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Bonus 1 - Lovecraftian Film & TV (Patreon)

Published:
2018-05-27 15:10:30
Edited:
2020-02-17 14:51:47
Imported:
2021-07
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Posting this early since we're on vacation next week!

Let us know what films and TV shows we missed and we'll catch up on the next comments show. Thanks for tuning in and supporting the show!

Comments

Anonymous

Alongside Carpenter's The Thing, the most Lovecraftian film I've seen is one section in the anthology film Kwaidan (1965). "The Woman of the Snow" section is, as its name suggests, about the traditional Japanese yuki-ona spirit. However, this entity takes on a vast and alien countenence. Several cinematic tricks come together to make a cosmic dread of the outdoors that would do "The Willows" or "The Colour Out of Space" justice: all outdoor scenes are shot on a set, but this does not make the film look cheap because the set is MASSIVE; this, coupled with fine cinematography, makes the open air feel claustrophobic: the sky itself seems to be pressing in on the characters, waiting to reach down and crush them at any moment. Coupled with this is an excellent use of surreal imagery. The characters and their plot are straightforward and almost banal, but the world around them is an alien tumult of the macabre at times--this is not what they see, but rather the supernatural background to reality that is always out of sight, revealed to the audience but not the characters. Additionally, the howling, haunted soundtrack by Toru Takemitsu is AMAZING. Kwaidan as a whole is worth watching. The assorted tales in it star primary actors of Harakiri (1962)--my bet for the best film ever made. "The Woman of the Snow," specifically, stars Tatsuya Nakadai, the greatest actor I've personally ever seen in film. I highly reccomend checking it out.

Anonymous

I'm so glad you guys mentioned Annihilation! although it certainly draws a lot from The Color out of Space, I find it to be an excellent version of At The Mountains of Madness as well. The discovery of the horrible things that befell the previous expeditions and the attempts to piece together what actually happened is the source of a lot of the horrific elements in each respective story. Both the massacre at the Antarctic camp and the video tapes and the blossomed corpses discovered in the Shimmer hint at terrific violence without actually detailing to the reader what explicitly happened. This in my opinion leaves just enough to the reader or viewers imagination

Anonymous

Awesome episode guys, it was brilliant to hear you both talk about all the Lovecraft flavored movie out there. Next time if you’re going to talk about TV stuff please be sure to mention all the Lovecraft influenced episodes of Rod Serling’s the Night Gallery. It was an awesome horror anthology TV series from the 1970s.

Anonymous

Great show! I really enjoyed Europa Report, so I definitely recommend it. Another movie I had a flashback to during the show was a lower budget film called Beyond the Gates, which was somewhat Lovecraftian. I don't think I was particularly blown away by it, but if memory serves, the film featured a movie poster for Were-Dad, which was delightful to see!

Anonymous

Great show, and thanks for the heads up on "Annihilation." I'll definitely have to check that out. There is an Outer Limits episode titled, “Cry of Silence” that is definitely an uncredited adaptation of “The Color out of Space,” in my opinion, with maybe just a touch of “Beyond the Wall of Sleep.” Would love to get your take on that, and of others on the forum. Also it has one of the craziest embodiments of supposedly threatening entities ever.

Anonymous

I was waiting with baited breath to see if you would mention To Cast A Deadly Spell! So happy y'all did! I am a big proponent of this film and at some point or another force all of my friends to watch it. ;) If anyone hasn't seen it, it is the right kind of silly, scary and over the top. goes well with Army Of Darkness.

Richard Horsman

Thought this was great, and look forward to more topics shows. On other films I love the Roger Corman adaptation of The Dunwich Horror with Dean Stockwell. This also might fit better in a Lovecraft comics show, but there's a video version of Jason Thompson's Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath adaptation that's pretty hypnotic. Just film of the panels with music and voice acting, but it works somehow. On Annihilation: if you ever break the seal on living weird fiction writers, Jeff Vandermeer could be a great starting point. He's very versed in the history of weird fiction but also very consciously wanted to break from the Lovecraft and mythos dominance in the field. The stories collected in City of Saints and Madmen are a great digestible intro to "the new weird".

Steve

Dunwich Horror (1970) - one of my faves, Sandra Dee and Dean Stockwell. It starts with a lecture on the Necronomicon. Prince of Darkness (1987) - another favourite, very nihilistic. Perhaps slightly too religious, but who says Christianity couldn't be the cult that dooms us. Pontypool (2008) - A friend wrote a story called "A Contagion of Orange Blossom" which is very much a precursor to this. A weird virus? I'm still not sure. Dark City (1998) - fantasy horror with a touch of HPL in the weirdness. Cloverfield (2008) - Kaiju but also Lovecraftian in its lack of explanation and cosmicism. Banshee Chapter (2013) - apparently loosely based on From Beyond. It's more Delta Green than Call of Cthulhu but certainly has elements of cosmic horror.

