Lovecraft's best films: list, rating, description and reviews

Howard Phillips Lovecraft is an outstanding twentieth-century horror master who comes up with something truly innovative and scary. The works of one of the founders of a new trend in the horror genre of twentieth-century literature still inspire filmmakers to shoot chilling films. Lovecraft is extremely difficult to film; to convey the chthonic, unknowable horror of the author’s literary works on the screen are taken only by venerable filmmakers. The finest hour of the writer came after his sudden death, in 1939 his opuses began to be published in book form. Howard Lovecraft, whose films are still being shot today, has come up with an original and unique mythology that now exists independently, along with the theogonies of Egypt, Mesopotamia or Sumer.

Based on the works

According to the writer's creations, more than 85 films and about two dozen video games have been created. Games and films according to Howard Lovecraft have predominantly appeared in the last two decades. In fairness, it is worth noting that an impressive number of them are not film adaptations, in many horror only the names or names invented by the writer are used. For example, in the project Lucio Fulci - the Italian horror film “City of the Living Dead” - the place where the frightening events unfold is called Dunwich, and the well-known book with magic spells in Sam Raimi’s movie under the inspirational title “The Evil Dead” is called the “Necronomicon”. There are much fewer films shot in separate works, but these are quite famous films. Lovecraft dared to film such eminent horror makers as Stuart Gordon, Guillermo del Toro, Dan O'Bannon and others. It is not possible to fit all the film productions of the writer's works in one publication, so it’s worth restricting yourself to the most famous films.

Movie List

When listing films by Lovecraft, the list of which consists of thirty films, the most famous are worth mentioning:

• “In the Maw of Madness” (IMDb film critic rating: 7.20).
• The Return of the Resuscitator (IMDb: 5.90).
• The Risen One (IMDb: 6.40).
• Hemoglobin (IMDb: 3.80).
• The Dagon (IMDb: 6.30).
• The Dunwich Horror (IMDb: 5.40).
• The Call of Cthulhu (IMDb: 7.40).
• “Outside” (IMDb: 6.80).
• The Book of the Dead (IMDb: 5.70).
• Cthulhu (IMDb: 4.70).
• The Bride of the Resuscitator (IMDb: 6.20).
• “Untold Horror 2” (IMDb: 5.20).
• The Unnamed (IMDb: 4.90).
• The Curse (IMDb: 4.90).
• The Resuscitator (IMDb: 7.30),
• Hidden Horror (IMDb: 4.70).
• “The Horror at Danwich” (IMDb: 3.80).
• "Die, monster, die!" (IMDb: 5.60).
• “Freak in the castle” (IMDb: 5.90).
• “Color from the Darkness” (IMDb: 4.70).

Mystical Horror

The first film adaptation of the author’s works is the horror film “The Enchanted Castle” (IMDb rating: 6.80) directed by Roger Corman. The plot of the painting is based on the Gothic novel “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward”, written by the writer in 1927.

The narration introduces the viewer to the main character - a black magician, a sorcerer who was destroyed by the inhabitants of Arkham in the XVIII century, who is trying to return from the world of the dead, having turned into his descendant, who was overly carried away by occult sciences. The film's director Roger Corman, making a horror, resolutely relies on the work of the aforementioned literary genius, the film clearly expresses the author’s imagination with the cult of terrifying deities, the magical Necronomicon, the mention of Yog-Sothoth and Cthulhu. In addition, cult actors Vincent Price and Lon Cheney Jr. starred in Corman’s movie, and additional monologues were written by the young and obscure Francis Ford Coppola.

Movies based on Lovecraft’s books were shot by world leading film directors: Dan O'Bannon, who presented the legendary Return of the Living Dead to horror fans, in 1992, also presented his own version of the adaptation of the novel The Case of Charles Dexter Ward - the film Resurrected (IMDb: 6.40) . According to film experts, unlike Corman's brainchild, his interpretation was not a mystical-Gothic horror, the film turned out to be a real bloody trash with agonizing skeletons and bloodthirsty zombies.

Stories of a stillborn twin

The novel "The Dunwich Horror" was put in the history of the world film industry three times: in 1970, 2006 and 2009. In 2006, the festival short film was released, in 1970 and 2009 - full-length films. Lovecraft this time tried to transfer to tape Daniel Heller and Lee Scott.

