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HP Lovecraft movies


Toadmaster

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I ran across a DVD in Walmart tonight, "Dreams in the witch house", I thought it might be worth a rental but I'm not really willing to spend $20 for what is probably a really bad movie.

 

Has anyone seen this? care to comment?

 

Are there any decent HP Lovecraft movies out there?

 

From beyond was Ok, if I found it cheap enough I'd probably get it.

 

I've never really cared for Reanimator, far to goofy to be scary. I'm not aware of any others out there actually based on HPL although I know several movies have been loosely inspired by his stories.

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Re: HP Lovecraft movies

 

I ran across a DVD in Walmart tonight' date=' "Dreams in the witch house", I thought it might be worth a rental but I'm not really willing to spend $20 for what is probably a really bad movie.[/quote']

 

I've seen it.

 

I'm an HPL fan.

 

I wouldn't pay 20 bucks for it (actually I doubt I'd pay more than... oh.. 4?)

 

It's OK, slightly campy.

 

cheers, Mark

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Re: HP Lovecraft movies

 

I believe they list the various movies based on his work on the Lovecraft website - so have a look there.

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

Repped for the link!

 

Based on that, it looks like The Resurrected is the only truly worthwhile SERIOUS film on the list, though it's one I haven't seen. Having seen about half of the list given, I found them very accurately described.

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Re: HP Lovecraft movies

 

The HP Lovecraft Historical Society has created the best Lovecraft movie I've seen.

 

The Call of Cthulhu, in Mythoscope:

 

that was rather well done.

 

The Shadow over Insmouth remake that cam out a few years ago was pretty good too. They changed up a few things, but it was well worth watching.

 

Aforementioned Cast a Deadly Spell was fun, but its definitely a homage film... The main character is a PI named H.P. Lovecraft who is quite literally the only non magic user in a magical alternate earth.

 

The closest film I've yet seen to capture the feel of a true lovecrft tale is still, IMO, At the Mouth of Madness.

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Re: HP Lovecraft movies

 

Thanks for the links :thumbup:

 

I remember seeing Cast a deadly spell on HBO years ago, I've been trying to find a copy for years but it doesn't seem to be available. :(

 

Fred Ward is always great, one of those actors that could make a real turd of a movie worth seeing but I can't think of anything bad he's been in to prove it.

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Re: HP Lovecraft movies

 

Curse of the Demon has a kinda lovecraft feel to it, and its way cool because because its black and white.

 

Dreams of the Witch House is part of Showtimes Masters of Horror series.

 

I think they oughta release the entire set as a box set, but 10 dollars for a 50 minute movie might throw off some folks, but there are a lot of goodies on the disk as well.

 

Dagon was the Innsmonth retelling and a good one.

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Re: HP Lovecraft movies

 

Curse of the Demon has a kinda lovecraft feel to it, and its way cool because because its black and white.

 

Dreams of the Witch House is part of Showtimes Masters of Horror series.

 

I think they oughta release the entire set as a box set, but 10 dollars for a 50 minute movie might throw off some folks, but there are a lot of goodies on the disk as well.

 

Dagon was the Innsmonth retelling and a good one.

 

Thanks Thag!

I couldn't remember the title... I knew it was something super-obvious, but I was suffering crainial rectal inversion.

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Re: HP Lovecraft movies

 

Some thoughts from a longtime Lovecraft fan:

 

Stuart Gordon's Reanimator and From Beyond are a good watch, not necessarily very Lovecraftian (although the story that the former is based in isn't very Lovecraftian to start with) but entertaining horror pics. From Beyond does at least capture some of the "horror at looking beyond the veil" aspect of Lovecraft's horror.

 

For a good Lovecraft movie that at least tries to feel "Lovecraftian", the aforementioned Dagon (based on Shadow Over Innsmouth) and The Resurrected (based on The Case of Charles Dexter Ward) would be my choices and the latter would probably be my pick for best Lovecraft flick.