Steve

Also, the Fourth Kind (2009), a film about aliens. What's more cosmic than that? The set-up is especially creepy, it goes downhill a bit after that.

Anonymous

Great show. The very reason I've been a fan since your early days.

Anonymous

Annihilation was great, this is a topic that requires many shows to cover properly but Prince of Darkness is the 3rd Carpenter film that is worthy of mention. I would also recommend a TV series showing on AMC currently in the UK, The Terror, it’s pretty Lovecraftian and has a superb cast of character actors in all the lead roles, and it looks fantastic, a high recommend.

Anonymous

Didn't like Annihilation myself - not for nick-picky reasons but just felt it had the veneer of the weird without the substance. One film I do think you'll love though is Evolution (not the David Duchovny one!) by Lucile Hadzihalilovic. Strange experiments on an island of sea-loving, similar-looking mothers and their all male children... Very weird and unsettling.

Anonymous

Requiem on Netflix. Most recent series/movie that has a noted Lovecraft vibe. They even mention Dr Dee and his writings. Worth a look.

Anonymous

I'd like more info on other media pertaining to Lovecraftian themes. Also how about the giant topic of Lovecraft and games... that can be several topics in itself (rpg, board, computer games etc).

Anonymous

Totally support the idea of an episode on Lovecraft and games. Speaking of which, can't remember the rpg game you mentioned a while back and its kickstarter (I think or another crowd-funding platform), what's the update on that? I know it reached its goals, but can't remember the name and nothing on Steam yet and google's no help. Have been playing Conarium (its okay) but nothing really has ever scratched that dark unnameable itch with an indescribable tentacle as far as gaming goes for me. Fallout has come closest (will eventually start the umpteenth play through on 4) and while the Innsmouth part of Dark Corners of the Earth is actually pretty scary and fun, the rest of it SUCKS, even with console commands to overcome all the inevitable bugs. Oh well, there's always Alan Wake. Finally, I'd like to reiterate and re-support the idea of a live vidoecast of you two, with Andrew Lehman, Rachael and Heather (and others) playing any COC scenario (personally, I'd love to see a Delta Green game, but anything would be cool)

Anonymous

Regarding True Detective, I think the story actually does borrow more from HPL than Chambers or Bierce. Ultimately, the writers only took some character and place names from the other authors, but there are two big action set pieces in the show in which Louisiana policemen explore the swamp hideouts of creepy cultists carrying out human sacrifice rituals.

Anonymous

Super happy to have extra Chris and Chad content in my ear holes!

Anonymous

I still think Attack On Titan has some Lovecraftian elements in terms of 'the unknown' and 'pure fear'

Anonymous
>>12649729

woke up in middle of night remembering the name Achtung Cthulhu Tactics! Not a fan of turn based but a little Lovecraft is better than none. And it does look fun.

Anonymous

Since Annihilation came up, some listeners might be interested to know that the novel's author, Jeff VanderMeer, also co-edited an impressive anthology titled The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories several years ago. It's a solid historical survey with around a hundred stories, several of which have been featured on the podcast (one of them is Donald A. Wollheim's Mimic, if you're looking for a copy). It's not free, but I have encountered no or next to no errors or omissions in the Kindle text.

Anonymous

Another great episode, Chad and Chris! I second the other comments about Jeff VanderMeer; he has really elevated the weird fiction genre in some ways that feel fresh, especially in his Southern Reach trilogy (on which Annihilation was loosely based). A couple thoughts: There has been a cottage industry of bringing Lovcraftian elements into otherwise unrelated cinematic works. Cabin in the Woods comes to mind (as ultimately the film is about the tropes used for appeasing horror movie audiences, though in the film they’re eldritch gods), as do the triptych of movies, Spring, Resolution, and The Endless. And there’s always the work of Guillermo del Toro, who is a Lovecraft and weird fiction devotee (as you well know), and makes Lovecraftian elements present either in tone (Shape of Water, Devil’s Backbone) or in physical form (Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy). Also, since you mentioned The Mist, which is based on Stephen King’s novella, there’s also all of King’s references to Lovecraft and other weird authors. If you’ve never read his short story “Crouch End,” I strongly recommend it. It may be King’s closest pastiche of a Lovecraft tale I’ve read. (Though the Dark Tower series certainly carries a lot of the same, as does It.) In fact, if you two would like to cover a Stephen King story (since you broke the living author seal with T.E.D. Klein), this would be a good one to consider for the show.

