# Lovecraft adaptations and homages **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 6, 2011, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lovecraft-adaptations-and-homages/577404 "2011-04-06T15:52:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/bc8723/32.png) [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unauthorized_Cinnamon)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lovecraft-adaptations-and-homages/577404/1 "2011-04-06T15:52:08Z")
Since we have a [zombie thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=182200)that touches on this, I thought it would be nice to have a good list of Lovecraft-inspired art, and what people think of the quality of each work. Reading that thread, I immediately thought of **In the Mouth of Madness** , with Sam Neill. Nifty little movie, not based directly on a Lovecraft story, but it gets the feel. Even though there’s sex and stuff, which I realize Howard did not include in his stories. I also agree with a poster there that \*\*Cast a Deadly Spell \*\*was fun. It doesn’t capture any of the atmosphere of a Lovecraft story, but it references the mythos, and is a neat spin on noir. Stephen King’s **Crouch End** was pretty decent, and **Jerusalem’s Lot** is very much in the original eldritch vein, while Gaiman’s **A Study in Emerald** definitely deserved the Hugo it won. \*\*Prey \*\*by Graham Masterson is a cheesy but fun take on Dreams in the Witch House. The silent film of **Call of Cthulhu** is off the beaten path, but I think they did a really nice job with it. And finally (for now), Rocky Coast Radio Theater has a [show](http://www.audible.com/pd?asin=B002V5GL1E)available on Audible that includes, IIRC, The Statement of Randolph Carter, which really gave me shivers! Please share some good Lovecraft-inspired stuff, or warn us about bad renditions! ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lovecraft-adaptations-and-homages/577404/2 "2011-04-06T18:05:57Z")
> [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](#): > > The silent film of **Call of Cthulhu** is off the beaten path, but I think they did a really nice job with it. I just saw this for the first time recently and thought it was wonderful. HPL would’ve approved. Another fairly close adaptation is the “Shadow-over-Innsmouth” inspired film **Dagon** (which HPL would probably _not_ have approved of because of the added sex & nudity). Not a good adaptation, but I’ve always had a fondness for the cheesy early '70’s **Dunwich Horror**. It was my introduction to Lovecraft. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lovecraft-adaptations-and-homages/577404/3 "2011-04-06T18:10:57Z")
One more. I had to look up the title. **The Resurrected** is “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward” retold as a modern-day detective story. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Credible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a8b319/32.png) [@Justin\_Credible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Credible)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lovecraft-adaptations-and-homages/577404/4 "2011-04-07T04:32:28Z")
> [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](#): > > Reading that thread, I immediately thought of **In the Mouth of Madness** , with Sam Neill. Nifty little movie, not based directly on a Lovecraft story, but it gets the feel. Even though there’s sex and stuff, which I realize Howard did not include in his stories. I love that movie. So underrated. > [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](#): > > Stephen King’s **Crouch End** was pretty decent, and **Jerusalem’s Lot** is very much in the original eldritch vein… You have to read King’s short story called N. It’s a great homage to the Cthulhu mythos, and it’s probably my favorite short story of his. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lovecraft-adaptations-and-homages/577404/5 "2011-04-07T04:38:37Z")
[The Slenderman Mythos](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheSlenderManMythos) has a lot of trappings of Lovecraftian horror. It didn’t start off so much so, but it grew into it over time. Most works don’t have cults, and very few people in the works directly worship the guy and such, but it’s definitely a very, very Lovecraftian set of works. Of course, as anything on the internet they vary WILDLY in quality. The “holy trinity” (Marble Hornets, Everyman Hybrid, and Tribe Twelve) are definitely very Lovecraft inspired. It also gets past the whole problem with showing elder gods and it not being as scary as you imagined it. Slenderman just STANDS THERE, doing NOTHING and it’s the scariest thing you’ll ever see. ETA: Somehow, too many cooks spoiling the broth just makes him scarier. I mean, yeah, the Elder Gods were unknowable, but generally one author had control over them, and a lot of information simply wasn’t divulged, but with multiple people fleshing out the character, any given pair of stories will attribute different qualities to him. That’s the kind of inconsistency you can’t manufacture. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lovecraft-adaptations-and-homages/577404/6 "2011-04-07T04:43:04Z")
There is, of course, the musical adaptation [Shoggoth on the Roof.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaJckcCZtBQ) ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lovecraft-adaptations-and-homages/577404/7 "2011-04-07T14:14:54Z")
> [@Justin\_Credible](#): > > …You have to read King’s short story called N. It’s a great homage to the Cthulhu mythos, and it’s probably my favorite short story of his. Actually, King said it was Machen, not Lovecraft. See “Influences” here: [N - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N). ---
