List & discuss films adapted from & inspired by H.P. Lovecraft (and make that distinction)-
the earliest three adaptations I know- all AIP Corman/esque productions-
DIE MONSTER DIE (starring Karloff, “The Colour that Came from Outer Space”).
THE HAUNTED PALACE (starring Price, with Chaney Jr & John Carradine, “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward”),
THE DUNWICH HORROR (starring Dean Stockwell & Sandra Dee, with Sam Jaffe & Ed Begley Sr.)
I’m in the minority in that I think DUNWICH actually succeeds (esp for its time) and that HAUNTED is actually pretty decent (It’s been way too long since I’ve seen MONSTER).
Other good adaptations-
THE RESURRECTED starring Chris Sarandon (“C. D. Ward”)
RE-ANIMATOR and BRIDE OF RE…
FROM BEYOND
Not bad-
DAGON (from “Dagon” AND “Shadow Over Innsmouth”, suffers by being reset on a remote Spanish island, rather than New England)
Not good-
NECRONOMICON (three stories- the only once I recall “Cool Air” which was done better on Rod Serling’s Night Gallery).
There have apparently been a recent array of shorts which are direct adaptations, I haven’t seen any of them.
Add more & discuss the above also. I’ll get into the “inspired by” films later.
Several of Rod Serling’s “Night Gallery” vignettes were based on Lovecraft’s stories (“Pickman’s Model” and “Cool Air,” for example). One vignette actually featured actors playing Lovecraft and Robert Bloch–“Professor Peabody’s Last Lecture,” in which the good Professor (played by Carl Reiner) makes the mistake of mentioning several times the ineffable name of Hastur.
Also, the movie “The Keep,” based on the novel by F. Paul Wilson, sorta. The novel definitely had Lovecraftian references, but they were omitted in the film.
I’ll chime in for Dagon as well. It had that creepy-crawly kind of horror, with the protagonists blundering through a rain-soaked fishing village with gibbering horrors lurking all around. Not the usual stupid gross stuff. (But Re-animator was fun. Just not very Lovecraftian.)
There’s also the execrable Dark Heritage, described by IMDB as an adaptation of “The Lurking Fear,” which fails even to achieve “so bad it’s good” status.
There are LOVECRAFT movies!!! Very cool! Anyone notice the Lovecraft homages that Stephen King has in his stories? My favorite is probaly the short story about the American couple in London where they walk into another dimension and an Eater Of Worlds comes along and devours the husband…how come the King movies gloss over or ignore the Lovecraft hommages…think that would make it wonderfully scary!
Dream Quest is good. At least, it’s as good as I think we’re ever going to get unless somebody with $100 million decides to make a live action adaptation.
The movie Hellboy has some major Lovecraftian influences, particularly the big monster Hellboy fights at the end. The comics are even more inspired by Lovecraft.
Mignola loves Lovecraft. He’s even done a 3-part Batman Elseworlds based on Lovecraft. I’m convinced the big monster at the end of Hellboy is the Worm from Robert E Howard’s Valley Of The Worm. Why Arkham House has never given Mignola permission to use the mythos terms, I don’t know.
Re Dagon
I’m usually a purist, but I liked it. Yes, it’s a delapidated Spanish fishing village instead of a delapidated New England fishing village. We still have a degraded, halfbreed people, churches given over to worship of dark gods etc.
Videogames
Shadow Of The Comet
came out sometime in the early 90’s. You’re a reporter on a assignment to photograph a comet. You find references to strange stars and cults. You’re slowly brought from the world you know to one of timeless horror. I like it a lot.
Prisoners Of The Ice
The Nazis have been looking for a mystic weapon. They seem to have found them. You must find hidden research that will tell you what these things are and how to fight them. The game includes classic lines like “That which is not dead may eternal lie. . .” I remember the game being too easy. But, I’ve come to regret giving my copy away very much.
What was the name of the classic Infocom game?
Alone In The Dark-
The first game was very Lovecraftian. A power from outside time and space waits in De Certo mansion. There’s a copy of the Necronomicon in the library. There are deep ones. Best of all (from memory so I might have the wording wrong) “You think you have won. Fool! I have brought you this far. I wait in my prison. Come to me! I will eat your soul and leave this place in your flesh.”
I’ve never been able to get AITD 2 to work past a certain point.
AITD3 is a fun game but is largely the stuff of other pulps-hard boiled detective fighting the bad guys, mad scientists, cowboys.
AITD-The New Nightmare is crap. It’s a standard modern monster shoot em up.
This was an episode of The Real Ghostbusters cartoon. The writer obviously knew his Lovecraft. One of the characters in the episode is Clark Ashton Smith.
“Cthulu makes Ghozer look like little mary sunshine.”
“You’re such a pollyanna, Egon.”
I haven’t seen the episode in years. But, the only problem I remember is that Cthulu is red instead of green.
I wonder who wrote that one. J. Michael Stracyznski, of Babylon 5 and Marvel Comics fame, wrote a good deal of the Real Ghostbusters episodes, and Justice League International co-writers Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis each wrote a few as well.