Wesley Vanroose

i think that ANNIHILATION is one of the best The Colour Out of Space film adaptation. also the mouth of madness was also a good hp lovecraft inspired movie.

Raoul Kunz

Very nice spin-off episode Chris and Chad! I'd also like to mention the recently fairly exposed, cancelled (and rescued) series (more in the novels because they are farther in the plot) "The Expanse". It certainly has a lovecraftian vibe in the early sections, but once it gets around to the (SPOILER) slow zone and the gone empire it really gets into extremely "Mountains of Madness"-y territory, especially recently with humans fiddling around with technology that we cannot understand and eldritch and elder existences whom we simply cannot comprehend and who/that are never truly described and only encountered in some weird meta-space and never explicitly defined other than in completely dream/nightmare-like ways. Give it a watch now that it's been rescued it's fairly certain to reach the MoM stage ;). Imagine Event Horizon in more intelligent and lovecrfatian instead of the "Kingishness" of EH, especially since it's fairly hard on the science (which HPL of course always is) so when thing happen it's really beyond understanding and truly eldritch. Best regards Raoul G. Kunz

Anonymous
>>12668959

Yeah The Expanse. Best current scifi book and tv series and so Bezos is a good guy!? But seriously, The Expanse is quite Lovecraftian and Raul is absolutely right about it heading into some serious MOM regions with what's coming next (though I'm really hyped for some death slugs and Chrisjen hopping around on the moon!)

Anonymous

Oh yeah. One more comment regarding games. How could I forget Mass Effect, especially 1 (well 2 was great like Empire Strikes Back great), but one has such a lovecraftian echo/force/motif that its as overwhelming as that BWUMMMM! sound of the Reapers which has been copied by everyone (pretty sure it was in the game way before Inception). Will say nothing about 3 (especially that/those ending(s))

Anonymous

Awesome show! I love talking about other Lovecraft-inspired media of all kinds, so I definitely enjoyed it. I also thought Annihilation was a great Color Out of Space adaptation. It had all the best parts of that story (though the Dutchmen's Breeches were sadly absent) - a completely unknowable alien (the best kind of alien), bizarre localized physical and mental effects, weird color effects on everything. Also a mostly female cast, which was great to see in any action/horror/sci-fi setting, especially a Lovecraftian one. It also reminded me a lot of Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, which is the basis for the movie Stalker and the video game of the same name - all of which are awesome.

Andrew M. Reichart

Definitely check out Europa Report, it's excellent. The director Phil Gelatt also did They Remain, the new adaptation of Laird Barron's story "--30--." Much less known, he was also one of the hosts of the Clark Ashton Smith podcast The Double Shadow (which I love, though tbh it's no HPLLP).

Anonymous

Lots of good thoughts, gents - and much appreciated. As a long time resident of Hello Kitty Town, I can tell you that Japan loves Lovecraft. You can find him directly in a few things, directly inspiring a few others, and there's at least a Lovecraftian tinge about a bunch of other stuff. Consider: 1) The utterly weird and horrific body transformation and sexual violence of Tetsuo the Iron Man. Not recommended (at all!) for the squeamish. What's happening? Why? You won't get any answers. But it might be the start of something world ending. Or maybe it'll just happen to you... 2) The transformational anime Akira is perhaps more sci-fi than weird fiction - more action-packed than Lovecraft would ever write - but the sense of dread in what we are evolving into . . . well, pretty Lovecraftian. 3) The totally silly Nyaruko: Crawling with Love! with straight up mythos beings showing up to sow cute weirdness in the life of a hapless student. 4) Heck, you might even have a look at some Studio Ghibli flicks. There's something of the Dreamlands about Sprited Away, isn't there? By all means come on out and I'll show you around some of the very weird local beastie legend spots.

Anonymous
>>12691231

I thought Europa Report was excellent too. Generally struggle with found footage stuff because it became so all pervasive in horror, but it makes sense in the space exploration setting. Nicely balanced ending that reveals just enough to make you faint!

Anonymous

You asked for some ideas. Have you thought about approaching by character or entity rather than story. By which I mean, looking at all the appearances of a given character in order, how they evolve, contradict, get adapted by different authors?

Anonymous

If you have any stories from your Call of Cthulhu RPG sessions, that might make for a fun episode. Get the old gaming group back together, drink a drink or two and tell us about that time you threw all caution to the wind, read the book and tried the spell that ended your investigator... and everyone else.

