Del Toro didn't write it, but the series is his baby so he's getting his share of the blame. In this episode's introduction he calls H. P. Lovecraft "the author of tonight's story." I assume he recorded that before he saw the script, because it would be hard for an adaptation to be any less like Lovecraft's story than this... thing.
Disappointing as it is that they tossed out the entire plot and substituted their own, it's even worse that what they created is so fundamentally lackluster. It was bland, uninspired, childish, and thoughtless. It's hard to imagine the screenwriter had previously done something that made the producers confident she could produce a solid horror story, and looking at her credits I have no idea what it would have been.
Of course, no contemporary Lovecraft adaptation would be complete without the director making a statement about their disapproval of the long-dead author's personal beliefs. Judging from the script, I'm guessing the extent of her knowledge was Googling his name and being suitably aghast by his xenophobia. As a result, she took pains to include as many different ethnic groups as possible (creating something of an improbable population for Boston in the 1930s), and added a feminist twist in that the titular witch is no longer evil but an innocent victim of persecution. Why people who dislike an author so intensely keep adapting his work is anyone's guess, but the effort they put into changing it into something he would have hated seems misplaced since, again, he's dead and isn't likely to get his feelings hurt.
Otherwise... The performances varied from excellent (disappearing/reappearing accent aside) to comically unconvincing, and the CG-heavy visuals were a low point for a series that's been so dedicated to practical effects.
All in all, I'm baffled by why Del Toro, a Lovecraft devotee whose efforts to film the author's work have often been frustrated by a lack of creative control, when finally given the chance to do whatever he wanted would produce such unfaithful adaptations. It seems like a massively wasted opportunity.
Disappointing as it is that they tossed out the entire plot and substituted their own, it's even worse that what they created is so fundamentally lackluster. It was bland, uninspired, childish, and thoughtless. It's hard to imagine the screenwriter had previously done something that made the producers confident she could produce a solid horror story, and looking at her credits I have no idea what it would have been.
Of course, no contemporary Lovecraft adaptation would be complete without the director making a statement about their disapproval of the long-dead author's personal beliefs. Judging from the script, I'm guessing the extent of her knowledge was Googling his name and being suitably aghast by his xenophobia. As a result, she took pains to include as many different ethnic groups as possible (creating something of an improbable population for Boston in the 1930s), and added a feminist twist in that the titular witch is no longer evil but an innocent victim of persecution. Why people who dislike an author so intensely keep adapting his work is anyone's guess, but the effort they put into changing it into something he would have hated seems misplaced since, again, he's dead and isn't likely to get his feelings hurt.
Otherwise... The performances varied from excellent (disappearing/reappearing accent aside) to comically unconvincing, and the CG-heavy visuals were a low point for a series that's been so dedicated to practical effects.
All in all, I'm baffled by why Del Toro, a Lovecraft devotee whose efforts to film the author's work have often been frustrated by a lack of creative control, when finally given the chance to do whatever he wanted would produce such unfaithful adaptations. It seems like a massively wasted opportunity.