Try At The Mouth Of Madness and The Last Winter. As Lovecraft as it gets.
There is an early 70s French film, Le Fin Absolue Du Monde… Very hard to find.
Google it. :)
This one is pretty good-
Trailer – The call of Cthulhu movie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHuY2wXTd0o
Francisco- I thought I heard something about a print of that turning up…
“I thought I heard something about a print of that turning up…”
Saw a snippet of it on Youtube- The guy screaming “Le Feu! Le Fou!”…
The Shuttered Room is pretty good…and who wouldn’t appreciate the teaming of Oliver Reed & Carol Lynley?
Re-Animator is a classic…
on the low end is Die, Monster, Die!…one of Karloff’s crappy late films.
In the Mouth of Madness (not a direct Lovecraft adaptation, but certainly “Lovecraftian” as is many of Carpenter’s earlier films such as The Thing [while being a more literal adaptation of Who Goes There, there are similarities to the Mountains of Madness especially with the design of the creature] and Prince of Darkness) and Re-Animator are the best representations so far. From Beyond and Necronomicon (also Castle Freak and of course, the Lurking Fear) are decent. Dagon is nice and campy. The Masters of Horror episode, Dreams in the Witch House wasn’t bad. I haven’t yet seen the Dunwich Horror, but I’m skeptical as to the quality (though Jeffrey Combs is in it so that’s always a treat).
Speaking of under-represented author adaptations, what about Ambrose Bierce? There’s been a few, but not many (Jacob’s Ladder, not to mention the Masters of Horror episode The Damned Thing, and the Twilight Zone episode, the Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge).
“The Colour Out of Space” was filmed as a segment of Creepshow: “The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill” with Stephen King “acting” the lead.
I agree that the old-timey CALL OF CTHULHU short has been the most satisfying adaptation of his style and tone (and time-period) that I’ve ever seen. A few hoaky decisions therein, but overall, much better than any much larger-budget fare I’ve ever seen paying homage to Lovecraft. Really inspiring creative choices for a production of its size! I presumed it was a digital-only production, so I don’t know if a print was ever made.
Also, I think ALIEN bears a lot of Lovecraft influence and philosophy. I think O’Bannon was a fan, and I presume Giger was a fan based on the naming of his book NECRONOMICON. The Alien might as well be a Lovecraftian monstrosity, covered in ooze and orifices as it is. Carpenter’s THE THING is good too, but I attribute that to Bottin’s design-work more than Carpenter’s directing of group dynamics amongst the characters…not exceptionally Lovecraftian rhythm since it’s based so heavily in dialogue and conversation. Would love to see IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS (in fact, I will Netflix it right now).
Also, THE DESCENT’s creatures really made me think of THE LURKING FEAR, but otherwise, it’s a pretty peripheral connection.
I would love to see a feature length release that adapts maybe 4 shorts into four segments of the movie, maybe even directed by four different directors though that could be too gimmicky, and there would be a nice continuity to having one director helm the whole thing. I don’t think any individual short story of Lovecraft’s is suited for a feature-length adaptation, given their reliance on first-person narration. I think that style is key to the tone and should be kept with a minimum of dialogue but a maximum of visuals, yet I also think that style would fall flat over the course of a feature.
Francisco – I would love to get my hands on this “La Fin Absolue du Monde”… any recommendations how? There’s an Abel Gance film called “La Fin du Monde” which I imagine is not the one you’re referring to.
Miasma-I’m not so sure you’d like to see “La Fin Absolue du Monde,” apparently the audiences during it’s early showings had some pretty extreme reactions.
Now I really want to see CIGARETTE BURNS. Is it any good? Man, where has Carpenter gone?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0643109/plotsummary
Is this just some in-joke, or does such a film actually exist? Cause I get the joke. Besides, I stomached In The Mouth of Madness and that should’ve feasibly made me go crazy. But then perhaps we’re all crazy for watching that and having not killing ourselves afterward. The Onion AV Club, in its Event Horizon review, once referred to Sam Neill as an “impotent Donald Duck of an actor”… thought that was funny. There’s another flick to kill oneself after… both films I just referred to are horror films with such delicious potential for fun that were quite pathetically short-changed by their screenwriters. C’est la vie…
Watch Cigarette Burns…
Yes, I get it. It’s the film in Cigarette Burns. I simply wanted to know if it really existed.