Anonymous

Speaking of ideas, I think it was in your classic COC episodes, somebody mentioned revisiting these stories in the future. I really think that should happen, at least the best of Lovecraft. After all this time and your absorption of so many other authors (especially Dusany and CAS), plus your excellent discussions with Ken Hite, Joshi and so many others, it would seem most logical and appropriate to dive back in, maybe as Tom suggests above, looking at individual characters or some other aspect.

Anonymous

Great show and it's awesome to have the whole back catalog available in the feed. A couple of movies that are Lovecraft adjacent: They Live! and Jacob's Ladder. Both have Lovecraftian elements to my mind. In They Live! the main character thinks he's losing his mind in the first part of the movie and it sort of devolves into scifi/action by the end. And Jacob's Ladder is just creepy all the way through. Looking forward to more Topic shows!

Raoul Kunz
>>12670252

Especially the scene when you get to talk to Sovereign in ME1... Also the whole sequence with the sleeping reaper that cerberus examines, especially the logs you can find,that "it is in my dreams - it knows we are here - we are standing in front of a sleeping god.." and the like. Though I felt that ME3 was a big let down (I know, that's something of a cliche... shame on me ;) ) and way too much elements from the, admittedly very HPL-y, great 90s show Babylon 5. - which of course is another CoC/atMoM like story and it's smaller stand alone-ish feel like shorter HPL stories a lot of time. Honestly, it seems that sci-fi draws a lot more from HPL conceptually than horror when reading through the discussion here... ;) Best regards Raoul G. Kunz

Anonymous

Great show! You should do more of these...you could probably even do a pledge level of 500 or something and have subscribers on as guests. I wonder if one could find even material to do an episode about movies/tv shows that are more Dreamlands inspired rather than pure Lovecraftian cosmic dread.

Anonymous

Any plans of revisiting past Lovecraft stories?

Anonymous

I'm a John Carpenter fan and I'll say The Thing and Halloween are the easiest movie to get people on board for. Any other film of his I've shared with friends they just don't get into it. I dig In the Mouth of Madness a lot. It's a film you have to see more than once to appreciate though, and this is a case where I feel the effort of multiple views is worthwhile. A lot of the off beats are "explainable" as part of the metanarrative. The idea is the characters are characters in Sutter Kane's novel and he's actually not a great writer, so when you have a character do something like stare at wall for no reason it's because the author neglected them in the scene. I think the film is more intelligent than people give it credit for, but it clearly didn't communicate those ideas to most audiences. Sadly Carpenter never really made a good movie after that.

Anonymous

What do you think of the movie Altered States?

CthulhusDream

Bonus content was very nice. Was sad too see "H.P. Lovecraft's: Necronomicon" not mentioned, another awesome monster filled one where Jeffrey Combs played Lovecraft himself. Also Call Girl of Cthulhu while total b movie schlock is still entertaining =D

Anonymous
>>12632387

+1 for Pontypool and Dark City - and I'm definitely going to check out Banshee Chapter!

Anonymous
>>12668307

Ooh yeah - maybe you could do show/shows about King's most explicitly Lovecraftian short fiction, including Crouch End, Jerusalem's Lot, and N.

Anonymous

By the way, Bartleby the Scrivener was made into a movie starring Crispin Glover. I wouldn't call it Lovecraftian (or very good), but it's definitely WEIRD!

Anonymous

Love this series. Lots of new movies to watch! I always also saw some weird kinda magic in Charlie Kaufman's movies, especially the existential horror of Synecdoche, NY. That idea of living in an ever burning house always bothered me.

Anonymous
>>12755298

Carpenter is king and In The Mouth of Madness is his cerebral opus! The Thing is my all-time favorite and a faithful telling of Campbell's amazing novella. That story in itself felt like a nod to At the Mountains of Madness.

Anonymous

Humanoids From the Deep has some strong Deep Ones influence. A small fishing town besieged by fish-men who carry off (among other things) the young women. Imagery can be a bit intense. It is recently available on amazon prime. Glad to see Cast a Deadly Spell get some love! It is currently available on HBO now.

Anonymous
>>12755688

I loved it when it first came out, young gorgeous Hurt covered in slime, what's not to love and it's jangled story telling, well it was the 80's. Saw it again recently and it just didn't do it for me. Definetly lovecraftian themes, but The Fly (Cronenburg/Goldblum version) does the body horror stuff much better and manages a cohesive story. If I remember correctly, AS suffered from conflicts between the writer and the studio. Can't remember which studio, but somebody wanted a "happy ending" which ultimately gave us the A-ha music video. But it's got some great moments. I'd definetly love to hear Chad and Chris do a show on Cronenberg, sure John Carpenter is indisputably lovecraft king (for me - like some many here are saying because of The Thing), but Cronenberg desrves some HPL respect too methinks.

