Just a thought regarding Lovecraft

For Japanese Lovecraftia, I recommend checking out (if you haven't already) the horror manga by Junji Ito. Citing HPL as one of his main influences, his stuff is frequently full of weird, atmospheric, cosmic horror; creepy old towns, organic monstrosities and downtrodden, sissy protagonists. Great stuff!

Amazon.com link

One of his stories, Uzumaki ("The Spiral") has actually been turned into a film already, although an awful lot of the original material was taken out, including the final reveal, which is just textboot Lovecraft stuff. Still quite good, though.


I'd also recommend GYO, for being the best horror story about walking fish ever made.

The world of cinema is definately severely lacking when it comes to quality (and even mediocre) Lovecraft adaptions.

Any one hear the news about the newly found footage of From Beyond? I guess some guy over at MGM found lost footage that was cut because it was considered too violent.

Here's a link.

I guess we can now expect a director's cut! Wohoo!

I don't think the Japanese would do well with Lovecraft. I would like to see more done though and it is definitely awesome news about From Beyond. I can't wait for Del Torro to stop dicking around with comic book superhero's and start his Lovecraft adaptation.

I wish they'd let Nakata loose with some HP sauce.

I will definitely check out a widescreen/restored From Beyond-- I never really liked the pan and scan MPAA VHS, but it's hardly fair to judge it on that. how crazy is it that it takes 20 years to get a glimpse of the artists' true vision on something like this? land of the free my ass

I think carpenter's In The Mouth Of Madness is the best lovecraft on film, even though it isn't really lovecraft--I just think it gets the atmosphere right.

what I really want to see is Dan O'Bannon's The Ressurected-- forgotten film from the early 90s based on one of my favorite lovecraft stories, the Dexter Ward novella. anybody ever see that one?

Why do you think that Floydian? I think the Japanese would be great adapting Lovecraft. The main consistant thread thoughout a great percentage of the recent Asian horror movement is that they've rediscovered the dread resting in the shadows, the fog like cold of shapeless dread that is just out of sight, just out of reach, but is still present like a black cloud. I list as examples AUDITION, RINGU, JU-ON: THE GRUDGE both 1 and 2, DARK WATER and THE EYE. This ability to saturate a story, scene, and film with dread hooks up with Lovecraft on fundamental levels. This very technique/feat is exactly what I think Lovecraft has accomplished better than anyone else in the horror genre. The biggest problem I could see with an Asian Lovecraft adaptation is the cosmic horror angle, though that's been utilized in Japanese products as varied as UZUMAKI to the SIREN (or FORBIDDEN SIREN) Playstation 2 game. If the cultural things could be worked out, I think the Japanese are most qualified to take on Lovecraft at this point. The one major fear I would have about an Asian Lovecraft film is I think that American Society is far more on the path of being able to conceive of an omnipotent evil because of all the religious guilt and dogma. Cultures with that much Buddhism might have a slightly more difficult time fictionally giving birth to a convincing ultimate evil or concept that at the center of the universe is a large, black, squirming dot of evil. Then again, that's an overgeneralization when you see Japan doing anime like UROTSUKIDOJI: LEGEND OF THE OVERFIEND almost a decade ago.
I'd still like to see Del Toro do AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS, but I'd like to see the Pang Brothers do CALL OF CTHULHU even more, or Miike do DREAMS IN THE WITCH HOUSE or THE PICTURE IN THE HOUSE, or better yet THE THING ON THE DOORSTEP. I get chills thinking about it!!! The good kind.

I also would like to state that I think FROM BEYOND is the best (granted very loose) movie adaptation of Lovecraft to date, followed distantly by THE HAUNTED PALACE. I also greatly enjoyed REANIMATOR, BRIDE OF REANIMATOR, and DAGON. For television, the NIGHT GALLERY version of PICKMAN'S MODEL is the closest adaptation to Lovecraft in period, tone, and pacing. It's also a really scary episode that traumatized me as a kid, back when H.P. Lovecraft was just a name in the ads pages of Famous Monsters of Filmland to me.

I think horror needs more quality Lovecraft projects, and I personally welcome the Japanese and Chinese contingent to the cyclopean, green ooze dripping table.

a Lovecraft story in japan can quickly turn into hentai

O'Bannon is supposedly going to publish a new version of the Necronomicon

I think far too much is made of the tentacle thing with Lovecraft. Ok, Wilbur Whately had some kind of strange tentacles hanging out of his body when he was eviscerated by the dog in The Dunwich Horror, and yeah, the creatures in The Shadow out of Time had a ring of tentacles as well as other weird appendages, and granted Cthulhu has a sort of tentacle beard, but Lovecraft wrote quite a volume of "non tentacle" works, most of his work in fact. Some of my favorite stories by Lovecraft such as DREAMS IN THE WITCH HOUSE, PICKMAN'S MODEL, THE MUSIC OF ERICH ZANN, and HAUNTER IN THE DARK as well as a host of others are completely tentacle free.

What are some GOOD Lovecraft adaptions/homages outside of In the Mouth of Madness, Night Gallery, and the Stuart Gordon contributions? Are there any?

Check out the strangely titled EDGAR ALLEN POE'S THE HAUNTED PALACE starring Vincent Price, it's a credited and pretty decent version of THE CASE OF CHARLES DEXTER WARD.

I also liked DIE MONSTER DIE which was a looser adaptation of THE COLOUR OUT OF SPACE.

Sadly, most of the rest I've seen, except for the ones that have been mentioned previously, are terrible. Most of all, whatever you do, don't see CTHULHU MANSION or AIP's THE DUNWICH HORROR.

Thanks, I was beginning to think I'd never get an answer.

No problem