Lovecraftian Cinema

[Bikewer]

Vincent Price did a number of Lovecraft stories, which were always oddly re-titled by the production company.
The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward for one, and another that was based on The Color Out Of Space.
I seem to remember two others based on the Mythos, which I recall had inverted titles....

[j. d. worthington]

Originally Posted by Bikewer

Vincent Price did a number of Lovecraft stories, which were always oddly re-titled by the production company.
The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward for one, and another that was based on The Color Out Of Space.
I seem to remember two others based on the Mythos, which I recall had inverted titles....

Actually, the only one with Price in it that I'm aware of is titled (with true Hollywood logic) Edgar Allan Poe's The Haunted Palace (or simply The Haunted Palace); it was put out as part of the Poe series that Roger Corman did, written by Charles Beaumont (who was not a fan of HPL and disliked the whole idea), and yes, it was based on The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. There was a Night Gallery Episode with Price that was tangentially Mythos, though it was adapted from Clark Ashton Smith's story "The Return of the Sorcerer".

There have been different film versions of "The Colour out of Space", but the one you're most likely thinking of didn't have Price, but Boris Karloff, and was titled Monster of Terror (UK) or Die, Monster, Die! (US). It, too, was an offshoot of the Corman films, along with an adaptation of "The Dunwich Horror". Both have their moments, but aren't particularly good films -- in fact, I'd say they're among the worst Lovecraft adaptations out there (with the exception of another version of "Colour" -- The Curse [1987], a truly gadawful film).

The Curse (1987)

The Haunted Palace (1963)

Die, Monster, Die! (1965)

The Dunwich Horror (1970)

Incidentally, here's a listing of those films taken from HPL's work (or at least where he's listed as writer of the original material) as given by IMDB:

H.P. Lovecraft

[GOLLUM]

Mr Worthington.

I have read through this entire thread with some interest. What I would like to know from you is are you able to list for me your top 5 films/movie adaptations of Lovecraft strories please?

Access to such things is very limited in my part of the world and I'm happy to purchase them but I don't really want to waste time on duds, just some of the more outstanding efforts put to celluloid please.

Thank You.

[j. d. worthington]

My top five would be a bit odd, as they aren't necessarily all adaptations of his stories, but also include things that capture the essence of HPL as well. At any rate, I'll give it some thought, but my tentative list would be:

Dagon
Out of Mind
The Call of Cthulhu (silent)
Rough Magik
Cool Air
Re-animator/The Resurrected (something of a toss-up, though for different reasons with each film)...

And yes, I realize that's more than 5, but these are the ones I feel honestly approached HPL's work (or the man himself, as in Out of Mind, which does both) with both great respect and some insight and originality. I'd also include -- though with some interesting reservations -- Gordon's adaptation of "The Dreams in the Witch House"... not because I feel it doesn't do the story justice (in its way), but because it shows an awareness and willingness to play on some of the over-the-top elements of that particular story as well....

[GOLLUM]

Thanks, now to see about getting hold of some of these....

[DesertOfZin]

Dagon was a great work.

So was Dreams In The Witch House for the Masters Of Horror series. That one was done by Stuart Gordon.

[j. d. worthington]

Originally Posted by DesertOfZin

Dagon was a great work.

So was Dreams In The Witch House for the Masters Of Horror series. That one was done by Stuart Gordon.

Yes, Gordon's take on Lovecraft is always interesting, even if one doesn't agree with it... in part because he really does approach the material with intelligence and respect for HPL... though not reverence (far from it, generally speaking). My only reservation about Dreams in the Witch House, as I said, is that his approach may strike some as too over-the-top with some elements, which may damage the atmosphere overall; but to be honest, those elements already exist there in the story itself... well, except for the nudity and overt sexuality, that is.....

[Nesacat]

Dagon is awesome. Thanks to JD here for getting me to watch it over again. I did not care for it the first time but now it's a favourite. Definitely the sort of movie that grows on you especially when you realise the complexity of the tiny details.

My favourite will always I think be Call of Chtulhu for what was done with so little because people cared enough. It's an amazing standard for today's movie makers.

[kaelcarp]

I didn't really like Dagon much. I mean, it was better than the average Lovecraft film, but that's not saying much since most are abysmally bad. I did like Call of Cthulhu quite a bit, and the animated Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath wasn't bad for what it was. A friend of mine has an additional music credit for the latter.

Lovecraft stories are very difficult to film. There's so little actual physical action in many of the stories, with most of the interesting parts taking place in people's heads. It's often best to go for Lovecraft-inspired movies. John Carpenter is pretty good for that. His version of The Thing is pretty Lovecraftian, and In the Mouth of Madness is probably my favorite of the Lovecraft-inspired lot.

[j. d. worthington]

Well, as said in both my post and Nesa's, neither of us particularly cared for the film on first viewing. It was seeing it again later that I began to realize how carefully crafted and genuinely "Lovecraftian" a film it truly was... and how much of it is also genuinely eerie and unsettling once you begin fitting the tiny, almost unnoticed pieces together. There's a lot more to that film than appears on the surface, and it takes several attentive viewings to get all the subtle layers of thought it has going on simultaneously....

As for Lovecraft-inspired films... yes, a lot of the best "Lovecraftian" work is just that. I have some reservations with In the Mouth of Madness because it rather awkwardly walks that line between atmosphere and graphic gore and nastiness, yet it also has a lot of truly brilliant things to it, not to mention some stunning images and symbology. The Thing -- at least, in its original theatrical version, not the more recent re-edit I saw a few years ago, which added a completely unnecessary voice-over at the end, robbing the climax of the film of 90% of its emotive power -- is, again despite flaws, a wonderful film on a lot of levels. Even The Fog has its Lovecraftian elements, and was certainly influenced on different levels by HPL. (I refer to the original version. The remake is an abomination of which all copies should be burned and immediately forgotten....)

