So, been playing for almost a year now, and loving the game. My Blood Angels are slowly starting to collect dust, just love this board game......

Decided to order some of the AH related/Cthulhu movies, and got Call of Cthuthlu (the silent movie) and The Dunwich Horror (with a very young Dean Stockwell) from Amazon.co.uk. Really enjoyed both. The silent movie was a different experience, but enjoyable none the less. Then watched The Dunwich Horror, made in 1970 (I think). Was looking forward to this, as Dunwich is my favourite Expansion. For a 70's 'horror/thriller' I enjoyed the movie, especially with locations and characters mirroring that of the game. Really kept with the Lovecraft theme and characters, namely Henry Armitage, Farmer Whateley, the Whateley Farm, Wizard's Hill, Sentinel Hill, the Devils Hopyard, and Osborn's General Store. It was great 'seeing' these locations/characters in a movie, and being able to relate it/them back to the game...........so what other AH/Cthulhu movies are worth getting? which of the other AH/Cthulhu movies do you really rate? I see there is a more recent DVD/movie available called Cthulhu, but I see it did not get great reviews on Amazon....any thoughts on this?

With current CGI technology, it would be great to see a really good AH/Cthulhu movie, based around the borad game, locations and characters..........heres living in hope......

Yours Thankfully

GM

Johannesburg

South Africa

Gary Manning said:

My favorite Lovecraft related movie is Dagon.

Unfortunately, after those and Dagon, there's not a lot, and Call of Cthulhu the silent film is by far the best. The guys who did Call of Cthulhu are due to put out "The Whisperer in Darkness" soon. IIRC, there's an adaption of Herbert West: Reanimator or two, and there's also Die Monster Die (Starring Nick Adams and Boris Karloff) that is a loose adaption of "The Color Out Of Space". (Apparently there's on called The Curse as well).

-edit-

We almost got a big-budget At the Mountains of Madness by Guiellmo De Toro, but it was (sadly) stopped on production. It's unfortunate, that would have been epic.

Cthulhu

arkhamresident said:

Ugh. I've seen it, absolutely nothing to do with Lovecraft and plus it's not even a horror film. Plus, it's really boring. I'd stay clear of that.

Tox said:

Thanks Tox. Thank confirms it then. This movie is off my list.

Yours Thankfully

GM

South Africa

I watched the new Thing today. If you're fond of ancient buried things in Antartica coming back to life and slaughtering the living [[[ wink wink ]]]] you should see it. It's pretty good on its own and a pretty good prequel of Carpenter's movie. If you've seen that one, however, you probably know what to expect.

Tox said:

Wow, I don't know if we saw the same film. Saying it's not a horror film is pretty much spot on but I don't see most of Lovecraft's works having anything to do with the splatterpunk gore fests that the horror genre has been for as long as I can remember. Now saying it's not Lovecraftian at all is quite untrue. Sure there aren't any overt Mythos creatures but the theme of horror through self-discovery is quintessential Lovecraft. If you want a monster movie with Mythos creatures in it this is definitely not the move for you. If you want a movie that captures the psychological aspects of Lovecraft's works this is a good choice. Plus it has Deep Ones in it.

Hell, even S.T. Joshi liked it.

Tox said:

Or you can just get an actual Carpenter movie: In the Mouth of Madness. Not directly Lovecraft, per se, but a highly enjoyable tribute. A bit more obvious in its "ick", though, but that's just Carpenter. If you liked Carpenter's The Thing, In the Mouth of Madness would be a fantastic ride.

There are a few more movie worth mentioning.

1.) The Ressurected. One of my favorite Lovecraft movies. Its based on "the case of charles dexter ward" and even though it suffers from low production values from time to time its still a great movie. Its also one of the most faithful lovecraft adaptations to date.

2.) The haunted palace. Also based on "the case of charles dexter ward". A good movie, definetly better than both versions of "the dunwich horror" and Vincent Price is awesome. Its not a very faithful lovecraft adaptation though.

3.) Cast a deadly spell. References to Lovecraft a bit but has nothing to do with hist stories. It sometimes gets the feeling and look of arkham horror. But its also a quite campy film noir/comedy.

4.) Curse/night of the demon. Actually has nothing to do with lovvecraft at all. But the script writers must have been heavily influened by Lovecraft with all references to ancient demons and cults. Its one of my favorite movies ad definetly worth a look if you like horror and don't mind watching a movie in black and white.

There are many other lovecraft movies, but they do not do lovecraft justice. But if you are only interested in locations you could check out "The Unnameable". But netither of part one or two are any good.

jgt7771 said:

I see you've mentioned The Dunwich Horror. A remake was made in 2009 or '10, also starring Dean Stockwell. Avoid it like the plague; it's quite the steaming pile of dung.

The Call of Cthulhu silent movie turned out very, very nice. In the Mouth of Madness gets a +1 from me too. Brilliant piece of work, that. You could almost make a drinking game out of spotting the references.

