The earliest Lovecraft adaptation was The Haunted Palace in 1963. Using a title of Poe’s and a plot of HPL’s, Roger Corman serves up a Vincent Price fest written by master horror writer Charles Beaumont. Since then, if you can believe Andrew Migliore and John Strysik’s The Lurker in the Lobby: A Guide to the Cinema of H. P. Lovecraft (2005) (and you can) there have been about a 100 films (both major and minor budgeted ones) since. In those 100 films, there are but a handful of creepy moments, plenty of unintentionally funny ones, and ultimately, none worth toting as the greatest Mythos film of all time. And why should this be?
First off, let’s acknowledge that most movies work because they have great characters or dynamic situations. Neither of these is really HPL’s strong suit. His characters are all cardboard and his creepiest stuff happens offstage. What is great about HPL’s Mythos is the underlying mythology that haunts it. Films that convey that creepiness best are ipso facto the best HPL films. I would remind everyone that the following critiques are my opinion and these films may have worked for you. That said: get your own column. 😉
Read the rest:
