I was making a list of movies to go along playing arkham and wanted to have a movie to suit each ancient one. Any suggestions? So far I've got Nyarlathotep down for the mummy, Yig- anaconda, and atlach nacha- arachnaphobia etc. Having a hard time finding one for Quachil Uttaus and Zhar.

A few of Lovecraft's actual stories have been turned into movies over the years. I don't have a complete list but I know I've seen Dreams in the Witch House (one of my personal favourite stories) on DVD. I'd start by tracking down as many of those as you can.

I think I heard tell of a Call of Cthulu movie, but the reviewer was also saying it wasn't particularly true to the original short story, IIRC.

This movie was dead-on to Call of Chulhu:

www.cthulhulives.org/cocmovie/

Someone's making a Curse of Yig film:

yigthemovie.com/

The Dunwich Horror from the 70s was all right. Mostly it kept to the story.

Avoid "Dagon" and "Re-Animator" as those were pretty terrible.

The "Call of Cthulhu" movie by the HPL Historical Society is the best by far. Totally faithful to the story and with a look as if it was shot in the 20's.

Don't even bother with the recent movie "Cthulhu", as the movie has nothing to do with the mythos, except the title and some random scenes. It's quite useless even as just a general movie =P

"Dagon" is by a spanish director and is pretty faithful to The Shadow Over Innsmouth, but the movie has many other flaws. It's still better than "Cthulhu".

I am aware that there is a Masters of Horror episode called "The Dreams in the Witch House", inspired by HPL's story. I plan to watch it soon.

"In the Mouth of Madness" by Carpenter is pretty good. It stars Sam Neill and it has a general lovecraftian atmosphere.

And of course, we're al waiting for Del Toro's "At the Mountains of Madness"

p.s. Oh yeah, I was forgetting "The Thing", also by Carpenter. If that movie isn't Lovecraftian, I don't know what else is...maybe "Alien". Yeah, Alien too =P

A Curse of Yig movie? That should be quite creepy... I heard some people are also making an adaption of "The Colour Out of Space".

Tox said:

There is an episode (lonesome death of I-don't-remember-the-name) in the first Creepshow movie that vaguely reminds me of The colour out of space ... a lonely farmer being contaminated by som meteor radiations. Pretty disgusting, indeed. Don't know whether it was inspired by HPL or it's just my imagination, though

RE Creepshow, the yokel who turned into a spore was Stephen King. And yes I think it counts as HPL inspired.

Tox said:

Yeah, so, The Thing. Gah!

That movie is a remake of a '50s movie, 'The Thing From Outer Space' which itself is a very bad adaptation of 'Who Goes There?' by Don A Stuart (aka John Campbell). Yes, the creature in 'The Thing' has Lovecraftian overtones, but it has strayed so far from the original story as to be almost absurd. (Sorry, but the original story is a masterpiece of suspense and horror in an SF vein and must be experienced.)

You can find 'Who Goes There?' in the often reprinted 'Adventures In Time And Space' which is a collection of some of the best 'golden age' SF ever put together.

And the whole thing is online here www.scaryforkids.com/who-goes-there-by-john-w-campbell/

Note, this is not a flame. Just wanted to point out some good literature.

RevGiark said:

I've already read "Who Goes There?" (another link for it: http://www.outpost31.com/books/who.txt ), and it's great (the part about the men discussing the nature of the thing comes to mind) and I think the Carpenter movie hits the mark pretty close. Heck, I even like the movie's ending better I haven't seen "The Thing from Outer Space", but as you pointed out, I hear it's a very, very bad adaptation of the original story.

I will persist in saying the Thing is a very good movie

Dan O'Bannon has directed a very faithful adaptation of the Case of Charles Dexter Ward, called the Resurrected ( www.imdb.com/title/tt0105242/ ). Although the story has been actualised to the 80s, all elements of the book are there and the timeline is well respected. Unfortunately the producers reedited the movie, and O'Bannon was not satisfied with the final version (which has been poorly published on DVD).His original version has probably been lost. But still I liked it because the main plot elements and locations are there, including the famous subterran cavern with th pits. There is also a reenactment of the 18th century US with the reanimated boidies in the river, very chilly and very faithful to the book.

There is also a Dagon movie by Stuart Gordon ( www.imdb.com/title/tt0264508/ ), which is actually an adaptation of the Shadow over Innsmouth. Not terrific, however the escape from the hotel room is faithful to the book and quite nice.

