Cthulhu mythos in films

[warlock]

I'm still waiting for a really good film to be made using the Cthulhu mythos in films. There have been a few so far, but either suffered from low-budget, or didn't capture the 'cosmic horror' elements that HPL wanted to convey. I've always thought "At the Mountains of Madness" or "The Whisperer in the Dark" would make good films; you could argue that John Carpenter was inspired by HPL in his adaptation of The Thing, and a lot of aliens or demons in films seem to show a "Lovecraftian" influence

I'll list the Cthulhu films that I know of, if anyone knows of more please add more:

The Dunwich Horror - directed by Daniel Haller
Dagon - directed by Brian Yuzna
The Beyond - another Brian Yuzna
Reanimator (1-3) - Brian Yuzna (hmm, I see a pattern developing)
The Mouth of Madness - John Carpenter

Also, I'm sure a Stephen King short-story was filmed that seemed to owe a lot to "The Colour from Space"

 

[Alucard]

The only one's I can think of at the moment are "The Unameable" and "The Unameable 2"

 

[Brian G Turner]

Mountains of Madness could certainly make a very interesting film - unfortunately, I'm not convinced that most directors wouldn't simply assign it a stock formula, and generally kill any sense of foreboding and actual horror from it.

As "Colour out of Space" is my personal favourite Lovecraft story, I'd probably love to see a faithful adaptation of that.

 

[Foxbat]

The Trollenberg Terror (AKA The Crawling Eye) is, supposedly, heavily influenced by the work of Lovecraft. Given that it is about multi-tentacled, mind controlling aliens, I'd think this was a distinct possibility

 

[ravenus]

Mountains of Madness could certainly make a very interesting film

I'm not too sure of that. Much of the narrative consists of the protagonists staring at a bunch of friezes gleaning about the life of the older ones through it...doesn't seem the sort of stuff that would make for interesting viewing over a long period.

 

[Brian G Turner]

What I remember most is when they're at Antartica, exploring the caves, finding the bodies of ancient aliens (Elder Things??), and then later being chased down by a rolling Shoggoth. It's nearly 15 years since I read it, though.

 

[neoncowboy]

I think that Lovecraft's influence can be found in loads of films, at least indirectly, the 1st Alien film reminds me a lot of "at the mountains of madness", John Carpenter's "the fog" captures the right mysterious atmosphere, the finale in Ghostbusters has very Lovecraftian overtones (it particulary reminds me of the finale in "the horror at red hook"), "the Blair witch project" seems to be in a similar vein... the setting for "alien vs predator" owes a lot to the mythos too. It's just a shame there arn't many people making direct and faithful interpretations. Maybe his work isn't suited to contemporary mainstream cinema, and too expensive for independant film makers.

The best thing about the "Dagon" movie was that it managed to capture the sense of wonder and beauty that is a much ignored element of Lovecrafts work - namely in the dream sequence at the beginning of the movie and the swimming sequence at the end.

Have a look at this & download the trailer - I think this project has great potential:- http://www.cthulhulives.org/toc.html

 

[polymorphikos]

http://www.hplovecraft.com/popcult/moviestv

 

[rune]

I'm going to pick up Cthulhu & Other Weird Stories today, yep my library is now open Sunday afternoons

 

[GOLLUM]

I'm going to pick up Cthulhu & Other Weird Stories today, yep my library is now open Sunday afternoons

Hmmm. sounds interesting, please let us know how it goes..

 

[rune]

Hmmm. sounds interesting, please let us know how it goes..

Just started the first story. It seems kinda old fashioned at present.

 

[rune]

I read the 1st 3 stories of the collection of short stories. Couldnt see the point in continuing. There is a big difference between what is consider scary and strange now and what was consider scary and strange then these were written. The stories I read were slightly different but that's all I could say

 

[fungi from Yuggoth]

Rune,

That's a shame. I feel you'll be missing out if you give up now. Lovecraft's style is old-fashioned, true, but incredibly evocative once you get past that 'language barrier'. He was never a writer who reveled in gore; rather, he methodically and subtly builds up a certain weirdness that often reaches a crescendo in the last few pages. Which stories did you read? I've found a lot of Lovecraft collections open with his lesser pieces.

