10 films based in Lovecraftian Horror:
The
mission: Come up with a list of ten movies with a decidedly
Lovecraftian feel while keeping away from any direct adaptations. HP
Lovecraft, as a writer, developed a mythos and style that he encouraged
others amongst his contemporaries to explore which resulted in fantastic
stories from Robert Bloch, Robert E. Howard, and August Derleth. Later writers
would also explore elements of Lovecraft, including Cliver Barker,
Edward Lee, and Stephen King. But his influence on the medium of film
has also been absolute, despite his total disdain for the art in
general. Actually, Lovecraft as a creator is an amazing visionary but I
don’t exactly look to the man as a source for inspiration on how to live
my life.
Anyway, so
my project this week has been to build a list of Lovecraft films to
recommend to others… films that are NOT based on Lovecraft’s writings,
but rather just films that carry a feel or style reminiscent to HP
Lovecraft in some way or another. If there are others you think should
be added, feel free to comment below. I think the more people know about
and share with others, the better the market will become and the wider
the influence will be.
1. Lucio Fulci’s “Gothic” trilogy:
Okay,
technically I’m cheating here by throwing a total of 3 movies into one
pick… but it’s my list and I’ll do it again later on. Get over it!
There
are three movies that act as a sort of trilogy from director Lucio
Fulci, though none of the three movies have a connecting storyline of
any real sort. There are a couple of interesting little tidbits
scattered about, most often in reference to the doors through hell…
basically portals scattered across the globe, connecting our world to
that of a desolate hell. All three films have a strange atmosphere of
fear, dread, and a number of confusing plot threads that dangle with
uncertainty. They also include aspects that find a strong connection
with the writing of H.P. Lovecraft including cults, books,
inter-dimensional portals, and sanity-breaking revelations.
Including
all three on the list with separate numbers seems a little redundant.
So if you have a chance you should check “House At the End of the
Cemetary”, “The Beyond”, and most assuredly my favorite in the series
“City of the Living Dead”.
2. The Descent:
A
group of women descend into a deep cavern, get lost, and ultimately
find long-twisted humanoid monsters in the deep dark. This movie (director Neil Marshal is excellent!) has a
number of connections to Lovecraft, including a strong similarity to
“The Beast in the Cave”, “Rats in the Walls”, and of course “The
Lurking Fear”. The movie also features a fantastic cast of women, and
shows that much of this may simply be crawling through the head of a
character broken by an earlier trauma and trapped beneath the earth by
the friends who are trying to help.
3. In The Mouth of Madness: and other John Carpenter works.
Have
you read Sutter Kane? The story of a detective on the trail of a writer
whose works may have become more than just fiction is like something
you’d imagine Lovecraft stories to be. John Carpenter has long been
influenced by several of Lovecrafts writings, which becomes obvious with
his vision for “The Thing” and even with the unstoppable and
unrelenting nature of Michael Myers in “Halloween”. Carpenter preceded
“Mouth” with another story that people often overlook, and that film is
“Prince of Darkness”… check that one out sometime, you won’t regret it.
4. Cloverfield:
A
giant monster of unknown origin rises from the deep sea and there is
just flat out nothing the story’s main protagonist can really do about
it. That’s as Lovecraftian as it gets… that’s cosmic horror right there.
There is nothing to do, you are helpless in the face of the terrible
horror, and it really has nothing personal against you but you may just
wind up in its path. That’s horrifying. I wish I was more of a fan of
the film technique or that they had decided to not shoot the film in
“first person”, but the story is still really well done.
5. Paranormal Activity: (most of the films in the series)
I’m
hoping enough people have seen this entry so that what I write isn’t so
much a spoiler, but this is not just some random ghost story. This is a
family specifically targeted because of their familial connection to
something darker and far more evil than they understand. Now when I was
thinking of movies with a Lovecraftian “feel” to it, I had to debate
myself on this one because I don’t really like the film. I think it’s
largely a lazy effort, but it tells a solid story and it does so in a
manner that is very reminiscent of Lovecraft.
6. Evil Dead: Series
Sam
Raimi has discussed his influence from Lovecraft when it came to
developing the script for the original film. The sequel went a little
more for the humor, and the third movie just threw the whole
Lovecraftian formula out the window… but the recent remake brought the
Lovecraft right on back into the project and delivered the goods. I also
happen to think that the first Evil Dead may have come the closest to
expressing the soul-wrenching insanity of Lovecrafts work without being
based on anything in particular.
7. Phantasm:
Often
surreal and dreamlike, Phantasm isn’t exactly known for being
“Lovecraftian” in nature. But here’s the thing… a mysterious force is
snatching the bodies of the dead, shrinking them, and sending them
across the galaxy to an unknown planet where they are forced into slave
labor. We learn, throughout the series, that the floating spheres
contain the still living brains of people forced into slavery by “The
Tall Man”… there’s a very “Mi-go” feel to some of the revelations within
the film and I think the atmosphere is very Lovecraftian when you
really think about it.
8. The Ruins
Based
on a novel of the same name, there are still a number of elements that
are very Lovecraftian in nature… a somewhat benign seeming element
hiding an unknown horror, ancient ruins, a lost civilization trying to
protect the world from the looming threat. The sense of dread as
everything the characters do only makes their situation worse.
9. Bug
This
one may be the one that gets the most head shaking from Dear Faceless
Readers, but allow me to explain: Much of Lovecrafts’ horror came from
the minds inability to cope with the horrors of a persons’ reality. In
some cases, the narrator may not really be the most reliable of
story-tellers and these are often their reasons for committing some
heinous acts. Bug is a drug-fueled nightmare of suspense with
self-immolation, fear of “secret societies”, and it delivers a downward
spiral through the nightmare perceptions of its two leads. HP
Lovecrafts’ horror didn’t depend on a man in the rubber suit, it was
always about the reaction and I think Bug fits the bill to a “t”.
10. Alien : (I’m going to include Prometheus in this one)
Absolutely
the BEST film to capture the feel and flow of Lovecraft, and I firmly
believe that the story for this film and the recent “Prometheus” prequel
are strongly based on “At The Mountains of Madness”. I’m not sure if
this really violates the “adaptation” rule I’ve set for myself, which is
why I’ve held off on discussing it. Alien features a lost ruin in a
desolate backdrop, a crew of people who discover the ancient mummified
corpses of long dead alien creatures, and then they also discover
another life form that proceeds to attack and infects one of the crew
before the film turns into a basic horror trope… Prometheus addressed
some of the issues a little more deeply by showing us that the “Aliens”
were the result of an experiment from an “Engineer” race. It’s actually
even more strongly related to the Lovecraft story by having the crew be
explorers and scientists who can examine the corpses in a manner similar
to the exploration crew in the story.
Honorable Mention:
The
antagonist monsters from the Hellboy movie are very “cthullhu-esque”,
but I didn’t include the film because it lacked many of the elements
that make Lovecraft stories so terrifying. First, the lead protagonist
is fully capable of tackling the many tentacle monster beasts he faces
and his sanity is never really at risk. Most of the characters are
unfazed by the horrors they face and the only threat is that of the
physical realm. Even the “secret cult” isn’t really seen as much of a
threat, it’s more like the “bad guys of the week” sort of feel and
they’re not really all that secret. Now don’t get me wrong, I absolutely
LOVE the Hellboy series and I think there’s a strong influence from HP
Lovecraft but I don’t really find the movie “Lovecraftian” itself.
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