Inspired by the Stephen King thread, and mainly because I don’t like King, I started wondering which Lovecraft story would make a good film. To my knowledge, no actually good film was ever made based on a Lovecraft story (if anyone has any recommendations, however…), so here are my two favourites:
-Herbert West: Reanimator. I’ll admit I haven’t seen Stuart Gordon’s Re-Animator, but I hear it has almost nothing to do with the actual story. I think, given the right adaptation, it would make a great film, creepy and gory at the same time: lots of atmosphere. I’d very much like to see a serious adaptation of this.
-At the Mountains of Madness. From a visual point of view, this would be great: majestic vistas of snow-covered mountains, scenes of hardship as the explorers struggle through the snow, the immense cities… I suppose the ‘monster design’ would have to be somewhat altered (the whole animal-vegetable-mineral thing might not really work on screen) and I fear the ‘twist ending’ wouldn’t really have that much impact on today’s audience. But as it is, the story has a lot going for it, and again, I’d be very excited to see a film.
So what do you think? Which Lovecraft story would be best suited for adaptation to cinema? How should it be done? Hell, suggest directors/actors/make-up artists, if you want.