 

[j d worthington]

Lovecraft films? Few have been worth watching; even fewer worth watching more than once. As for Stuart Gordon's films ("Re-animator", "From Beyond", "Castle Freak", "Dagon" and the new "Dreams in the Witch House"), I feel that, aside from a modern sensibility (the sexual content and violence as well as updating cultural views) he and Dennis Paoli have done a respectable job at capturing much of the flavor of Lovecraft's vision at times. I didn't care for "Dagon" at first, but found I kept going back to it, and that each time I found more of Lovecraft woven through it, often in the most surprising places.

One of the best places to find out about Lovecraftian cinema is "Lurker in the Lobby" by Andrew Migliore and John Strysik; there's also a company called "Lurker Films" which has a 3-volume H. P. Lovecraft collection of smaller, independent films (usually one main and two or more shorts), each of which are worth a whirl. Some of these suffer a bit from being short on budget, but many are actually quite evocative. There's also a silent version of "Call of Cthulhu", done very much in the period style, quite nice, and exceptionally close to text.

As I've said in other posts (I just found this site, and am a bit like a kid in a candy store), Lovecraft's style is a matter of taste; lush and evocative rather than the sort of staccato prose typical of much of the twentieth century. I hope those of you who find this off-putting can readjust; if not, you'll be missing some wonderful experiences!

 

[Nesacat]

thulhu mythos in films

Saw Call of Cthulhu at the Eastercon in Glasgow and then found the DVD at the Black Lion in Edinburgh. This is the black & white silent movie and does manage to do quite a good job of creating the right atmosphere. Also found The Statement of Randolf Carter but have yet to watch it. Maybe this weekend.

Have seen In The Mouth of Madness and that was pretty well done. Then there is the latest incarnation of Dagon which could have done with a lot more subtlety and a lot less drama and gore. Oh yes ... Hellboy did have some Lovecraftian influences with the gods being imprisoned and having tentacles and all; though it sort of fell flat when the creature actually materialises.

 

[Crisspin]

Re: thulhu mythos in films

Saw Call of Cthulhu at the Eastercon in Glasgow and then found the DVD at the Black Lion in Edinburgh. This is the black & white silent movie and does manage to do quite a good job of creating the right atmosphere.

I have to give a shout for the indie Call of Cthulhu. I saw it at Indianapolis GenCon and thought it was terrific. It kept the same style and tone of the silent picture, which fit perfectly with the Lovecraftian style.

If you are a fan of the loon from Providence, then I suggest you hunt for this little independent gem. It is simply the most direct page to screen translation of any HPL work.

 

[Zenaphobe]

I found this a while back while looking for a PC game,

cthulhuthemovie.com



The trailer looks good, but then, they all usually do.

Sorry I could'nt link the page, Im too new to do that.

 

[j d worthington]

Yes, I've seen one trailer for it ... obviously using the Lovecraftian elements for metaphor about conditions politically societally, but nonetheless the trailer looked like it might have possibilities; may actually be worth seeing. It's been in the works for about 2-3 years, anyway. If I see anything more on it, I'll post in the Lovecraftian Cinema thread.

 

[GOLLUM]

I thought that was the one we were talking about the other day over in the Lounge JD??

 

[j d worthington]

No, that was the silent film The Call of Cthulhu, which was done by the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society, a group of fans who made very good use of their pennies to produce a quite admirable piece of film. This one is Hollywood product, and has an odd cast (including one which makes me dubious, though not entirely closed off to the possibility of it being a good film: Tori Spelling, albeit in a very minor role, according to the film credits I've seen for it).