In the 1970 version, director Daniel Heller, who had previously filmed the Lovecraft novel “Radiance from the Outside” (the film “Die, Monster, Die!”), Kept close enough to the original source, carefully conveying the atmosphere of the story in the Danwich Horror horror (IMDb: 5.40) . Dean Stockwell, a well-known audience for the films “Quantum Leap” and “Langoliers”, was invited to play the leading role. However, film critics accepted the movie ambiguously, accusing the creators of losing the plot intrigue and the sluggish course of the action. Even for that time period, the scenery was too poor, and the animated inserts that ruined the mystical mood were ridiculous.

Author's version of Scott

The television film created by Lee Scott, who has directed more than a dozen low-budget horror films recently, is notable for a fair copy of the literary source, which is why it has an IMDb rating of 3.70. The action is intentionally modernized, instead of the stillborn twin brother of the protagonist, the summoned demon appears, but in general the plot's plot has survived: a gloomy mansion, a strange family that is sensitively protecting its secret, a monster that requires incessant human victims. According to the cinema community, Scott’s creation is similar to a typical (in terms of plot) horror, Lovecraft’s authorial personality is much less in it than the time-tested moves traditional for horror.

The most faithful follower

The most loyal fan of Lovecraft's work was the film director Stuart Gordon, who created five films based on the writer's works. Three became most widely known: the film “The Resuscitator”, shot according to the novel “Herbert West, The Resuscitator” (IMDb: 7.30), the horror film “Outside” (IMDb: 6.80), the horror story “Shadow Over Innsmouth”, the horror The Dagon (IMDb: 6.30).

"Resuscitator" is the debut of the director, who previously worked in the theater. The film was originally positioned as a pilot release for the television series. According to an expert assessment of censor filmmakers, the director took the basis from a literary source - the personality of the central character, a crazy genius who decided to defeat death at any cost. The plot unfolds in modern Chicago. The concentration of thrash in the Gordon project exceeded all permissible standards so much (the basic filling of the tape was a bloody dismemberment) that the producers decided not to provide the result to the censorship rating committee. But the tape in the blink of an eye was elevated to the status of “classic horror” and received three sequels: “The Bride of the Resuscitator”, “The Return of the Resuscitator” and “Resurrection” (the rating of the pictures is presented above).

Gordon's second project

Not all films based on Lovecraft's works correspond to the literary sources by the degree of madness. However, the Horror Horror, according to leading critics, is an exception. The plot action of the picture is famously twisted around the machine, which opened the portal to other dimensions. But expert scientists who made an unprecedented discovery did not imagine what the consequences of their bold experiment might be. The monsters who immediately appeared in our world, gnawed off the head of the chief scientist and inventor and drove the rest of the unfortunate ones crazy. This is one of the films in which the leading theme in the writer's work is shown - a clash with the unknown.

Third job

Stuart Gordon’s third film, Dagon, has been cited by world critics as one of the most successful attempts to bring Lovecraft texts to the big screen. Initiative of the story, in principle, is traditional: a couple of the main characters Barbara and Paul, by the will of fate, find themselves on a remote island inhabited by strange aborigines. As it turned out, the entire local population worships the sea god Dagon. An unenviable fate awaits Barbara, as well as others: she is soon going to be used as an incubator to increase the population. Heroes, of course, are trying in every possible way to escape, and they practically succeed. There will be no happy end in history. This is the main discrepancy with the Lovecraftian short story.

Gordon drew inspiration twice in the writer's works. According to the story "Outcast" in 1985, he shot a bloody movie "Freak in the Castle", saturated with violence, in 2005, he shot an episode for the television series "Masters of Horrors" about the novel "Dreams in a Witch's House."

In addition to trash

The horror of Peter Swatek, based on the opus “Hidden Horror,” under the significant name “Hemoglobin” (1997), is considered one of the best adaptations of our time. The narration introduces the beholder to the protagonist - a descendant of a practically degenerate mutation due to blood incest of the genus. The young man suffers from a genetic disease, and his death is very near, so he comes to the island, to an old family mansion, to learn more about his ancestors. The picture literally exactly follows the original source; in addition to the mystical background, the tragic and dramatic side of the narrative is pronounced. This can not boast of all the adaptations of Lovecraft films. Great actors starred in the movie - Roy Dupuis and Rutger Hauer.

There is another variation on the theme of the same literary opus - the film directed by Courtney Joyner's "Hidden Horror." An interesting fact is that the main role in the film was played by Jeffrey Combs, who starred before in all three Resuscitators and Outside. In this film there is no dramatic component at all, the movie is an energetic and well-shot action movie with an abandoned cemetery and carnivorous zombies trying to break free.