One thing that I failed to mention, but tip toed around, has to do with existential dread. Another reason it cannot be a godzilla/independence day type film, is because it needs to be made perfectly clear that we CANNOT defeat it! Though there occasionally may be small little victories in HPL's stories, it is quite rare and again...small victories. As I said, he usually just peels away enough for us to catch a glimpse of the issue, and even with just that, the protagonists lose a bit of sanity. There is no war to win here. We are just a mere speck in HPLs universe and it should cause us unease. This is what needs to be translated as well in this movie.
I love his works, admittedly not having read them for a few years, but have read almost every short story he ever published. I am looking forward to the movie. Totally agree with your point about the narrator.
Lovecraft's work is so hard to translate into a visual medium, that's why I think music should be the key thing to get right in a movie adaptation. And when I mean music I mean noooo violins, and no startling piano smashing. The music should be subtle but earie. Less is more. NO cheap jump scares! A lingering fear over screaming terror. EDIT: I know Robert Bloch wrote a screenplay based on Lovecraft/Heald's 'Out of the Aeons' but never got made and I think that short story could be interesting as a movie adaptation.
You should talk about more movie/show/book stuff. A series where you watch historical movies and talk about their accuracy to real life could be a lot of fun
I was just about to send you a message to be sure you watched this. Hoped you would enjoy it! I still remember painting Abby's room listening to the Call of Cthulhu ambient soundtrack with you! Good times!
Sir, I just came to say that James Wan had a movie back in the Saw days, called Dead Silence. As a Chinese man, that movie really disturbed me from a cultural point of view. I hope he can get under the skin of Lovecraft works and produce something truly worthy.
I disagree that an unreliable narrator is a fundamental Lovecraftian device: In his non-dreamscape stories, he uses a reliable but limited narrator, who shares with us his limitations. If he is not sure something is real, he at least hints that he is not sure. I agree that shifting to third person/omniscient is totally anti-Lovecraftian... In my opinion all the best Lovecraft stories are the stories where the narrator is crystal clear he is describing real physical events: Mountains of Madness, Innsmouth, and Cthulu are all unambiguously physical. A rare late story where some ambiguity occurs at the end is Shadow out of time, and it hurts the story in my opinion. Another reviewer also quite rightly pointed out that nearly all Lovecraft creatures are unambiguously physical, just physical in a way that is flexible. The Shadow out of Time and The Thing on the Doorstep involve the forced posession of bodies by immaterial spirits, but are less typically Lovecraftian for that reason. In Lovecraft the alien usually stays alien. If I had to characterize the uniqueness of Lovecraft it would boil down to this: 1-A slow and indirect approach to the mystery/creature (through clues, documents and odd events) 2-Characters only focused on this approach, and nothing else: Near zero focus on themselves. 3-Material precision to the mystery/creature that is both extremely specific and very unfamiliar, with a sense of awe conveyed either through the scale of physical power (or the scale of fear they inspire to humans) or the scale of their antiquity/immortality. Actual magical powers (except for an unnatural endurance through time, or telepathy in the case of Chtulu) are rarely on display, and even the strange sky lights and thunderous voices in Dexter Ward did not prevent mere muskets from killing the creature... The Dunwitch Horror has a clearly more magical ending, where the creature disappears entirely from the physical world, but this is actually not that typical for Lovecraft. I know there is a whole set of stories presented as "dreamscapes", but I don't include them here as they clearly stand apart from his regular stories.
I really enjoyed the "Dagon" movie (since I'm sure someone else will mention "In the Mouth of Madness"), which captured the feel of the source material fairly well.
One thing that I failed to mention, but tip toed around, has to do with existential dread. Another reason it cannot be a godzilla/independence day type film, is because it needs to be made perfectly clear that we CANNOT defeat it! Though there occasionally may be small little victories in HPL's stories, it is quite rare and again...small victories. As I said, he usually just peels away enough for us to catch a glimpse of the issue, and even with just that, the protagonists lose a bit of sanity. There is no war to win here. We are just a mere speck in HPLs universe and it should cause us unease. This is what needs to be translated as well in this movie.
I love his works, admittedly not having read them for a few years, but have read almost every short story he ever published. I am looking forward to the movie. Totally agree with your point about the narrator.
Lovecraft's work is so hard to translate into a visual medium, that's why I think music should be the key thing to get right in a movie adaptation. And when I mean music I mean noooo violins, and no startling piano smashing. The music should be subtle but earie. Less is more. NO cheap jump scares! A lingering fear over screaming terror.
EDIT: I know Robert Bloch wrote a screenplay based on Lovecraft/Heald's 'Out of the Aeons' but never got made and I think that short story could be interesting as a movie adaptation.
You should talk about more movie/show/book stuff. A series where you watch historical movies and talk about their accuracy to real life could be a lot of fun
I was just about to send you a message to be sure you watched this. Hoped you would enjoy it! I still remember painting Abby's room listening to the Call of Cthulhu ambient soundtrack with you! Good times!
Cthulhu will becomes full GODZILLA mode
Sir, I just came to say that James Wan had a movie back in the Saw days, called Dead Silence. As a Chinese man, that movie really disturbed me from a cultural point of view. I hope he can get under the skin of Lovecraft works and produce something truly worthy.
Love your yt name!
Loved HPL for more than 30 years and I usually get very disappointed in these movies. Won't get my hopes up!
I disagree that an unreliable narrator is a fundamental Lovecraftian device: In his non-dreamscape stories, he uses a reliable but limited narrator, who shares with us his limitations. If he is not sure something is real, he at least hints that he is not sure. I agree that shifting to third person/omniscient is totally anti-Lovecraftian... In my opinion all the best Lovecraft stories are the stories where the narrator is crystal clear he is describing real physical events: Mountains of Madness, Innsmouth, and Cthulu are all unambiguously physical. A rare late story where some ambiguity occurs at the end is Shadow out of time, and it hurts the story in my opinion. Another reviewer also quite rightly pointed out that nearly all Lovecraft creatures are unambiguously physical, just physical in a way that is flexible. The Shadow out of Time and The Thing on the Doorstep involve the forced posession of bodies by immaterial spirits, but are less typically Lovecraftian for that reason. In Lovecraft the alien usually stays alien. If I had to characterize the uniqueness of Lovecraft it would boil down to this: 1-A slow and indirect approach to the mystery/creature (through clues, documents and odd events) 2-Characters only focused on this approach, and nothing else: Near zero focus on themselves. 3-Material precision to the mystery/creature that is both extremely specific and very unfamiliar, with a sense of awe conveyed either through the scale of physical power (or the scale of fear they inspire to humans) or the scale of their antiquity/immortality. Actual magical powers (except for an unnatural endurance through time, or telepathy in the case of Chtulu) are rarely on display, and even the strange sky lights and thunderous voices in Dexter Ward did not prevent mere muskets from killing the creature... The Dunwitch Horror has a clearly more magical ending, where the creature disappears entirely from the physical world, but this is actually not that typical for Lovecraft. I know there is a whole set of stories presented as "dreamscapes", but I don't include them here as they clearly stand apart from his regular stories.
I really enjoyed the "Dagon" movie (since I'm sure someone else will mention "In the Mouth of Madness"), which captured the feel of the source material fairly well.
I forgot about that one. It's been decades so I don't remember it much. I'll have to check it out