Story:
There are three short Lovecraft stories in the OVA. We start with The Picture in the House, move to Dunwich and end with The Festival. If you're familiar with Lovecraft's work, you know what kind of content to expect.
The big narrative problem this has, and first major stumbling block it faces as an adaptation, is that the pacing is a bit shite. Good horror needs quiet, slower moments to build up suspense and get the viewer tensed. The problem with the slow moments in this is that so many of them are outright full stops while we pan over a still image. That doesn't build tension, it derails the situation and bores you.
To their credit, the pacing aside, they do a decent job of adapting the scripts of the short stories. They're pretty close to faithful and will likely satisfy those fans of Lovecraftian horror.
Characters:
The characters don't have any real complexity to them. The ones who are meant to be unsettling pull that off well enough. But the ones we're supposed to root for and identify with, we really don't have any reason to care about. They're just a bit boring.
Art:
This is the second major issue with this as an adaptation. The art style does not lend itself well to horror. The OVA looks like it has less of a budget and cheaper claymation than an old Gumby cartoon. And it doesn't help that Gumby also looks more like an Eldritch abomination than anything you see in this OVA. And I'm not just saying that as a joke. That's the trouble with clearly showing the creatures in Lovecraftian horror. When you see a very vague, unsettling description of the Dunwich Horror, it works. When you see a mess of walking squid ink spaghetti, it just looks silly.
Sound:
The acting in this is passable. It's not good, but it's not bad either. The music is the same. It's a bit generic for horror music, but it's functional enough.
Ho-yay:
There isn't any to be sad. The characters barely have relationships to begin with, much less well enough developed relationships for that.
Areas of Improvement:
Build up the suspense properly. Don't pause and derail the plot to pan over your clay landscape.
Don't show your monsters. Take a lesson from Lovecraft in this matter. Show enough to give the idea of the monster and let your audience's imagination do the rest. Trust me, we will come up with something way more frightening than your spaghetti monster.
Do not use Claymation. There are things claymation works for. Horror is not one of them. The models and environments just look too much like a child's panorama art project.
Final Thoughts:
This OVA has three fatal flaws. The first is the long pauses that derail the suspense. The second is that it shows its Lovecraftian monsters in great detail. The third is the claymation art style. I can't say it's bad, but you'd be much better off reading these stories. I'll give it a 4/10.
