November 10, 2004

The Call of Cthulhu movie The loons at The Howard Philips Lovecraft Historical Society are making a film version of HPL's infamous tale. (a follow-up to this thread)

Three versions are available - Quite Small, Medium, and Utterly Cyclopean!

posted by prismatic7 20 years ago
  • Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!
  • Uh...yeah...wot homunculus said...I guess.
  • Never read the story before tonight. Pretty much what I was lead to expect. But not bad.
  • ;E
  • Actually, the trailer looks interesting. I like the 1930s feel of the cinematography and mise-en-scene. Fits the subject matter. I might have to send these guys some cash come springtime.
  • I'll be eager to see the trailer tonight. Sounds like a ton o' fun.
  • I'm sorry, but unless everyone in the theatre goes mad upon seeing the CG beastie, I'll consider it a letdown.
  • I hear the Star-Spawned are a real bitch to work with.
  • The Old Ones demand only olives with pimentos in them. "I mean, look at this one...Who's in here? NO ONE. And then, in this one, over here, there's a little guy! I mean, it's a complete catastrophe!"
  • Never been a good HP Lovecraft movie yet. With the debatable exception of Re-Animator.
  • What about "From Beyond"? Admittedly, it helps to be pretty stoned when you watch it.
  • I thought The Resurrected was a fairly decent adaptation of The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. And From Beyond is more cheesy fun from Re-Animator's Stuart Gordon.
  • Heh. "Let it out, Crawford... let it happen!"
  • I enjoyed Dagon a great deal.
  • Okay, I haven't seen those. But I stand by my assertion. Because I like to make blanket statements with little or no factual basis.
  • Dagon's definitely worth a peep. Because of that (and TenaciousPettle's nefarious influence), I have now given up Christianity for Dagon-worship. As a result, I have a wonderful collection of goldfish crackers.
  • Although it wasn't Lovecraft, From the Mouth of Madness, for me, was the movie that came closest to capturing the feel needed.
  • I think you mean "In the Mouth of Madness," shawnj, but yes, it was definitely a Lovecraftian flick, and well done imo. The best straight HPL adaptation I've seen is Dagon, and I've seen most of them. It's actually an adaption of The Shadow Over Innsmouth rather than the 2-page short Dagon, but I think it's quite nicely done. And of course Re-Animator is the bomb in its own right, although it's hardly a faithful adaptation. If you want something fun to read, follow the Cthulhu winky: ;E
  • JoeChip, where did you see "The Ressurrected"? I've been looking for it, but I didn't think it was out of video. I'd love to lay a tentacle on a copy...
  • Dead Cthulu lies winking. IA, you saucy bastard.
  • "of" s/b "on" <:E
  • I've always been curious to see what Die, Monster, Die (1965) did with my favorite Lovecraft story, The Colo[u]r Out of Space. Featuring the great Boris Karloff.
  • TenaciousP: I scoured my local video stores years ago and finally found a copy to rent. Amazon says it's out of print but they do offer links to new and used copies.
  • Wow. Pretty pricey. There's a video store near my house that hasn't cleaned out its vhs inventory since 1980, though, so if I'm lucky maybe I can find one there. In any case, I think you, and someday mct will probably thank you as well.
  • W007! Just picked up a copy off half.com for $4.99. Not much more expensive than if I'd rented it, and looks like I should be able to move it pretty well if I decide I don't need to hang onto it. Monkeyfilter: Bringing Obscure Movies and Monkeys Together.
  • Seconded (thirded?) on Dagon; I dug it.
  • Here's one I have to hunt down as well: Cast a Deadly Spell, a made-for-TV movie that imagines a 1940s where everyone uses magic except straight-shooting gumshoe H. P. "Phil" Lovecraft. He's hired to help find some obscure old book for a client, and all slimy hell comes with it. The quotes are awesome. Definitely need to hunt this one down.
  • Fred Ward and David Warner? It's a must-see!
  • I saw this when it came out on (IIRC) HBO. It's good fun -- I only have very vague memories of it, but I remember it was heavy on the magic and lighter on the scary.
  • How about The Unnameable? I always liked that one too.
  • Cast A Deadly Spell! That was a great movie, totally forgot about that one. There was a sequel starring Dennis Hopper as Phil Lovecraft called Witch Hunt of similar theme. from the quotes: Olivia: That's quite a tie. Lovecraft: Oh, thanks. Olivia: Put up much of a fight? Lovecraft: No, I snuck up behind it. Good LORD I hope to get a chance to use that next time someone comments about my tie.
  • I don't know about Hopper as a noir detective. Noir batshit-crazy villain, sure, but I don't know about his deadpanning skills. Fred Ward, though--that's perfect.
  • Yes, Hopper! Thank God, I was trying to remember who was in the sequel.
  • No, the sequel wasn't nearly as good. Ward's deadpan is priceless.
  • Hopper is also starring in a new George Romero zombie flick called Land of the Living Dead which, as all zombie movies are, is likely to be super cool.
  • And leave us not forget The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 for a nice Hooper/Hopper combo. Not Lovecraft, though.
  • NYT on the new Romero. Reg req'd, blah blah.
  • I just recently rented the Dawn remake and, while I found it to be a bit chatty in the middle, the initial scenes of the normal, sedate Milwaukee neighborhood feeling the first touch of zombie-fication are among the best, most eye-wrenching zombie movie footage I've seen. I look forward to the new one. Conversely, I found 28 Days Later, which was widely lauded as the culminating masterwork, thematically speaking, of the zombie movie a little underwhelming. It was good and all, but disbelief suspension was difficult and you could see the scary parts coming about a mile off (example: power's been off in London for weeks, survivor blazes up a candle in a room with lots of windows... it doesn't take Richard Feynman to puzzle out what's going to happen next).
  • I really liked 28 Days, but Shaun of the Dead was a hell of a lot more fun for me. 28 Days was an intelligent movie, but I didn't really see it breaking new ground thematically. NPR actually did a good piece about it, essentially arguing that Boyle didn't do anything Romero hadn't already done with his films. He just had a hell of a lot more money to make it look slicker. But I thought it was good, overall.
  • Haven't seen Shaun of the Dead (with two shorties at home, Missus Fes and I don't get out much), but the trailers looked great. I liked the look of 28 Days Later (the scene where they approach a flaming Manchester was strikingly well done) but there were too many unanswered qusetions (how is it that these virus-maddened monsters are able to *only* target the uninfected, but otherwise work together?) coupled with the overtly metaphorical theme (what wrong with those monkeys? "Rage." Oy!). One of the hardest things for SF and horror is for a the movie to present fantastic elements in a believable way, and the key to that is internal logical consistency. If you portray your fantastic elements set in the real world (as both Romero's zombie movies and 28 Days Later do), they have to follow real world rules. For all the strangeness of dead poeple coming back to life and snacking on the living, the *consistently* do just that. The rules are set and followed. 28 Days Later, by positing the idea of a virus that causes the effect, caused itself to have to follow certain rules as to how viruses act on people, how people act when affected by a virus, etc. Which it didn't, and I think that hurt the movie. I agree, good movie overall, but with some detractions.
  • Eek!
  • Ugh!
  • Guillermo del Toro is working on a script for At The Mountains Of Madness.
  • Drat!