HP Lovecraft fans

[Orrex]

Do not see Chill, a newly-released film based on Lovecraft's story Cool Air.

Horrible. Utterly horrible. I'm a Lovecraft fan, and I still fell asleep twice during this plodding, ill-conceived, and poorly executed piece of crap, much to the disgust of my wife, who remained awake and endured it all by herself.


Don't see it!

[curse of greyface]

1. I just watched Dee Snyder's Strangeland... How bad is it really.

Is it a Russian Mountains of Madness bad or just Will Wheaton bad.

[Orrex]

7. Here's a summary of the badness:

After 96 minutes of dull intrigue and flaccid suspense, the most compelling question you'll be able to ask is "what was the deal with his hat?"


I'm not kidding.

[Tom Kitten]

2. I've yet to see

any film attempts of Lovecraft that match just reading his stories.

[DarkTirade]

3. His style is counter to the premise of film itself.

He's all about the indescribable. And film just shows it on screen. :P

[Tom Kitten]

4. No kidding

he was all about nameless horrors, and as a curious person I wonder what may they be? It's frustrating trying to find out but I don't to lose my sanity trying to find out. I'm no Randoph Carter...

[DarkTirade]

9. See, I've got an advantage there...

I don't have any sanity to lose. :P

[Orrex]

6. Yes, but

HP's stories themselves include pages and pages of description of the undescribable...

[DarkTirade]

8. He tries to explain them as best he can...

but for the most part he focuses on the reaction of the characters when faced with such things.

[Orrex]

10. Well...

Honestly, what we're seeing in a lot of those cases is the heavy hand of an undisciplined writer. His later works show much greater restraint and (comparatively) economic use of description. Very often, indeed, we're getting the description through the filter of a first-person narrator, but even then it's no excuse for wildly excessive description.

Years back I paged through a sort of Lovecraft concordance that chronicled all of the wacky and eldritch adjectives that appeared in his writing. It was quite a list, as you can imagine!

[DarkTirade]

11. I love using a Lovecraftian lexicon at strange and inappropriate times.

:P

[Orrex]

5. This one just might manage it:

http://www.cthulhulives.org/cocmovie/index.html

Also, Guillermo del Toro is lined up to adapt At the Mountains of Madness in a few years, and he's both a huge fan of Lovecraft and an excellent director. That might be the first time both qualities have been brought to bear on a big-budget Mythos film.

[Orsino]

12. del Toro + AtMoM should equal splendiferousness.

I envision many scenes datelined with an old manual-typewriter font, and some fantastic critters, quickly glimpsed. The Thing minus most of the gore, but with steadily-mounting horror and fully-realized characters.

[Capn Sunshine]

13. What about the band?

Totally kill psychedelic band from the acid-soaked mid-late sixties. If you like psychedelic San Francisco sound, check them out.
\Although Ctluthu is my avatar elsewhere...discovered Lovecraft in Jr. High... I just can't see how anyone can transfer that to film.

[Swede]

14. Some day,someone will make a good Lovecraft movie.

Us old ones wait.