[CoC] Inspirations.

[DnDChick]

Here is a list of books, stories, and movies that are not Mythos-related, but which have the appropriate atmosphere. Some are books or stories, some are movies, some are both. (Lotsa Stephen King...)

Species 1 and 2 (for the 'aliens among us' plot)

Children of the Corn (secluded town, mad cult, big monster in hiding)

It (hidden alien evil devouring children, combatted by everyday people)

Mimic (monstrous insects in the sewers)

They Live (another one for the 'aliens among us' line)

Graveyard Shift (for the big nasty mutated rat)

Tommyknockers (hidden alien evil mutating people and making them work to free them from imprisonment)

Moontrap (aliens on the moon making nasty cyborgs)

The Blair Witch Project (for the mysterious, sanity-shaking evil hidden in a deep, dark forest, and the investigation leading up to the climax in which everyone dies lol)

The Curse (this is basically a modern retelling of the Colour Out of Space, and gets pretty nasty in places, especially since it stars a pre-ST:TNG Wil Wheaton lol)

Lair of the White Worm (vampire snakes, cults, big nasty wormy creature in a cave)

Nightwing (communal killer vampire bats led by a ghostly shaman)

The Manitou (woman impregnated with a monstrous Native American spirit...this is a pretty bad movie, but it stars Tony Curtis so it cant be all bad!)

Altered States (a man experiments with sensory deprivation and goes too far over the brink of sanity)

Any others you would like to share?

 

[Kaptain_Kantrip]

Erica: You left out Dr. Phibes, LOL.

Tremors 1-3: Big nasty wormy creatures fought by rednecks!

XTRO (1983, UK): A man is kidnapped by aliens and turned into one--he returns to earth and impregnates a woman with HIMSELF (human form)--he bursts out of her womb in record time (couple hours tops) and chews off his own umbilical cord! He then turns his son's babysitter into a mutant alien egg-laying "queen" by biting her and injecting his alien DNA into her. This movie makes little sense but has some truly gruesome, nightmarish imagery worthy of HR (ALIEN) Giger or the Mythos. The sequels to it stink.

 

[RogueJK]

Lifeforce - (I saw this recently on the SciFi channel) Vampiric, shapeshifting race of aliens are living in stasis inside Haley's Comet. 3 are brought back on board a space shuttle that was investigating Haley's Comet, and attempt to take over London by infecting and controlling the population, bit by bit. Kind of a cheesy film, but sorta Lovecraftian. Turns into a quasi-zombie flick at the end.

There's also Event Horizon - A prototype faster-than-light ship returns to the solar system, but the crew has gone mad and slughtered each other. A team is sent to investigate.

Alien (the first one) is somewhat Lovecraftian, in mood if not in subject matter.

The Omega Man - A movie based on Richard Matheson's "I Am Legend" (which is also what the Living Dead films are based loosely on). After an apocalyptic war waged with biological weapons, one man is left alive in a world filled with vampiric creatures intent on killing him.

I Am Legend - Richard Matheson's wonderful vampire novel. Rated as one of the 10 best and most influential novels of the horror genre. Amazon.com's summary says: "A terrible plague has decimated the world, and those who were unfortunate enough to survive have been transformed into blood-thirsty creatures of the night. Except, that is, for Robert Neville. He alone appears to be immune to this disease, but the grim irony is that now he is the outsider. He is the legendary monster who must be destroyed because he is different from everyone else." Definitely a wonderful example of the use of mood in a horror story. A CoC DM can get some great inspiration from this book.

John Carpenter's The Thing - Scientists uncover a buried creature in the Antarctic ice, and when they bring it back to camp, people start dying and the men begin to go insane. (This one might not fit your criteria, since Carpenter has stated that it is based heavily on Lovecraft's work...)

The Living Dead Films (Night of the Living Dead/Dawn of the Dead/Day of the Dead) - After a satellite crash and the ensuing radiation exposure, a few remaining humans fight back against an huge, and growing, population of flesh-eating zombies that have practically taken over the world. Great for the whole "unstoppable bad guys that can't be fought" mood. I plan on running a NotLD/CoC game that is set towards the beginning of the outbreak, where zombies are just starting to crop up. But instead of being radiation, the cause will be Mythos-related.

The Serpent and the Rainbow - A pharmaceutical researcher is sent to Haiti to attempt to uncover the formula for the powder that voodoo priests use to create zombies. He gets in way over his head. Hilarity, zombification, magicks, and soul-stealing ensues! (Okay... probably not so much hilarity... )

Braindead - When treating a new patient, a brain surgeon/psychiatrist begins to lose his own grip on reality. Kinda hard to follow, but with good imagery, and a neat twist at the end.