Anonymous

Consider doing Upstream Color! I'd like to see you guys dig deep into one of two movies at a time. Maybe say what you will be doing the week before so you don't have to worry about spoilers.

Anonymous

I'd love to see you guys do "The Eye Above the Mantel," which is the Frank Belknap Long story that apparently turned HPL on to him (kind of an apocalyptic Dunsany vibe to that), or "Four O'Clock," a short scary story by Sonia Greene (that Joshi dismisses about as quickly as he can), which might be interesting to compare and contrast to HPL's style & tropes.

Anonymous

This show actually convinced me to go and watch Annihilation. Its really stuck with me and may become one of my absolite favorites; I'm recommending it with some high praise.

Anonymous

Europa Report is definitely worth a watch. They do commit the ultimate sin of weird fiction at the end, and I feel that the movie, had it been like 5 seconds shorter, would have ended MUCH better.

Anonymous

Carpenter's Prince of Darkness is also a very weird movie, and is part of the 'Apocalypse Troligy' a long with The Thing and Mouth of Madness

Anonymous

Sorry Guys, I was pretty underwhelmed by this first attempt at the topics show. I thought about why that was, as normally I'm someone who celebrates the whole Fifer/Lackey catalog. I think it was because the topic of Lovecraftian film and television is just too large to go over as a whole. For example, I'd have loved for you to do a whole episode just on "Cast a Deadly Spell", which is one of my favorite films as well. Would you ever consider giving each Lovecraftian TV show or film its own podcast, like you do with the weird fiction tales? Breaking down weird movies seems something right up your dark and twisted alley. Also i'd love a good "origin" story on how the two of you got this whole thing started!

Anonymous

Europa Report is really amazing. I think you guys would like it a lot. Definitely worth watching! Go in cold, don’t read anything about it. Way better that way. :)

Anonymous

I really enjoy your podcasts, have since 2012, but I know this format is new and exciting :) I would like it if it were more focused for the bonus shows, maybe going more behind the scenes with you? Just an idea. This show felt more like a list. If it had been more narrow, like if you had just talked about the lovecraft movies you’ve been part of and how that all came together, that would have been more interesting for me. Keep up the great work guys, I do love that you’re in Patreon now!

Anonymous

What’s the western Chad mentions? Listened to it countless times but can’t make out what he says.

Anonymous

Personal favs: Cabin in the Woods (for camp Lovecraft) The South Park episodes (where we find out how Kenny resurrects each episode) The Terror AMC TV Series adaptation of the 2007 novel of the same name by Dan Simmons

Anonymous
>>13138116

The South Park episodes are terrific! Really funny take on Cthulhu. The story arc starts with Season 13 episode 2, then continues in Season 14, episodes 11, 12 and 13. The Mythos stuff comes in toward the end of Season 14, episode 11. Definitely worth the watch!

Anonymous

Hey guys, there’s a movie called Residue on Netflix that’s basically just a guy trying to read a lovecraftian tome. There’s another called The Void that’s pretty solidly in the weird/ horror blend. Neither are perfect films, but both are worth a watch!

Anonymous

I don't think I saw it pop up in the comments (if it did, I apologize), but another Dan O'Bannon-scripted film that I feel treads through Lovecraft territory is DEAD & BURIED, from 1981. It doesn't really touch on cosmic horror, and maybe takes inspiration from some of his pulpier stories, but it's also set in an isolated, Innsmouth-like seaside community, and the overall tone just shrieks Lovecraft to me. Anyway, I'm sure you guys, and everyone else here, have seen the movie, but I can never pass up an opportunity to hype it.

Anonymous

Spring. Wikipedia says "Spring is a 2014 American romantic body horror film." If you're intrigued by how those two tastes go together, check it out. Among other things, surprisingly sweet.

Anonymous

Late to the party, just upgraded my Patreon. No references in the comments to "Die Farbe", a German film (translation: The Color). It is a close adaptation of 'The Colour Out of Space', Whether with English subtitles or dubbed, it is a very, very creepy film that captures the cringe factor of the short story.

Ben Gilbert

Edgar Allen Poe's Haunted Palace with Vincent Price is actually Lovecraft's The Case of Charles Dexter Ward.