[MontyCircus]

The best Lovecraftian movie is Ghostbusters.

Plot:

Worshippers from an ancient cult construct a gate to another dimension. There they worship to gather spiritual energy in order to summon an ancient god and draw it into our dimension which they hope will then bring about the end of the world.

Ghosts, cultists, ancient god-creatures, end-of-the-world. It's Lovecraft straight up and down.

Incidentally, I bought the silent Call of Cthulhu flick...and honestly I couldn't wait for it to end. Maybe it's the fact that it was silent, or the budget, I'm not sure. But I really hated it.

[kaelcarp]

Originally Posted by montycircus

The best Lovecraftian movie is Ghostbusters.

Plot:

Worshippers from an ancient cult construct a gate to another dimension. There they worship to gather spiritual energy in order to summon an ancient god and draw it into our dimension which they hope will then bring about the end of the world.

Ghosts, cultists, ancient god-creatures, end-of-the-world. It's Lovecraft straight up and down.

Funny, I was recently watching Ghostbusters - I was 10 when it came out - and thinking about how Lovecraftian the premise was. None of the mood, of course, but the background was there. The main difference is that Gozer and all that had some inkling of care about humanity, whereas Lovecraft's entities were usually kind of indifferent.

Actually, the cartoon was much more Lovecraftian. I believe Cthulhu even made an appearance in it.

Incidentally, I bought the silent Call of Cthulhu flick...and honestly I couldn't wait for it to end. Maybe it's the fact that it was silent, or the budget, I'm not sure. But I really hated it.

Well, for a Lovecraft fan hungry for a decent film adaptation, it's something. Personally, I thought they did a great job. But you have to be willing to put aside a lot in order to watch it and like it, I think.

[brsrkrkomdy]

Actually, The Fog was accidentally William Hope Hodgson's "Ghost Pirates". If you read Hodgson's short novel, you'd notice the similarities between the two, not in plot, mind you, but the dark seafaring atmosphere with sheer ghostliness in it. Hodgson was known for his nautical nightmares. That's why I didn't think it compares too much with Lovecraft.
However, The Thing is purely Lovecraftian in theme and construction, even though it's adapted from the story by John W. Campbell, "Who Goes There?"
Now, in terms of Lovecraftian, it would be a bleak worldview of the unforgiving universe, an existentialist nightmare where humanity is merely a colony of fleas. Here are some that are split into two categories, one's a Lovecraft adaptations and the others are simply Lovecraftian:

LOVECRAFT ADAPTATIONS:

Call Of Cthulhu
The Dunwich Horror
Dreams Of The Witch House (Brain Damage Films version different from Masters Of Horror)
Pickman's Model (Night Gallery episode)
Cool Air (Night Gallery episode)
Dagon
Reanimator
From Beyond
The Unnamable
Die, Monster, Die!
The Curse

LOVECRAFTIAN:

The Church
Children of the Corn (I know that one's crap but still...)
Quatermass Experiment aka Creeping Unknown
Quatermass II aka Killers from Space
Quatermass & The Pit aka 5 Million Years To Earth
The Thing From Another World
The Thing
Prince Of Darkness
Rosemary's Baby
Black Sunday (Mario Bava film)
Suspiria (slightly Lovecraftian)
In the Mouth Of Madness
Hellboy
Alien
Demon City: Shinjuku (anime)
Lily Cat (anime)
Laughing Target (anime)
Uzumaki
Yoma (anime)
Tomie series
Maribito
Hellraiser
Mimic (could've been a better movie if the second half hadn't deteriorated.)
Dead Birds
Kibakichi
Darkness
Pitch Black

That's about it as far as I know.

[j. d. worthington]

I'd agree that The Fog isn't a Lovecraftian adaptation, but it does have Lovecraftian elements -- something Carpenter has commented on himself now and again (and, incidentally, something completely lost in the remake). It does, however, bear a lot more resemblance to Hodgson's novel, though I don't know whether either Carpenter or Hill had read Hodgson at that point.

And you make a valid point about the difference between actual adaptations of Lovecraft's work and those which show his influence in one way or another. (Incidentally, I agree that Ghostbusters has that sort of thing going on; and yes, the Mythos critters made actually more than one appearance in the animated series. Just as a side note, one of the things I appreciated about that series was that they tended to give credit vocally to the writers who influenced particular scripts by mentioning them in the dialogue, but done in such a way as not to shatter the verisimilitude -- if that's the right word for this series! -- of the story itself.)

Here's a link to one site devoted to such adaptations and Lovecraft-influenced works:

The Lurker in the Lobby: A Guide to the Cinema of H.P. Lovecraft

There are a lot more actual adaptations than I had realized until I came across this site a couple of years ago; and more are coming down the pike all the time, including some rather intriguingly Lovecraftian pieces on the 'net...

[ravenus]

Originally Posted by brsrkrkomdy

LOVECRAFTIAN:

The Thing From Another World

Rosemary's Baby

Black Sunday (Mario Bava film)

Suspiria (slightly Lovecraftian)

I don't know all the films of your list but these are definitely not Lovecraftian. Especially Rosemary's Baby with its central concept of Anti-Christian evil is exactly what Lovecraft was determined to avoid in his brand of fiction. Black Sunday is an archetypal Gothic, with more to owe to say, Le Fanu and M.R. James than Lovecraft. Thing from another world is a campy alien movie. Suspria with its rootings in witchcraft again has more to do with James and Blackwood (or perhaps atleast Thomas De Quincey's poem of Levana and our Sisters of sorrow) than the cosmic unreasoning evil of Lovecraft's major oeuvre.