I'll post more as I think of them.

 

[hellbender]

Everyone has mentioned great material. I would add to the pile:

Movies:

Pumpkinhead-strange demon summoned by a witch that transforms the one who needed it.

Rawhead Rex-evil beast released from under a stone that wreaks havoc on a small village in England.

the first Hellraiser- what if the cenobites worshipped Nyarlathotep and their various stigmata where his gifts of power?

the remake of House on Haunted Hill

Curse of the Demon (and most any Hammer film, actually)


Books:

Tales of the Occult (every story has an idea in it, from Rudyard Kipling to Saki, contains the story 'Casting the Runes', which is the story to Curse of the Demon)

Shortstory 'The Belonging Kind' from Burning Chrome by William Gibson

if you are planning a DnD-esque version, I would reccomend most anything by Michael Moorcock.


hellbender

 

[Angelsboi]

Movies:

Children of the Corn (only the 1st one though)

Hellraiser 1 and Hellraiser Inferno (That was one freaky ass movie when you finally figure out whats going on!!)

Any of the Creepshow movies

Theres one movie that was about teens opening up a movie theatre with a horror movie night and they are getting killed one by one.

Urban Legends


Television:

Friday the 13th the series (3 average people (well jack knew some magick but rarely used it) off to fight crazy people and cults trying to get back cursed objects because their uncle made a pact with the devil)

 

[Dieter]

Phatasm...gotta love those flying blades

Re-animator...heck, it was inspired by H.P.L.

Terrorvision...a bit campy, but pretty strange and eerie

X-Files...the earlier seasons, any of the "Monster of the week" episodes predating the "Mulder is missing crap"/post 1999 drivel.

Return of the Living Dead...while most horror connesieurs consider it blasphemy, I liked the intensity and true scare factor of being trapped in a crematorium with hundreds of undead waiting to eat your braaainzzzz.

 

[RogueJK]

Return of the Living Dead...while most horror connesieurs consider it blasphemy, I liked the intensity and true scare factor of being trapped in a crematorium with hundreds of undead waiting to eat your braaainzzzz.

Bah!

The sad thing is that many people think that the Return of the Living Dead movies (and sadly, there are 3 of them) are sequels to "Night of the Living Dead" and George Romero's other Living Dead movies (Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead). In actuality, they are nothing but parodies of Romero's work.

It amazes me how many people, even those who consider themselves horror fans, think that it is Romero's zombies who stumble around moaning "Brains!".

*sigh*

 

[DnDChick]

Keep it on Topic

We arent critiquing movies here, nor are we trying to devalue a persons opinions about anything they decide to list here.

This is just a threat to list certain books or movies which might help a DM or player get a taste of the atmosphere of a CoC game. These books and movies can show a 'newbie' what a CoC game might be like, or to help experienced players get into the right frame of mind for a night of fun.

Lets get back on topic here, and take opinions to email.

Thanks!

 

[DnDChick]

And to get us back on topic, for those who would like an all-out modern guns-blazing action adventure gore-fest with a Cthulu-type monster with teeth and tentacles eating people and bloody skeletons all over the place...

Deep Rising

The scene were the worm-thingy ralphs up the half-digested guy thats still alive...omg...dont eat right before that scene!!

 

[RogueJK]

Re: Keep it on Topic

We arent critiquing movies here, nor are we trying to devalue a persons opinions about anything they decide to list here.

Hmm... I wasn't trying to devalue Dieter's opinion. (Though I was quite off-topic.) He himself admitted that many horror fans consider the movies blasphemous. I was merely trying to explain away some of the misconceptions that people have about the movies in question. Sorry if I came off as hostile.

And now... back on topic.

A film that I've heard is quite Lovecraftian in feel is The Last Wave.
An Australian lawyer defends five aborigines in a murder trial and in so doing is exposed to some of their tribal secrets. His apocalyptic dream-visions and the theme of “secrets Man was not meant to know” are especially Lovecraftian.

Another great one is In the Mouth of Madness. Borrowing (practically copying) from Lovecraft's works, this is another Lovecraftian film by John Carpenter. It would make a perfect CoC scenario, as it involves a writer whose novels cause the readers to become homicidal maniacs. The writer himself receives his inspiration from a group of squid-like aliens. The film stars Sam Neil. Honestly, one of the best Lovecraftian films ever made. Every HPL fan should see this one.