Monday Again…
You’ll no doubt have noticed that there’s been a dearth of Lovecraftian-themed material in my posts of late. That’s not for want of trying. Either I am just not traveling in the right circles or not much is going on in that vein right now.
I’ve never read many of the Lovecraftian pastiches by authors like Brian Lumley or even Derleth, and I’m loathe to get into them right now simply because I don’t want any influence slipping in uninvited. But there are lots of Lovecraft movies out there and though all the ones I’ve ever seen are pretty bad, for you I am going to start watching and reviewing them. You may now be moved by my sacrifice.
I’ll start with what they have on Netflix, and if you have any favorites that I can rip to shreds review, let me know.
Aug.20 will be HPL’s 120th birthday. I am trying to think of something special, but haven’t as yet. I will, though.
August 2nd, 2010 at 7:57 am
Does this mean you’ve stayed away from Lovecraftian writers in general? I’ve found some of them to be very good indeed, like T. E. D. Klein. My favorite book of stories written in “the Lovecraft style/universe” is New Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos edited by Ramsey Cambell. Although it is hard to find now, it has some great gems.
August 2nd, 2010 at 10:06 am
I’m intrigued by “Cthulu” (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0478126/)
August 2nd, 2010 at 11:03 am
I’ve stayed away from them just so I didn’t get confused and start pulling ideas from their stories. I’ve heard good things about a lot of them and I’m looking forward to catching up after LIM is finished. I have New Tales of Cthulhu Mythos, both the Derleth books and a raft of other collections by diverse hands.
August 2nd, 2010 at 11:03 am
That’s the first one I put on my Netflix list
August 2nd, 2010 at 11:55 am
So when you get around to reading non-HPL stuff, TALES OF THE LOVECRAFT MYTHOS and TALES OF THE CTHULHU MYTHOS are pretty good along with THE NEW LOVECRAFT CIRCLE. These mostly focus on Weird Tales era authors and some slightly later such as Bloch and CIRCLE having popular late 20th Century authors with quite good stories.
I liked some of Lumley’s earlier works. His early Titus Crow yarns were good, especially the short stories. CROW is a freelance psychic detective type steeped in a Mythos world. I’d suggest THE COMPLETE CROW. For non-Crow stuff I’d suggest FRUITING BODIES. I’d stay away from the awful Dreamlands Books and Elysia, in which Cthulhu has a family with names like Cthylla, which sounded quite Cthilly to me.
The only really “newer” stuff I could suggest would be Stanley Sargent’s collections TAINT OF LOVECRAFT and ANCIENT EXHUMATIONS. Many of his stories are quite thought-provoking and bereft of serious pastiche.
Movie-wise? AM1200, THE RESURRECTED, THE PRINCE OF DARKNESS, OUT OF MIND, oh actually you should probably just get everything on this page http://www.lurkerfilms.com/cat/index.html and obviously HPLHS’ THE CALL OF CTHULHU.
August 2nd, 2010 at 3:23 pm
I admit that a guilty pleasure of mine is the movie “Cast a Deadly Spell.” Kind of hard to find, as it’s only on VHS and never made it to DVD. Not wholly Lovecraftian, but the main plot is solidly “Let’s bring back the Elder Race because they’ll make us kings of Earth.”
Last Halloween, as we did our local community theatre Haunted House fund raiser, one pair of guys did a “Cthulhu Room.” Although they made a decent mask and costume, we never got past the contamination of pop culture, and they kept hearing “Oh look, it’s Davy Jones!” Sigh. If Great Cthulhu had roused himself from his slumber, slogged over from R’lyeh to volunteer as a monster, and made a suitable dynamic entrance, someone still would have shouted “Davy Jones!” Thanks, Disney.
ZGTJ
August 2nd, 2010 at 3:25 pm
And an aside to Father Jackey: “Um, hel-LO? Where you been with that knife all this time, Jeeves?”
August 2nd, 2010 at 4:49 pm
Cthulhu was atrociously bad, whether you like lovecraft or just like horror or even if you like “bad movies”. Took itself very seriously, didn’t offer any lovecraftian horror nor any other kind of horror, strayed WAY off source.
I strongly recommend:
- Masters of Horror episode “Dreams in the witch house”. It subtly mixes in a couple of elements from other Lovecraft stories but stays very close to the source material.
- Dagon – Actually a pretty close adaption of Innsmouth, it adds a decent dose of b-movie nudity which may offend purists but i thought it was done tastefully. Surprisingly good b-movie chiller considering it plays it more or less straight.
- Colour from the dark – Very creepy adaptation of “the colour out of space”, although purists may argue with the replacement of cosmic horror with catholic imagery but as long as you are prepared for it, it works.
Then there’s a Joshi anthology of current lovecraftian fiction coming out.
http://store.pspublishing.co.uk/acatalog/Black_Wings_HC.html
August 2nd, 2010 at 5:17 pm
Dagon and In the Mouth of Madness are musts.
August 3rd, 2010 at 12:51 am
Ahaha! Zombie Gurl TJ, “Cast a Deadly Spell” is also one of my guilty pleasures! Oh, I haven’t thought about that movie in a while. Hee hee, Fred Ward as Harry Phillip Lovecraft, the Detective.
August 3rd, 2010 at 6:34 am
I saw Cast a Deadly Spell years ago; there was also a sequel, kinda, with Dennis Hopper taking over for Fred Ward. I think it was called Witch-Hunt.
August 3rd, 2010 at 3:23 pm
Oooo, really? I need to watch Witch Hunt then! Looks like Kropotkin is even in it. Thanks for the tip! ZGTJ
August 5th, 2010 at 3:36 pm
Re-Animator is a good Lovecraft film from the seventies, and if you don’t mind reading and crappy ’30s style effects, the HPLHS silent film adaptation of “The Call Of Cthulhu” is also worth watching. The HPLHS also did a “talkie” of “The Whisperer In Darkness”, but I haven’t seen it yet. Oh, and a great film done in a Lovecraftian vein is John Carpenter’s “In The Mouth Of Madness”.
August 6th, 2010 at 10:11 am
And maybe my mind is leaving me, but I thought I heard from Comic-Con that there was a movie version of Mountains of Madness in the work…
August 6th, 2010 at 10:42 am
It’s one of those on-again/off-again projects that Guillermo Del Toro has wanted to make for years. I heard it was in on-again mode recently on AICN, but until it’s at the theatres, I’m not holding my breath. I’m also a little leery of a movie version as the story, which I love, is largely a travelogue through an alien culture. Adding story elements will dilute it, I think.
August 6th, 2010 at 10:48 pm
Oh I agree that I would be very leery if the picture comes to fruition. Then again, it could be fun in a bad way…sort of how me and my friends feel about films like In The Mouth of Madness.
August 11th, 2010 at 3:04 pm
Yep, Re-Animator is a classic. I will risk the wrath of the others by saying I liked all three “Re-Animator” movies, and am still holding my breath for “House of Re-Animator,” yet another on-again, off-again movie with great potential.
Just saw “Witch Hunt” with Dennis Hopper, and while I enjoyed it, it wasn’t as enjoyable as “Cast a Deadly Spell.” Everyone in it tried very hard, but it was only so-so. It kind of looks like HBO was trying to make a series out of “Lovecraft as a detective.”
ZGTJ