Casting a Deadly Spell (1991) Review

 

In an alternative 1948 Los Angeles, magic is an everyday occurrence, and local private detective HP Lovecraft must recover a dark mystical book called the Necronomicon before gangsters can use it to summon ancient evil gods.

So as you can tell, they’ve taken two different types of movie genres, the film noir and the Lovecraft horror, and have made a pretty good hybrid movie that understands and highlights the best of both genres and weaves them together in surprising and entertaining ways.

This movie has an incredibly stacked cast; Fred Ward fits the “chiseled, laid-back Raymond Chandler type detective” like a glove and a doctor’s hand.

If David Warner is in something, I’m likely to enjoy it… And this is no exception lol.

Clancy Brown is great as a very charming but intimidating mobster; he’s always a blast whatever he’s in.

Julianne Moore also fits the “femme fatale” role perfectly; she and Fred Ward have a lot of great chemistry, and you can tell she’s channeling her inner “Jessica Rabbit” 🐇 😂. For an early 90s TV movie, they really lucked out with so many incredible actors.

Raymond O’Connor plays a great “Peter Laurie” type henchman and brings a lot of charisma and character to the role.

That being said, at the time, newcomer Alexandra Powers gave a very charming and “innocent confident” performance that was a lot of fun and spunky.

Arnetia Walker is another fun addition as Lovecraft's spunky and smart-alecky

landlord/witch, which added a nice bit of liberty to the story.

I like how casually they work magic into this world, like people use it to light their cigarettes or move things. It feels very realistic and believable, plus they have little things in the background, which is a nice touch.

I didn’t know where else to put this, but… There’s another detective named Bradberry, which I assume is named after Ray Bradbury, another nice literary reference.

Besides magic, there are also things like unicorns, vampires, gremlins, werewolves, and zombies throughout the film, which adds another fun layer to this world and has a lot of potential for sequels and expansion.

The stories are very straightforward; I wish they had had a few more twists and turns and more original ideas. If you’re familiar with film noir, then I’m sure you’ll be able to guess a few things coming, but for what it is, the story is still pretty solid and definitely entertaining.

There is a “twist” in the movie, which for 1991 I’m sure was quite shocking, but in 2025 you can see that thing coming like a pair of headlights 😂, so just be ready to not be shocked.

Impressive special effects For the time, it gets a little ”haunted house animatronic” at certain points, but for the most part, the special effects and animatronics are very well done.

The movie has a very fun dark sense of humor.

The climax could’ve been a bit stronger; it wasn’t bad, but it definitely could’ve been stronger and leaves you a bit wanting.

Casting a Deadly Spell may not be the most original film, but it has a lot of creativity, passion, and talent put in for a fun and unique feeling. I give the film a high three stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️. It’s an idea I wouldn’t mind seeing rebooted; it has a lot of untapped potential.