Movies based on the Cthulhu mythos?

[trancejeremy]

FWIW, Call of Cthulhu (the recent silent movie) is now available for rent at Netflix (though it says "long wait")

 

[Mouseferatu]

I'd argue Event Horizon is mythos inspired.

I've heard that claim before, but having seen the movie, I can't agree. Can you point to specifics as to why you think so?

 

[WayneLigon]

I've heard that claim before, but having seen the movie, I can't agree. Can you point to specifics as to why you think so?

The Event Horizon has an experimental gravity drive/stardrive that works by pushing the ship through another dimension, exposure to which drove everyone on the ship insane. Something seems to come back with the ship when it returns to our universe, which also drives others insane. The captain of the rescue mession finally goes mad himself, and pilots the remainder of the ship back into the hell-dimension.

Dimensions that drive you insane = Lovecraft.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Hrm...

Seems a bit of a stretch to me. The fact that a story contains a specific detail that sort of also exist in HPL doesn't make it an HPL-inspired or HPL-related story.

I guess I can see how some people would make the association, but to me, the feel, the specifics, and the imagery were all wrong for Lovecraft.

 

[trancejeremy]

People have different ideas of what is "Lovecraftian", and IMHO, it's often colored more by Call of Cthulhu (the game) than what Lovecraft actually wrote.

In this case, probably the closest thing to Event Horizon would be Dreams in the Witch House. And in that, despite being exposed to dimensional travel (along with other things), the main character only goes slightly crazy. He retains enough moral sense to kill Keziah Mason rather than help her sacrifice that baby.

Also, in HPL, people driven crazy usually just babble incoherently, it's more in Stephen King's stuff that they become psychotic/violent after being driven insane by supernatural forces. The only HPL story I can think of with a guy who goes crazy and kills people was really a case of possession.

(edit:I can't remember the name of the story I'm thinking of (edit2: Beyond the Wall of Sleep), but it was some guy brought into an asylum after killing some people, then it ends with the doctor killing him and seeing a new star born, meaning the creature had been released. Also now that I think about it, it happened in "The Rats in the Walls", but in that case, it was more a theme of racial/familial degeneration, another big theme of his.)

 

[James Heard]

I thought that In the Mouth of Madness was pretty mythos inspired.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

I need to threajack this for a second. When I asked for the list, I wan't looking for inspired movies, but movies directly tied to the mythos.

 

[Templetroll]

I need to threajack this for a second. When I asked for the list, I wan't looking for inspired movies, but movies directly tied to the mythos.

Check the link to the TheLurker. It mention Lovecraft didn't want his works adapted for the screen so there are none that are directly based on his work.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Check the link to the TheLurker. It mention Lovecraft didn't want his works adapted for the screen so there are none that are directly based on his work.

Of course, given the creation of Call of Cthulhu, that statement is no longer accurate.

 

[WhatGravitas]

I guess I can see how some people would make the association, but to me, the feel, the specifics, and the imagery were all wrong for Lovecraft.

Yeah - the dimension pictured in Event Horizon was far too... hellish for Lovecraft. Sure, it made you crazy, but rather Jack-the-Ripper- or Ed-Gein-crazy, not Abdul-Alhazred- or Erich-Zann-crazy.

The evilness in EH was far too concerned with human madness, human fears... while the space/outer dimension-context was right, the actual horror wasn't very Lovecraftian (more gibberisch craziness, things from beyond, things not meant to know), and the style of the film even less - it lacked the self-reflection twist at the end.