Giving this a big ol bump 'cause I just watched the HPLS "Whisperer in Darkness" film that was recently released.

And I've got to say, it's probably the single best 'Arkham Horror' themed movie I've seen.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

It's first half is a very faithful adaption of the story it's based on, but instead of fleeing when he finds Akley's face and hands, the protagonist has to try and stop the Mi-Go from opening a Gate (sound familiar?) and letting the denizens of Yuggoth through. It gets a bit action movie-y, and the CG effects are pretty poor - and honestly, if they had done a poorer job of compositing the CG, it would have worked much better (as it would have made it fit even better with the 1950's B-Movie vibe they were going for). THe acting's pretty good for (essentially) an amature production, and the ending is gleefully Lovecraftian. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to see a decent Lovecraft film.

Just as enjoyable as their Call of Cthulhu silent flick, and maybe even better.

there is also an apisode from the first season of Master of Horror: H.P. Lovecraft's Dreams in the Witch-House directed by Stuart Gordon. It's set in Arkham whit Walter Gilman... in conclusion is exactly taken by the short story fo Lovecraft Dreams in the Witch-House!

I really liked Dreams of the Witch-House. I thought it got HPL environment very well. I also like the other ones mentioned, Haunted Palace with Vincent Price and Die Monster Die. There has been compiliations done by the HPL film festival, Lurkers in the Lobby, that is worth watching.

Forgot to mention Hellboy movies definitely have HPL type monsters. Good fun. Also, the recent movie, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, is sort of HPL but more like Machen's stuff which HPL was influenced by.

Tonyfr said:

I saw this post the other day when I was sneaking about the forum unregistered and came back to post this very same thing.

"Necronomicon" is still one of my favorite Lovecraftian movies. They show a little too much in parts- when they don't show everything, when horrors are half-glimpsed, it really works. I think this version of "Cool Air" is even better than Night Gallery.

Finally saw the Night Gallery version of "Pickman's Model"- up until the moment they show the Ghoul it's a masterpiece (and for the era it was made their Ghoul is a top-notch monster)

Lovecraft is everywhere, not just in movies- even the Red Panda faced a Lovecraftian Horror recently...

A few years ago there was Stephen King's "The Mist".... King was very influenced by Lovecraft so the movie ends up somewhat resembling AH. ... the army accidentally opens a dimensional gate, release lots of monsters (and evil fog) into the town... and it has a VERY unhappy ending.

John Carpenter's "Prince of Darkness" has some elements... quite a few throwaway references to HPL stories but tbh not a great movie.

The recent HPLHS "Whisperer" had some brilliant bits but the High Priest of Shub Niggurath's hat was ludicrous. First time I've ever actually enjoyed a movie less just because of a silly hat.

thecorinthian said:

As a big fan of the Call of Cthulhu from the HPLHS, I also enjoyed the whisperer I saw recently. It disturbed me at first because the story differs significantly from the book. Though at the second sight, I did not pay attention to this detail anymore and found really nice. Therefore, I recommend it as it is overall great. I was not disturbed by the silly hat ... I think it fits well with the old-style movies they are copying :-)

Oh and there's "From Beyond" - made by Gordon and Yuzna. Not an especially good film, but a reasonably faithful adaptation of the story, and it's got some top-notch 80s flesh-warping special effects in it.

Oh and there's "From Beyond" - made by Gordon and Yuzna. Also not an especially good film, but a reasonably faithful adaptation of the story, and it's got some top-notch 80s flesh-warping special effects in it.

There is a relatively new one that has been missed...

The Last Lovecraft: Relic of Cthulhu

This is perhaps a bit off from what you'd expect as its actually more of a comedy than a horror film. But its kind of in the "army of darkness" genre of movie style.

I'll preface by saying its not the best move I've seen by any measure, but It did remind me more of the board game than it did of actual Lovecraft novels. And similarities between the characters in the movie and my own experiences in the board game made it pretty funny at times.

As a fan of the board game, I'd give it a watch (its on Netflix) I'd be curious to see if it reminded others of the board game as much as id did for me

It's funny you brought this topic up now, as two weekends from now will be the 75th anniversary of H.P. Lovecraft's death. We are hving people over to celebrate his works, plyaing Mansions of Madness on Friday Night, and Arkham Horror on Sunday, but on Saturday we will have an H.P. Lovecraft FIlm Festival: Currently I have in my collection:

Cthulhu (c2008)- Here's the deal with Cthulhu. Make the Story into a version of The Shadow Over Innsmounth. Then Make the protagonist gay. Then make it into an attempted Art Film. Makke all of these changes for no apparent reason. Then roll them up into a film, and you have Cthulhu.

H.P. Lovecraft's From Beyond (1986) - Starring Jeffery Combs. The first two minutes before the title screen shows up is actually the short story; from there on, it is Stuart Gordon's take on it.

H.P. Lovecraft's: The Tomb (2006) - I haven't seen this one yet, but I've heard it's dreadful. The first line of the back of the box seems to bear that out: "In the terrifying vein of Saw and based on a story by the master of outrageous horror, H.P. Lovecraft . . ." Yeah.

