What are your favorite H.P. Lovecraft adaptations?

Does it have to be film?

Just read a compilation of three of Gou Tanabe's adaptations in translation, published by dark horse. Lovely atmospheres. The action is indecipherable to me, though. ( Personally i can't get used to reading the text from left to right and the layout from right to left, it feels like listening to two songs of varying rhythm played simultaneously. )
 
I noticed comments about Dagon.
Over at FanEdit, one of the members has been working to turn that into a Silent film for a couple years now.
I prod him from time to time, but I am apparently the only member who is interested in his edit. I will post an update if he ever finishes.

Arkham Studios released a trailer for The Shadow Over Innsmouth in 2015.
I'll believe it when I see it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzZ2x5BRwkc
Finally, as no one else mentioned Prometheus, I must confess I liked parts of it quite a bit. Other parts, not so much.
That said, an individual did rework it, removing all the stupidity.
Without violating rules, I can provide the trailer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEGJFGIPQ7c
 
Hopefully the Lovecraft Country show is good, though it's sure to rankle many in the community for its emphasis on black people. I wish Jordan 'Get Out' Peele were showrunning, but at least he seems to have some role in production.

I thought Prometheus, despite stupid moments, was an alright film and much better than its sequel.
 
Patrick G.P said:
As others have mentioned, John Carpenter's work is what falls closest to me as well in terms of adaptations. The Thing is the best one of the lot I think.
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For me, The Thing is the best Lovecraftian film that doesn't explicitly reference HPL. It might just be a coincidence but when Richard Stanley (Hardware, Dust Devil) presented some pictures of his adaptation of "The Colour Out Of Space" at Necronomicon, some of the images of the transformed family in the farm house bore an uncanny resemblance to the Carpenter film.
 
Reanimator, no doubt.
Dagon wasn't too bad, I guess.

And though it wasn't an adaptation of a specific Lovecraft story, I thought that Cthulhu (2007) wasn't too bad, either. I'm surprised that I don't see that one mentioned more often, actually.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChFvCf56FZ0[/ame]

It looks like the whole thing is up on YouTube, too, though the quality may leave something to be desired:

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-z2KRLy-HQ[/ame]
 
I quite liked Cthulhu too. The director's commentary was one of the most apologetic I've ever heard. I felt like saying to him "Cheer up man, your film's not that bad!"
I also like Dagon. Granted, the hero's repeated "choice" speech is pretty silly and I was amazed he kept his glasses on throughout his ordeal - but on the plus side it featured the best evocation of Innsmouth that I've seen, it had a more serious tone than Gordon's previous romps (Re-Animator and From Beyond) and Macarena Gomez conveyed an even more intense sexy/scary combination than Barbara Steele.
 
Robin Davies said:
I quite liked Cthulhu too. The director's commentary was one of the most apologetic I've ever heard. I felt like saying to him "Cheer up man, your film's not that bad!"
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Yeah, I looked at some of the negative reviews, and the vast majority have that typical internet tendency to unreasonable extremes of reaction. Everything is either umparalleled awesomeness or a crime against humanity, with Cthulhu clearly treding towards the latter.

That's what happens to anyone who dares to defy the expectations and demands of the fanboys (and -girls), the actual quality of the work be damned. The internet has only made this situation orders of magnitude worse, of course.

The movie's a bit closer to a Ramsey Campbell-style modern take on Lovecraft, I figure, rather than a strict Lovecraft piece, and God knows that's probably enough by itself to set off some purists.

Robin Davies said:
I also like Dagon. Granted, the hero's repeated "choice" speech is pretty silly and I was amazed he kept his glasses on throughout his ordeal...
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I do remember the hero being a bit of a goofball, at least at the beginning, like he was doing a bad impression of the Reanimator guy, but yeah, it ended up being a lot better than I expected.

From Beyond is an entertaining mess, I guess, that's all I can really say about it.
 
I recently saw a bunch of Lovecraft adaptations I had missed.

This is how I classify both the adaptations and the documentaries I had seen:

Excellent:
The Music of Erich Zann (1980)
Out of Mind: The Stories of H.P. Lovecraft (1998)
The Call of Cthulhu (2005)

Very Good:
The Haunted Palace (1963)
In the Mouth of Madness (1995)
Cool Air (1999)
Die Farbe (2010)
The Whisperer in Darkness (2011)

The Eldritch Influence: The Life, Vision and Phenomenon of H.P. Lovecraft (2003)

Good:
Re-Animator (1985)
From Beyond (1986)
The Resurrected (1991)
Castle Freak (1995)
Chilean Gothic (2000)
Dagon (2001)
Strange Aeons (2014)

Lovecraft: Fear of the Unknown (2008)

Regular:
Die, Monster, Die (1965)
The Curse (1987)
Necronomicón: El Libro del Infierno (2018)

Bad:
Necronomicon: Book of the Dead (1993)
The Dreams in the Witch-House (2005)
 
Has anyone seen The Void, a Canadian film, quite well done and an homage apparently to John Carpenter's The Thing. Also saw Evolution, a French flim, very well done, and seems to riff on The Shadow Over Insmouth. Finally there is Feed the Light Swedish, which is a take on The Colour Out of Space.
I think all three are worth seeing.
 
I didn't like The Void. The attempt to ape Carpenter was appreciated but the results were unimpressive, at best.

But then I didn't care for In the Mouth of Madness, either. I have the feeling that with any other director it would have been unwatchable. Carpenter managed to inject some style into proceedings but overall I just found it silly.

Prince of Darkness, on the other hand, is a fine Lovecraftian horror flick, even though it's ostensibly a homage to Nigel Kneale, I think. One of his best.
 
As to Carpenter's adaptations, The Thing is just great and inimitable, attempts have been made,like The Void which is not great, even cheesy in parts, but fun for a night of popcorn. In the Mouth of Madness was a good attempt, but not really convincing, however the ending is. Prince of Darkness blew me away and is the best in my opinion of Carpenter's apocalyptic trilogy. All three Carpenter films have strong ambiguous endings.
 
marioneta said:
... All three Carpenter films have strong ambiguous endings.
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As did The Fog and, especially, Halloween. Alas, after an endless series of cornball fan-fictionish sequels, who still remembers the simple ominous perfection of Halloween's ending?

Credit where it's due, at least the folks behind The Void were trying to do something new and real.
 
I like In the Mouth of Madness a hell of a lot, but it isn't that Lovecraftian compared to something like Quatermass and the Pit.
 
It really could have used the Fulci touch to liven things up a little. Now there's a director who could have turned the base matter of its story (not Carpenter's work, apparently) into pure grindhouse gold.

Speaking of il maestro, isn't either House by the Cemetery or City of the Living Dead set in a town called Arkham? I guess that settles it, then.
 
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