Of course the "Call of Cthulhu" silent movie that was mentioned above is the best Lovecraft adaptation so far, not surprisingly because it was created by hardcore fans.

Re-Animator is a classic, are you on crack

More films based on Lovecraft's works

Die Monster Die

The Haunted Palace

Texas Chainsaw Massacre, not Lovecraft influenced, but there is a reference to the Dunwhich Horror in the dialog

The Gate

Gate II

Necronomicon

There a dozen or more short films available on DVD, submitted to the Lovecraft convention that happens every year or so

Evil Dead

Evil Dead 2

From Beyond

Bride of Re-Animator

Beyond Re-Animator

All in my DVD collection

Tibs said:

Even Ebert liked Re-Animator. It's a good movie.

That Silent Call of Cthulhu however, is not that great.

In the Mouth of Madness is the closest you'll get to Arkham Horror: The Movie

Re-Animator took a sharp turn away from the original story and got embarrassingly campy about halfway through. Love interest? Decapitated body walking around holding its head and executing dastardly plans as a duo? Please.

Silent Call of Cthulhu was great because it was exactly what Re-Animator wasn't: faithful to the source material. The black-and-white silent format fit the era quite well and as such really added to the atmosphere.

When the tall doctor in Re-Animator brought himself back from the dead just to get the love interest naked for a gratuitous nude scene, I almost crushed my temples from face-palming so hard.

Uhm in the original Re-animator story, the body carries the head around... and they do evil things together...

Also in regards to the "campy" have you really read Lovecrafts stories? They are pretty campy.

The Spanish movie "Dagon" is a pretty good take on Shadows over Innsmouth. Sure it doesn't have the government raid, but it stays relatively close to the plot and is worth a couple of horus of your time.

Tox said:

Ignore this guy. "Cthulhu" is easily one of the best horror movies I've ever seen, not to mention one of the best mythos movies made. If they took out Tori Amos, it would be flawless.

H.P. Lovecraft said:

It doesn't matter if it's a classic or not, it's still crap. You are aware Lovecraft had almost zero **** and gore in his stories, yes?

Magic Pink said:

Which Cthulhu are you watching? The 2000 version was good, but the 2007 version was complete and utter fecal matter. It was more of an Innsmouth movie, but even then they raped the storyline. I'm sorry but there was nothing redeeming about that movie.

Other Lovecraft inspired flicks are;

The Curse (1987, starring Wil Wheaton) - fairly good representation of the Colour out of Space

The Resusrected (1992, AKA Shatterbrain) is a good version of the Case of Charles Dexter Ward

The original Dunwich Horroe (1970) is also pretty good.

Magic Pink said:

Do you mean Tori Spelling?!

As part of Stephen King's "Nightmares and Dreamscapes" anthology miniseries (aired on TNT, available on DVD), the story "Crouch End" is very Mythos-inspired. So much so that several variants of Ancient One names are written on warehouse placards near the end. It stars Claire Forlani (bonus!) and a pretty nasty-looking cat.

I still say the best "Arkham Horror" movie is Ghostbusters. It's got Investigators, monsters, unstable locations, Other Worlds, a Herald, and an Ancient One.

ok somewhat off topic for an already off topic conversation, but if you have not checked it out I suggest you pick up Joe Hill's Locke & Key graphic novels.

http://www.amazon.com/Locke-Key-Lovecraft-Joe-Hill/dp/1600102379/ref=sr_1_2?s=gateway&ie=UTF8&qid=1285612561&sr=8-2

It's not a Lovecraftian story per se, but like his dad's books (his dad is Stephen king), Joe tends to reference Lovecraft in his stories.

In this case the story is about a family heading back to their ancestral home in Lovecraft, Massachuesetts to recover after a horrifying loss (although I have to agree that anyplace named lovecraft would not be a good place to do that). That being said, the story is great, the art is good, and it has some nice creepy moments.

Man, there are a lot of movies I'm going to have to look up and watch after reading this thread! I knew there were a few HPL stories out there, but I had no idea there were this many!

jgt7771 said:

Funny, I just read this story last night. I thought it was pretty good. Haven't seen the TV version though.

Magic Pink said:

Magic Pink said:

All of the ones I have read lately have had gore in them. Re-Animator, The Unnamable and Under the Pyramids for example all have gore in them. It just ranges in how explicitly he describes the gore. The thing is even if it is not explicit in the story, when you translate that to film, it will become much more obvious.

Granted Lovecraft focused more on slime than blood, but blood is still there. Surprisingly often.