Who knew the works of H.P. Lovecraft would one day be so ripe for plundering by DIY filmmakers? Lurker Films has made a cottage industry out of primarily releasing compilations of these features and shorts onto DVD, and the fifth now is available in THE H.P. LOVECRAFT COLLECTION: VOLUME 5 - STRANGE AEONS: THE THING ON THE DOORSTEP.

The centerpiece of the disc is 2005’s feature-length STRANGE AEONS: THE THING ON THE DOORSTEP, based on Lovecraft’s well-known – but not always well-liked – 1937 story “The Thing on the Doorstep.” I was looking forward to seeing the adaptation, but that’s because I had it confused with “The Outsider,” for some reason.

Once that misunderstanding was cleared up, it was obvious that director Eric Morgret’s film follows the original plot pretty closely, even retaining the occasionally odd character names – Asenath, anyone? – despite being set in the present day. Its hero is bearded, mild-mannered college professor Dan Upton (J.D. Lloyd), whose graduate assistant Edward Derby (Erick Robertson) falls under the spell of the mysterious and beautiful Asenath (Angela M. Grillo).

And no wonder: He has magical sex with her, during which she implants all sorts of weird-ass thoughts and tentacled visions directly into his brain. That kind of thing tends to set a girl apart from the rest of the pack, especially when she does so while naked.

Seriously, though, this relationship marks changes in Derby’s personality, thus driving a wedge in his friendship with the professor, thus creating a bizarre love triangle that can’t end well. At all. (And you know that even without the appearance of that infernal Necronomicon).

While DOORSTEP has no shortage of freaky-deaky imagery, it also sports a few sound issues and performances that bend toward the amateur level. Its main problem, however, is even with the benefit of variances from the source material, there are simply not enough ideas to sustain it for an hour and a half.

It might help if its characters seemed more real. For instance, when someone shambles into your house on a dark and stormy night, saying nothing, their head tucked down and hidden under a hat, hell, yes, something is wrong! Be. Fucking. Scared!

AEONS’ strengths lie in the handful of bonus shorts. The German-language MARIA’S HUBRIS is a companion piece to AEONS, taking up the same theme of body transference, but in one-sixth the running time. Its narrator relates his friend’s telling him of “experiments” from a strange book that he and his gal Maria did. You can guess just what tome they’re referring to, can’t you?

Michael Granberry’s FROM BEYOND is a 10-minute stop-motion animation that’s absolutely cool, genuinely freaky and more effective than the beloved (included by me) Stuart Gordon movie. But even brevity can’t help the super-short preview for LET SLEEPING GODS LIE, which shows nothing but footage of computer-animated Lovecraftian creatures.

Also really brief and animated – this one via Flash? – is DON’T FEED THE BOOK, a comical short taking place in a bookstore. It’s not based on Lovecraft, but certainly couldn’t exist without him, as a customer browses at a tabletop copy of the Necronomicon and gets more than he bargained for. It’s a one-trick pony, sure, but nicely done.

In the extra features, there’s a trailer for an upcoming Lovecraft documentary, featuring notable talking heads Neil Gaiman, Peter Straub, Guillermo del Toro and Ramsey Campbell. And for more well-respected artists paying tribute to ol’ H.P., check out the interview with John Carpenter singing the author’s praises for about six minutes. (Too bad he couldn’t put that much enthusiasm into his Lovecraft homage IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS!)

Among the choice bits, Carpenter reveals he tried to set up a miniseries based on “The Colour out of Space” for NBC – shame on you, peacocks – and thinks that Lovecraft must’ve had a real problem with fish. If that observation doesn’t elicit even an internal, knowing laugh, this disc is not for you. –Rod Lott

Buy it at Amazon.

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