H.P. Lovecraft's Reanimator (1985) - The Stuart Gordon Classic, with Jefferey Combs, about Herbert West's obsession with bringing the dead back to life.

The Dunwich Horror - (1970) Starring Dean Stockwell, and Sandra Dee. I can't say it's good exactly, and there are some downright silly parts, and a very 70's vibe to it, but it still has it's own charm to it and does manage to more or less tell the story in it's own way. You can compare it to . . .

The Dunwich Horror - (c2010) The Dunwich Horror starring Dean Stockwell. THis time around though, instead of portraying WIlbur Whatley, he portrays the protagonist, Dr. Henry Armitage. It uses the Story as a starting point, and then complete moves away from it, but I was amused at the dropping of every single lovecraft reference/name/idea they couls shoehorn in. From Innsmouth, to Charles Dexter Ward, to Olaus Wormius, they cram in as many references as possible.

Die Monster, Die! - (1965) Starring Borris Karloff, this is an adaptation of "The Colour out of Space". Not too faithful, but like many movies of this era, has it's own weird sort of charm.

The Curse (c1984) - Starring Wil Wheaton. Another odd rendition of "The Colour out of Space".

The Manitou (c1973) - An adaptation of the Mythos Novel of the same name, this deals with Ithaqua trying to break into our world.

Castle Freak - (c1990) - A version of "The Outsider".

The Resurrected (1991) - Directed by Dan O'bannon (the writer of Alien), and starring Chris Sarandon, this is a pretty decent retelling of the Case of Charles Dexter Ward.

The Haunted Palace (1963) - Starring Vincent Price with Lon Chaney. Despite the Edgar Allen Poe name on the movie (the studio changed the name to capitalize on Roger Corman's Previous Poe Pictures), it is a fun (if very reworked version of "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward".

The Call of Cthulhu (c2006) - The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society's silent film of "The Call of Cthulhu. Very well done, including a stopmotion Cthulhu. How awesome is that?

Dagon (2001) - I'm currently in the process of writing a review of this one for the Horror Blog, Forcedviewing.com. The story of Dagon only opens this movie; the main plot of the movies is actually of "The Shadow Over Innsmouth", but now set on the cost of Spain.

The Shunned House (2003) - A terrible film, which attempts to combine "The Shunned House", "The Dreams in the WItch House", and "The Music of Erich Zann" into one plot. Terrible acting, amateur camerawork and writing, and a mess of a plot that makes no sense puts the nail in the coffin of this one.

Lifeforce (1985) - Starring Donald Pleaseance, Base don Colin Wilson's Mythos Novel, "The Star Vampires".

H.P. Lovecraft's "Necronomicon" Starring Jeffery Combs, and David Warner. It retells, "The Rats in the Walls", "Cool Air", and "The Whisperer in Darkness", and is bookended by an Indiana Jonesesque H.P. Lovecraft trying to retrieve the Necronomicon from a cult. None of the adaptations are particularly faithful.

Cast a Deadly Spell (c1990) - With David Warner. A film noir story mixed with the Mythos and a little comedy. It was an HBO Orginal movie and may be a bit hard to find.

The Unnamable (c1990) - Another Dreadful Film, which completely foregoes it's namesake. This one also may be a bit hard to find; Ironically, it sequel (The "Unnamable II: The Statement of Randolph Carter") is marignally better, though still hard to find:

The Dreams in the Witch House (2006) - an episode of the Masters of Horror, collection, which were 1 hour horror movies done by famous horror directors for Showtime. A pretty good rendition, this one directed by Stuart Gordon.

Pickman's Model (c1975) - The night Gallery Version of Pickman's model is a pretty decent redition of the story, as is . . .

The Return of the Sorcerer (c1975) - Starring Vincent Price and Bill Bixby. The Night Gallery version of the Clark Ashton Smith Mythos story.

There is also the H.P. Lovecraft collection from Lurker FIlms,of which I only have the first volume of this writing, but their short of "Cool Air" is very good.

There are also some films which were influenced by Lovecraft:

The Thing (1980) - Directed by John Carpenter, starring Kurt Russell is based on the Mythos Short Story, "Who Goes There?" a.k.a. "The Thing From Another World". That story was infulenced by "At the Mountains of Madness".

In the Mouth of Madness (1995) Directed by John Carpenter, and starring Sam Neill is Carpenter's homage to H.P. Lovecraft.

Prince of Darkness (1986) - Directed by John Carpenter, starring Donald Pleasance. While not directly Lovecraft related, some people have called it the most Lovecraftian movie ever made.

Afew other movies, such as Cthulhu Mansion (a.k.a. Black Magic Mansion), and The Evil Dead / Army of Darkness series, use a passing refence to Lovecraft in them as well. Hope this helps!

I Also forgot to mention "The Watcher in the Woods", which has a very Lovecraftian alternate ending.