Lovecraft films, ranked

By: Miasma

Let me preface this by saying that there are no great Lovecraft films I’ve yet seen, and I doubt any exist. I see great potential in HPL’s writings, but perhaps since they inherently attract geeks, no greatness will be possible? Well, maybe I’ll just change that. I’ve had a fantasy of doing exceptional period-piece justice to The Case of Charles Dexter Ward for some time now… And while I’m sure Guillermo Del Toro’s epic feature will be a rollicking romp, you’d have to work hard to convince me to expect greatness.

LOVECRAFT, RANKED
1 1987 Hellraiser
2 2005 The Call of Cthulhu
3 1992 The Resurrected
4 1970 The Dunwich Horror
5 1963 The Haunted Palace
6 1994 In the Mouth of Madness
7 1965 Die, Monster, Die!
8 1986 From Beyond
9 1985 Re-Animator
10 2001 Dagon
11 1987 The Curse
12 2007 Cthulhu
13 2005 Dreams in the Witch House

Hellraiser isn’t technically a Lovecraft film, but come on – we all know it would not exist without HPL. The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society did a swell job with The Call of Cthulhu, as much so as their retro-nonsense thing would allow, which was only so far. The Haunted Palace briefly skimmed over The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and really only works because of Price, but has some fun moments. Dunwich Horror is very similarly successful. And from here down on the list, no more quality is to be found, just variations of failure. 2007’s Cthulhu was shudderingly awful, absolute amateur dogshit. The Curse is pure, concentrated ultra-low-budget cheapo crap horror, but is actually kind of endearing along those lines. And it isn’t possible to get worse than Dreams in the Witch-House.