The Movies of H. P. Lovecraft
No, of course H. P. Lovecraft did not make movies. Like all the great writers he knew the power of the printed word and shunned the idea of his works being butchered for the screen. Tolkien, as some suggest, loathed the idea of his epics being made into movies, or at least did not want Hobbit to go to Disneyland. Nevertheless, it happened. I mean LOTR combo meals at Burger King! I also have been resentful of watching anything based on H. P. Lovecraft's stories for a long time, but recently I got curious of what is really out there on the subject. Living in a grey, barren terrain surrounded with lifeless zombies and riding an enormous underground worm for 2 hours each day kinda puts you in the mood. As a result I have watched about a dosen films so far and there's still about ten of them to go. Here's what I found out.
Lovecraft has been vandalized by modern pop-culture more than any other author of the genre, there is even a "Tiger Lillies" album on him! I guess, people are having a hard time realizing the fact that Lovecraft is not Stephen King (not that Stephen King is bad, it's just different). The first thing that strikes you is the amount of cheap 80s horror flicks with permed bimbos and horny teens being slashed and torn to pieces by goo spewing monsters bearing Lovecraftian names. Naturally I avoided this kind of stuff for as long as I remember, but in the view of the new research I saw it could be fun. Besides, I'd much rather see something like that any time than some unspeakable abominations like "American Pie 5" or "Scary Movie 8"... I also found out that not all of them are dumb slasher only-good-on-VHS crap, some of Lovecraftian presentations feature brilliant performances by Boris Karloff, Christopher Lee and Vincent Price, and this is not to be missed!
So, here's the list:
The Haunted Palace (1963) - Vincent Price and Lon Chaney Jr.
Die, Monster, Die! (1965) - Boris Karloff
The Shuttered Room (1967) - ok
The Crimson Cult (1968) - Boris Karloff, Christopher Lee, reminiscent of "The Wicker Man"
The Dunwich Horror (1970) - ok
Re-Animator (1985) - Stuart Gordon's gory goofy slasher film, very 80s
From Beyond (1986) - more of Stuart Gordon's weirdness, very much 80s
The Curse (1987) - yet to see
The Unnamable (1988) - slasher
Cthulhu Mansion (1990) - B-horror with moronic teenagers, 80s!
Bride of Re-Animator (1990) - sequel to "Re-Animator"
Cast a Deadly Spell (1991) - a gangster comedy with Cthulhu conjuration
The Resurrected (1992) - not bad
The Unnamable II: The Statement of Randolph Carter (1993) - sequel to "The Unnamable"
Necronomicon (1993) - 3 novels, first 2 are not half bad, the last one is just ridiculous
Lurking Fear (1994) - yet to see
Witch Hunt (1994) - sequel to "Cast a Deadly Spell"
Castle Freak (1995) - slasher
In the Mouth of Madness (1995) - John Carpenter, you gotta love it!
Dagon (2001) - not bad at times, watery, gloomy atmosphere, vicious mermaid babe, sea people and skinning alive
Beyond Re-Animator (2003) - sequel to "Bride of Re-Animator"
The Call of Cthulhu (2005) - have been raved about as the most faithful adaptation to date, made by The H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society, black&white and silent! ... and these guys also have a sense of humour :)
And there is more out there ...
Among Lovecraft "inspired" films the sources list:
The Last Wave (1977) - an amazing film by Peter Weir, who also made "Picnic at the Hanging Rock" and "Dead Poets Society" and "The Truman Show", a must see!
Alien (1979) - yeah motherfucker!
The Thing (1982) - fuck yeah!
The Evil Dead (1982) - yeah
Evil Dead II (1987) - yeah
Army of Darkness (1993) - ok, what else do we write down as Lovecraft? ...
For more info on the movies check these links:
http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0522454/
http://www.hplovecraft.com/popcult/moviestv/
http://www.thelurker.com/
On a final note, everybody is waiting for Guillermo del Toro's "At the Mountains of Madness" announced for 2010.
Well, that's all, folks! Now go and read some Lovecraft!
