MOVIES INSPIRED IN H.P. LOVECRAFT WORKS

As a Fear of the Dark player I love horror movies...

That feeling when you turn off the light and seat in the couch waiting for the film to begin is something I love...

We love to be scared by horror films, to suffer with the characters as they walk towards death... We like fear itself.

There are a lot of horror movies inspired in H.P. Lovecraft´s works, some of them not clearly, other are obviously based on them. Lovecraft works didn´t go unnoticed to film directors and producers, and many of them have been adaptated or were the basis for films.

Today I want to make a list of the movies I believe that are based on his works or that they deserve to be seen as a Fear of the Dark player or a Call of Cthulhu GM.

The films are not in any particular order, I just offer a selection of films that you may like (related to mythos in one or other way).

So, make sure the doors are locked, turn off the light and sit in the couch... 

THE MIST (2007)

David Drayton and his young son Billy are among a large group of terrified townspeople trapped in a local grocery store by a strange, otherworldly mist. David is the first to realize that there are “things” lurking in the mist…deadly, horrifying things…creatures not of this world. 

Survival depends on everybody in the store pulling together…but is that possible, given human nature? As reason crumbles in the face of fear and panic, David begins to wonder what terrifies him more: the monsters in the mist—or the ones “inside” the store, the human kind, the people that until now had been his friends and neighbors?

RE-ANIMATOR (1985)

A medical student and his girlfriend become involved in a bizarre experiment into reanimating the dead conducted by the student's incorrigible housemate in this campy sendup of an H.P. Lovecraft story. The emphasis is on humour but once the dead walk, there is gore aplenty.

THE THING (1982)

In remote Antarctica, a group of American research scientists are disturbed at their base camp by a norwegian helicopter shooting at a sled dog. When they take in the dog, it brutally attacks both human beings and canines in the camp and they discover that the beast, from unknown origin, can assume the shape of its victims.

THE CALL OF CTHULHU (2005)

The Call of Cthulhu is a silent movie adaptation of the H. P. Lovecraft short story of the same name, produced by Sean Branney and Andrew Leman and distributed by the HP Lovecraft Historical Society. It is the first film adaptation of the famous Lovecraft story, and uses Mythoscope, a blend of vintage and modern filming techniques intended to produce the look of a 1920s-era film.

The film adheres very closely to Lovecraft's story, but there are a few changes. The sailors aboard the Emma first encounter the Alert abandoned at sea, rather than crewed by Cthulhu cultists as in the original story. Additionally, the film depicts the narrator present at the time of his great-uncle's death, who dies peacefully in his sleep, rather than being summoned upon the mysterious death of his great-uncle, who was presumably killed by Cthulhu cultists in the original short story. The narrator (Matt Foyer) notes as well that Inspector Legrasse, who had directed the raid on cultists in backwoods Louisiana, had died before the narrator's investigation began.

DAGON (2001)

A couple is traveling on a yacht off the coast of Spain, when a sudden storm smashes their boat on a reef.  They swim to the nearest town looking for help.  The decrepit fishing village of Imboca at first seems to be deserted. The strange inhabitants offer little help to the stranded couple. By nightfall they find themselves pursued by the entire town… but a town of what?

THE ENDLESS (2017)

As kids, they escaped a UFO death cult. Now, two adult brothers seek answers after an old videotape surfaces and brings them back to where they began. Soon they realize that the cult was more than right on their beliefs.

THE RESURRECTED (1992)

Charles Dexter Ward's wife enlists the help of a private detective to find out what her husband is up to in a remote cabin owned by his family for centuries. The husband is a chemical engineer, and the smells from his experiments (and the delivery of what appear to be human remains at all hours) are beginning to arouse the attention of neighbors and local law enforcement officials. When the detective and wife find a diary of the husband's ancestor from 1771, and reports of gruesome murders in the area begin to surface, they begin to suspect that some very unnatural experiments are being conducted in the old house.

THE VOID (2016)

In the middle of a routine patrol, officer Daniel Carter happens upon a blood-soaked figure limping down a deserted stretch of road. He rushes the young man to a nearby rural hospital staffed by a skeleton crew, only to discover that patients and personnel are transforming into something inhuman. As the horror intensifies, Carter leads the other survivors on a hellish voyage into the subterranean depths of the hospital in a desperate bid to end the nightmare before it's too late.

FROM BEYOND (1986)

Dr. Pretorius and his colleagues are working on a sensational experiment: by means of stimulation of the pineal gland, they want to open the human mind to higher dimensions. When the experiment succeeds, however, they are immediately attacked by terrible life forms, which apparently are floating around us all the time. When Dr. Pretorius is killed by one of them, Dr. Tillinghast is under suspect and thrown into the psycho ward due to his stories. Only the ambitious psychologist Dr. McMichaels believes him and wants to continue the experiment.

CLOVERFIELD (2008)

A group of friends gather in downtown Manhattan to hold a surprise party for Rob Hawkins who is departing to take up a vice presidency in Japan. Hud is given the job of recording everything on a camcorder. But as gossip spreads around the room that Rob and Beth McIntyre were sleeping together, there suddenly comes news that a tanker has overturned in the harbour. 

As they rush onto the roof to see, there is a massive explosion. Out on the street, the head of the Statue of Liberty comes crashing past and then a vast monster is seen smashing buildings aside. Rob and a handful of others try to survive amidst the mass devastation as the military cordon the area off, evacuate people and try to fight back against the monster. Rob takes the others on a dangerous journey across town to rescue Beth from where she is trapped injured inside her apartment building.

COLOUR OUT OF SPACE (2019)

A town is struck by a meteorite and the fallout is catastrophic. A really good adaptation of the original story.

Nicolas Cage and an H.P. Lovecraft story... what else do you need?

IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS (1994)

When horror novelist Sutter Cane goes missing, insurance investigator John Trent scrutinizes the claim made by his publisher, Jackson Harglow, and endeavors to retrieve a yet-to-be-released manuscript and ascertain the writer's whereabouts, discovering that the impact a horror writer's books have on his fans is more than inspirational.

This film is an excepcional Lovecratian story (I have to confess that I turned this film into a Call of Cthulhu RPG scenario that I played to friends and It was an awesome scenario... And we watched the film after the game)

This is It... Did you enjoy?

You may think that many mythos related films were not listed, well you may leave a comment with your chosen films that weren't listed or anything you want to add.

Next film I'm going to see is The Ring 3D edition... They say that images seem to come out of the screen...