Yes, I get it. It’s the film in Cigarette Burns. I simply wanted to know if it really existed.
I’m a big Lovecraft fan, and I am surprised that the excellent Canadian film Out of Mind hasn’t been mentioned yet. It’s not a direct adaptation of any of Lovecraft’s works, but I can’t imagine any Lovecraft fan being disappointed by it. I’ll resist descriptions for the sake of avoiding spoilers. It’s best to go into it blind.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0213968/
Really, any of the DVDs put out by Lurker films would be of interest to posters in this thread.
http://www.lurkerfilms.com/cat/index.html
Watched a bunch of Lovecraft flims recently – they’re pretty much all terrible.
The Haunted Palace stands out, gets the blue ribbon! With Vincent Price and, while certainly imperfect, is the most caring and artful (thanks Roger Corman) of the HPLs I’ve encountered.
From Beyond is laughable but not without some entertainment value – I think Jeffrey Combs is a discount Anthony Perkins.
Dreams in the Witch-House (2005), another Stuart Gordon, was hardly worth watching.
Cthulhu (2007) is a $750,000 student film. And like many students films it isn’t without promise, but not enough. Lots of ambition, little storytelling capacity.
The Call of Cthulhu isn’t too bad, really. End makes you wish you watched something else, but before that you find yourself intrigued. I don’t see the point of presenting the film as if it came out in the early 20’s.
RE-ANIMATOR!
>>I think ALIEN bears a lot of Lovecraft influence and philosophy. I think O’Bannon was a fan<<
You might want to check out THE RESURRECTED, his adaptation of CHARLES DEXTER WARD.
>>the film in Cigarette Burns. I simply wanted to know if it really existed<<
Uh … no.
Gee, thanks for the update, Harry.
What are the odds a cartoon about anthropomorphized cats would have a Lovecraftian tinge to it. See what you think. I think the foregrounded presence of a narrator with a sense of a highly subjective tone is key, even if the rhyming and rhythm of the prose isn’t akin to Lovecraft’s style.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uj4RBmU-PIo
…or maybe I’m just too sensitive to its similarity to Lovecraft’s “The Cats of Ulthar”. I think this animation collective could do a great job with a Lovecraft adaptation.
Also, excite for the WHISPERER IN THE DARK adaptation being made by the same folks who did the CALL OF CTHULHU black and white short. Think their self-dubbed “Mythoscope” style works well and comes off looking pretty sharp considering their undoubtedly low budget.
>>Also, excite for the WHISPERER IN THE DARK adaptation being made by the same folks who did the CALL OF CTHULHU black and white short. Think their self-dubbed “Mythoscope” style works well and comes off looking pretty sharp considering their undoubtedly low budget<<
I take it you watched the making-of doc on CALL OF CTHULHU … it’s astonishing what they accomplished for pennies. I’m looking forward to their new one as well.
No, actually haven’t seen the making of! I’ll have to get it back form netflix. Thanks for the heads up.
Well, to give you an idea: that mountain/city everyone is clambering about on was built in someone’s back yard…
One of my former students, Mark Steensland, made a Lovecraft movie called Lovecraft’s Pillow.
You can apparently see the whole short (less than 10 min.) film at:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0888510/
tom cruise in a potentially good lovecraft film? no no no no no no please god no!
Tom Cruise? WTF? Where did you read about this? Then again, he is into Scientology which is only a few steps away from the Mythos in the religions deparment.
RaySquirrel
Is there anyone else who wonders why there has not been any really good movies based on Lovecraft’s work?
Gilliermo del Toro has been attached to do an adaptation to “At the Mountains of Madness” and I really hope it gets made.