driven insane with fear and killed John. The creature finds Bruce and brutally kills him.
Randolph reads from Joshua Winthrop's journal and finds out that the monster is Joshua's daughter, Alyda. Before his death, Joshua had cast a spell to prevent her from leaving the house, and planted trees, hoping to seek help from the "tree spirits". Randolph also finds several spells in the Necronomicon that he thinks might be useful.
While Randolph studies the grimoire, Howard and Tanya come across Joel's remains, forcing Howard to abandon his theory about Joel being the murderer. Briefly separated from Tanya, Howard runs into a panicked Wendy, who is shocked to see him in the house and thinks he must be the killer. Wendy attacks Howard with a scythe and tries to murder him, but her neck is snapped by Alyda, who drags her body away, leaving an unconscious Howard behind.
Randolph takes the Necronomicon with him and steps outside the house and into Joshua's tomb, where something grabs him from below and closes the lid, trapping him in the catacombs. Inside the house, Tanya reunites with Howard and they are both attacked by Alyda, but are saved by the tree spirits, which have been successfully summoned by Randolph. Joshua's voice is heard while the tree branches break into the house and drag Alyda away.
At the graveyard outside the house, Howard and Tanya find Randolph, who manages to crawl away from the tomb, while unseen creatures try to seize him. Closing the lid again, a relieved Randolph tells them that he saw hideous things down there, which reinforces his earlier belief in the "unnamable".
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