Lovecraft inspired movies

[BloodyAngel12]

Nightmares and Dreamscapes tv series episode Crouch End

[Deficineiron]

I've always thought of Event Horizon as vaguely Lovekraftian, though only vaguely. Movie for all intents and purposes blows, but the concept is pretty cool

what lovecraft might have considered if he had ever done science fiction. Event Horizon still sticks in my mind 20+ years later.

I don't think lovecraft's work lent itself to film up until very recently (advanced cgi), and he only had 3 novels that might make a film (though plenty of short-stories which could be and some have been filled out a la Phil Dick). Charles dexter ward, as written, would leave the audience concluding charles' father was complete fool for not catching on and they would end up mocking him. At the mountains of madness, topically, seems to be the most promising.

A successful lovecraft major production would need to dilute so much of what made it work to broaden market appeal that it wouldn't be a lovecraft film. an authentic treatment of ATMoM would be so dark, no romance sub-plot, and with such a depressing ending that it might not even break even.

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I think film is quite capable of portraying Lovecraftian "horror". They just fail to.

Outside of Stephen King titles, "suspense horror" doesn't get much support when it comes to anyone with production quality above say... a college project. Big budget movies rely on cheap jump scares, loud noises, and costumed gore.... all of which BREAK the building of suspense to the final scare that a Lovecraftian Horror would present.

king's titles get mauled too from book to film. I think the issue is once you do a hollywood on a lovecraft story, you don't have a lovecraft story.

the closest one might come is something along the lines of The thing (1980s version) - but of course, minus the ancient city thread on antarctica, the thing was, in many respect, ATMoM.

thread trivia - who has had more stories made into films - Phil Dick or Lovecraft?

[Halicia]

king's titles get mauled too from book to film. I think the issue is once you do a hollywood on a lovecraft story, you don't have a lovecraft story.

the closest one might come is something along the lines of The thing (1980s version) - but of course, minus the ancient city thread on antarctica, the thing was, in many respect, ATMoM.

I'll give you The Thing is very lovecraftian in design, but I was thinking that the Aliens franchise is proof that a lovecraftian horror movie *could* be made.

and then there's Cloverfield. Yeah, I get all the hate for shakycam foundfootage movies... but if I were to watch a true lovecraftian horror laying waste to a city, I'd want it to be something like Cloverfield.

[Deficineiron]

I'll give you The Thing is very lovecraftian in design, but I was thinking that the Aliens franchise is proof that a lovecraftian horror movie *could* be made.

and then there's Cloverfield. Yeah, I get all the hate for shakycam foundfootage movies... but if I were to watch a true lovecraftian horror laying waste to a city, I'd want it to be something like Cloverfield.

re aliens, i would offer that the first movie was the only one of the first 3 to qualify (I haven't seen anything past the 3rd). the 2nd was an action movie as much as anything with horror moments (I think of it in terms of analogous to the raid on innsmouth which occurred off-page at the end of the story - not a lot of mystery left just lots of gross stuff revealed in combat/raid), and the third even more so. but the first was a very effective horror film and while I hadn't looked at it in that context, it certainly fit the lovecraft-type mold. Arguably the weakest point was when you actually saw the mature alien complete, because lovecraft's prose could not be outdone by a model, BUT the geiger-esque appearance nonetheless was effective (and even better done in 2nd and 3rd movies).

Alien may be the best sci-fi horror movie ever.?? a movie paced and with such a dark tone would not be made by a major studio today, imo. it would have all kinds of extraneous plot elements added to make sure the market appeal was broadened. this is one issue with the entire lovecraft film issue in modern times.

so, how many people remember the first alien spawn cracking sternum of the first victim in Alien? Tremendously effective scene. no one forgets the imagery in general.

Tangential - who has read Hodgson's The house on the borderland? half of that story is lovcraftian well before lovecraft had been published. (the other half seems like was a totally separate story added which never made any sense to me).

[Halicia]

re aliens, i would offer that the first movie was the only one of the first 3 to qualify

I'll accept that... lovecraftian generally revolves around *not* showing the entity... so even if the alien/monster/whatever hasn't been shown in the movie yet... having them make a presence in previous movies kinda removes that bullet.

and yeah... that whole franchise devolved into hollywood-typicals, instead of "what it could be". i guess i didn't mean to say that they "were" good examples of lovecraft in movies, just to say that it was possible... if they manage to set aside the emphasis on guns, explosions, and big teeth.

[Deficineiron]

I'll accept that... lovecraftian generally revolves around *not* showing the entity... so even if the alien/monster/whatever hasn't been shown in the movie yet... having them make a presence in previous movies kinda removes that bullet.

and yeah... that whole franchise devolved into hollywood-typicals, instead of "what it could be". i guess i didn't mean to say that they "were" good examples of lovecraft in movies, just to say that it was possible... if they manage to set aside the emphasis on guns, explosions, and big teeth.

from the studio's view it may well have been a very smart use of the sequel potential. an alien sequel as a horror movie would have already lost much of its potential effectiveness just by having the aliens revealed, and Aliens was a great sci-fi action movie.

Also, Alien was rated R at a time when that meant something, and Aliens was PG. Studios were actively avoiding R by this time, sometimes going to absurd lengths (conan the destroyer vs barbarian, which initially was rated X!!!)

edit - my timeframe is off, aliens came out ~10 years after alien. probably makes the R/PG argument even more pertinent if anything.

[Stormcall]

from the studio's view it may well have been a very smart use of the sequel potential. an alien sequel as a horror movie would have already lost much of its potential effectiveness just by having the aliens revealed, and Aliens was a great sci-fi action movie.

Also, Alien was rated R at a time when that meant something, and Aliens was PG.

Umm, no. Aliens was rated R, not PG. When it came out, it made a worldwide gross of ~$180 mil, which, at the time, made it one of the highest grossing R rated movies of all time.

[Deficineiron]

Umm, no. Aliens was rated R, not PG. When it came out, it made a worldwide gross of ~$180 mil, which, at the time, made it one of the highest grossing R rated movies of all time.

aliens was r?? wow, my error. also was only ~7 yrs after initial movie's release. most successful (in adjusted dollars?) carnography ever?

I stand corrected. I am right about the conan movie rating issues, (I have actually read a good bit about the x rating on the first movie and how that was removed). Clearly I am less familiar with aliens