A small, rural village of Dunwhic is the stage where the events of this tale take place. The sleepy existence of its populace is disturbed, when an albino daughter of a local magician becomes pregnant and delivers a baby boy. As Laviana Whatley had no suitors, the tongues of the locals suspect of more sinful origins for the child, even incestuous encounter with her father is suggested.
The boy, named Wilbur, seems to grow at an alarming pace. At the age of 3, he already looked like 10-years old. He also spoke well and could carry a long discussion. By the age of 4, Wilbur already possesses a fuzzy beard. The local dogs also had an intense dislike towards the strange child, which resulted in him walking around with a gun in his pocket for self-defence against the attacks of the hounds.
From the moment of his grandchild's birth, old Whatley seemed to receive a new spur of energy, which he used in renovating the old farmhouse. He added a new story as well as fixed the old shed. People wondered about the lack of windows and the high ramp, which Whatley built to the side of the house, leading to the big double doors on the second floor, but all this was chalked up to the old man's peculiarities.
A lot of talks also came from the nightly sightings of Wilbur and Laviana, who seemed to dance naked in the hills near old standing stones and an altar. In other, not as sinister seeming news, it is also noted, that the old man has begun to buy a lot of cattle. Curiously enough, despite the many new heads he buys with ancient gold, the count of his herd seems to stay relatively low. Some sort of cattle disease is suspected.
After some while, Wilbur has grown to look like a full-grown man, despite being merely 15-years old. Neither the mother nor the grandfather gets to see his later exploits, as the old man finally kicks the bucket and Laviana goes missing soon after, leaving Wilbur as the head of the house. The young man, however, cares little of either death and begins to venture further into his literary researches he began by reading his grandfather's ancient tomes. He is now in the need of the sinister Necronomicon, which he finds closest held in the Miskatonic University of Arkham.
Dr Henry Armitage, the librarian, lets the strange man read the book and take notes from it, but refuses to lend it to him. Later, Armitage is alerted to the library, when someone has broken in during the night. Together with two other professors he ventures in to witness the grotesque, monstrous body of Wilburs dying on the floor after the guard dog attacked him. This is, however, only the prelude for the Dunwich Horror.
Armitage takes interest in the diaries Wilbur wrote. While he is trying to decipher his peculiar alphabets, something breaks free from the now deserted Whateley farm. Seemingly invisible monster, now hungry after being left alone, wrecks farms and kills people, leaving only smelly, a tar-like substance in its wake. The good doctor manages to crack the diaries only to learn the horrible truths of Wilburs origins and what his grandfather was trying to do. Wilbur was a progeny of otherworldly beings and his purpose was to open up a doorway for Yog-sothoth by using the gigantic creature who dwelled in the upper floors of the old farm.
Armitage explains the situation to the other professors, who are more than willing to believe him, as they had seen the body of the young man. The diaries contained the needed incantations for dispelling the creature and they manage to do just that. In the end, after pleading with the locals to destroy the ancient altar in the hills, Armitage makes the final revelation: the Dunwich horror was actually Wilbur's twin brother, who just looked much more like his father.
Lovecraft himself was proud of The Dunwich Horror and it ended up being, to that point, his single biggest financial success. And he had a good reason to be proud of the story, as it is one of his better-known stories and was, at one point, his most often reprinted story. That isn't surprising either, as the story itself is very good. Lovecraft manages to paint an increasingly sinister picture of the sleepy rural community and the horrors that lie beneath its seemingly mundane existence.
The Dunwich Horror has very clear ties to Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos. The evil book Necronomicon has an important part in the story and Yog-sothoth, previously mentioned in the Case of Charles Dexter Ward, gets fleshed out more. But what's more important, Lovecraft explores the horrific ideas of the ancient gods breeding with humans in order to produce a progeny more willing to help them return. Lovecraft also describes his unholy monsters in more detail this time out. Wilbur Especially is given a very clear description, in both his human and his monstrous sides.
Laviana Whateley is perhaps one of the saddest victims of the story, as she, an albino and somewhat deformed outcast, was groomed by his father to have children with the monstrous entities She tried to live up to her father's wishes but ended up dying by the hands of her own children, who cared only of their own unholy goals.
The Dunwich Horror is a great horror story. While it might not be surprising for some modern horror fans, it still is a well-thought-out story, with a good structure and interesting setting. In it, Lovecraft lays out exceedingly more horrible ideas of the nature of men and the multidimensional monsters, who desire nothing more but our destruction.
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