**Author:** ![Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/bc8723/32.png) [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unauthorized_Cinnamon)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lovecraft-adaptations-and-homages/577404/8 "2011-04-07T14:20:01Z")
> [@Miss\_Mapp](#): > > One more. I had to look up the title. **The Resurrected** is “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward” retold as a modern-day detective story. Awesome! I’m reading that story right now (bit of slog, to be honest), and the movie is available on Netflix Watch Instantly. I also happen to have strep throat and need to rest today while my kids are out of the house. Guess what I’ll be watching! I’m also listening to Shoggoth on the Roof right now. **Justin Credible** , do you reckon it’s better to read \*\*N \*\*or watch the graphic shorts first? By the way, I had a funny experience at a breastfeeding conference last year. We had a white elephant book exchange, and someone had contributed **Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos,** an illustrated anthology including Lovecraft and Lovecraft-inspired short stories. Apparently there’s not a lot of overlap between the breastfeeding advocacy world and fans of Cthulhu (go figure). So I stole the book from a grateful person, and no one wanted to take it from me. It’s pretty good - some clunkers but mostly solid stories. Oh, and at the end of the exchange I asked who had brought this book . . . and no one answered. _shiver_ ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lovecraft-adaptations-and-homages/577404/9 "2011-04-07T14:55:58Z")
SubGenius literature: [“The Smoker from the Shadows,”](http://www.subgenius.com/bigfist/classic/classictales/ShadowSmoker.html) by Harry S. Robins. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lovecraft-adaptations-and-homages/577404/10 "2011-04-07T14:57:34Z")
> [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](#): > > Apparently there’s not a lot of overlap between the breastfeeding advocacy world and fans of Cthulhu (go figure). 😕 This . . . **thing**. . . grows in your body like a tumor, bursts out and then immediately starts sucking life-giving fluids out of you. How is that **not** Lovecraftian?! ---
**Author:** ![shantih](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f6c823/32.png) [@shantih](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shantih)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lovecraft-adaptations-and-homages/577404/11 "2011-04-07T15:17:41Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > 😕 This . . . **thing**. . . grows in your body like a tumor, bursts out and then immediately starts sucking life-giving fluids out of you. How is that **not** Lovecraftian?! Particularly when you consider what happens to that creature just 13 years later … ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lovecraft-adaptations-and-homages/577404/12 "2011-04-07T15:20:19Z")
> [@shantih](#): > > Particularly when you consider what happens to that creature just 13 years later … Now _that’s_ scary! ---
**Author:** ![Nathan\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/47e85d/32.png) [@Nathan\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nathan_S)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lovecraft-adaptations-and-homages/577404/13 "2011-04-07T16:48:13Z")
> [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](#): > > … while Gaiman’s A Study in Emerald definitely deserved the Hugo it won … Let us not forget _Shoggoth’s Old Peculiar_. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lovecraft-adaptations-and-homages/577404/14 "2011-04-07T17:20:44Z")
“The Keep” by F. Paul Wilson, at least the book. The movie, not so much. ---
**Author:** ![gytalf2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ac91a4/32.png) [@gytalf2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gytalf2000)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lovecraft-adaptations-and-homages/577404/15 "2011-04-07T17:48:12Z")
> [@Miss\_Mapp](#): > > I just saw this for the first time recently and thought it was wonderful. HPL would’ve approved. > > Another fairly close adaptation is the “Shadow-over-Innsmouth” inspired film **Dagon** (which HPL would probably _not_ have approved of because of the added sex & nudity). > > Not a good adaptation, but I’ve always had a fondness for the cheesy early '70’s **Dunwich Horror**. It was my introduction to Lovecraft. I really enjoyed the “Call of Cthulhu” movie, as well! ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lovecraft-adaptations-and-homages/577404/16 "2011-04-07T20:15:01Z")
Great: _[Shoggoths in Bloom](http://www.elizabethbear.com/shoggoths.html)_ by Elizabeth Bear Also Great:_[A Colder War](http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/colderwar.htm)_ By Charles Stross ---
**Author:** ![Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/bc8723/32.png) [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unauthorized_Cinnamon)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lovecraft-adaptations-and-homages/577404/17 "2011-04-07T20:46:15Z")
I have to admit I couldn’t make it through The Resurrected. The actor playing the detective has negative charisma - he must have taken a lot of acting classes before being on Lost. **MrDibble** , those look interesting, and thank the Elder Gods, I figured out how to put them on my Kindle. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lovecraft-adaptations-and-homages/577404/18 "2011-04-07T20:55:26Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Great: _[Shoggoths in Bloom](http://www.elizabethbear.com/shoggoths.html)_ by Elizabeth Bear I love this story - I think it’s remarkably beautiful, actually. The tone isn’t really Lovecraftian, but it’s a great use of his ideas to tell a different and very rewarding story. I particularly enjoy that Bear [SPOILER]Made the shoggoths both alien _and_ deeply sympathetic, and crafted a narrator who could see both sides, and act decently towards them. Be free, Shoggoths! Be free! Though HPL would have hated that. In fact, he’d probably have disliked a black protagonist.[/SPOILER] ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lovecraft-adaptations-and-homages/577404/19 "2011-04-07T20:56:29Z")
> [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](#): > > thank the Elder Gods, Are you daft, woman? Do you want them to _notice_ us? ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lovecraft-adaptations-and-homages/577404/20 "2011-04-07T21:02:47Z")
Heh, Jorge Luis Borges (of _Ficciones_ fame, among others) wrote a Lovecraftian short story “There are More Things”. It is odd, to say the least, to see a writer of that exalted calibre write a mythos story. 😉 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lovecraft-adaptations-and-homages/577404.md?page=2)