 

A number of John Carpenter's movies besides In the Mouth... show Lovecraftian influences, esp. Prince of Darkness and The Thing (whose pedigree can be traced, via the original story, back to At the Mountains of Madness). T'would be interesting to see him actually tackle Lovecraft someday.

 

Guillermo Del Toro (Hellboy) has been working on and off on an adaptation of At The Mountains of Madness (the s-f/horror novel by Lovecraft that directly or indirectly inspired the The Thing and a number of other subsequent s-f/horror stories) and, if we are lucky, it will see the light of day someday (after all, Stuart Gordon was working on an adaptation of Shadow Over Innsmouth years before Dagon finally got the greenlight).

 

David

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Re: HP Lovecraft movies

 

Come to think of it' date=' [i']Event Horizon[/i] had a very Lovecraftian feel to it, despite the science fiction setting. Gaze not into the Abyss...

 

AFAIK, Event Horizon started life as a script for Hellraiser in Space that got axed and was later reworker to remove the Hellraiser specfic IP elements. It (and they) do have a certain amount of the Lovecraft feel tho, I agree :D

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  • 2 weeks later...

Re: HP Lovecraft movies

 

Stephen King's It (at least in the book) has very Lovecraftian elements, especially at the confrontation.

 

The Thing was actually based on a story called Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell, Jr. Or are you saying that it borrowed from At The Mountains Of Madness (I have yet to read it, but do check the credits of The Thing so you see my point)?

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Re: HP Lovecraft movies

 

Stephen King's It (at least in the book) has very Lovecraftian elements, especially at the confrontation.

 

The Thing was actually based on a story called Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell, Jr. Or are you saying that it borrowed from At The Mountains Of Madness (I have yet to read it, but do check the credits of The Thing so you see my point)?

 

At the Mountains concerned Antarctica, The Great Race, and the Shoggoth rebellion (if I recall correctly)

 

It, I read. Also saw the movie of (liked Tim Curry in it). Naturally they dropped the underage sex in the movie :)

But yes the whole "fighting a creature in dimensions unnatural to the human senses" is quite Lovecraftian.

As is the appetite of It being based on a quite esoteric diet.

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Re: HP Lovecraft movies

 

AFAIK' date=' Event Horizon started life as a script for Hellraiser in Space that got axed and was later reworker to remove the Hellraiser specfic IP elements. It (and they) do have a certain amount of the Lovecraft feel tho, I agree :D[/quote']

That's funny. I heard the last Hellraiser movie started out as a decent horror script that couldn't get any funding. Add Pinhead to some scenes and money appeared.

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Re: HP Lovecraft movies

 

At the Mountains concerned Antarctica, The Great Race, and the Shoggoth rebellion (if I recall correctly)

 

Elder Things, not the Great Race.

 

It could easily be argued that Who Goes There? (An excellent read, btw) was at the least inspired by At the Mountains of Madness.

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Re: HP Lovecraft movies

 

Elder Things, not the Great Race.

 

It could easily be argued that Who Goes There? (An excellent read, btw) was at the least inspired by At the Mountains of Madness.

 

Speaking of The Great Race, however, wouldn't it be grand to see Peter Jackson tackle a movie version of "The Shadow Out of Time"?

 

I can dream....

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Re: HP Lovecraft movies

 

Elder Things, not the Great Race.

 

It could easily be argued that Who Goes There? (An excellent read, btw) was at the least inspired by At the Mountains of Madness.

 

Nah. IIRC 'Who Goes There' predates the Lovecraft. Too lazy to check the bookshelves so I may be wrong but it's worth checking as I've been in one of these discussions before ;)

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Re: HP Lovecraft movies

 

Nah. IIRC 'Who Goes There' predates the Lovecraft. Too lazy to check the bookshelves so I may be wrong but it's worth checking as I've been in one of these discussions before ;)

 

"Who Goes There", first printing 1934

 

"At the Mountains of Madness", written in 1931.

 

Which one was actually first, hard to say but probably madness.

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