Have there been any films or television shows that did lovecraftian horror right?

Have there been any films or television shows that did lovecraftian horror right?

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not to my knowledge.2001's dagon wasnt bad, but not great.

True Detective season 1 and 2

How about In the Mouth of Madness

How exactly?
TD revolves around serial killers and criminals but that's about it

There really isn't any.

I'm still waiting for somepne to make a good adaptation.

this is one of the best possible answers, but that movie has some fatal flaws.

still very underrated tho. start here op.

Banshee Chapter

In The Mouth of Madness was pretty good

also why is everyone so obsessed with Lovecraft?

everything I've read by him has been kinda boring, even if it was influential

not season 2. Season 1 actually carries a very lovecraftian atmosphere, people think that cosmic terror is about silly monsters or something like that, but it's better represented in such a visual medium as dread and the fear of unknown superior powers.

Event Horizon, The Mist, and The Thing are all great Lovecraftian films.

>Inb4 autists saying his work can't be truly adapted to film

i liked this little short movie

youtube.com/watch?v=y7jp1CT1h6c

It's not something you want to get 'right'.

That gets you too close and generally such a script would end up driving the writer mad.

Fucking overuse of pop-up scares. Took away too much from the cool premise.

Jacob's Ladder

The Thing is probably the closest movie to get the atmosphere right.

too bad about the retarded everything about Vietnam and psycho drugs, he should have just died normally

Yeah you're right, but it was spoop

I'll admit the first one got me out of my seat.

The end episode with the portal and shit

youtube.com/watch?v=3kQuMVffbWA

Videodrome utilized Lovecraftian themes, I felt, particularly in its depiction of cults and those who follow them, and of madness overtaking the protagonist.

It almost felt like something Lovecraft would've considered writing if he were alive at the time, sex and violence aside.

Why does everyone on Sup Forums jerk Lovecraft off so much?

The Lovecraft Historical Society made a Call of Cthulhu retro silent film, which is good for what it is.

Re-Animator is a good modern adaptation.

Lovecraft is inherently better suited to video games to be honest.

"On the Creation of Niggers"

Because he's a good writer, maybe. Also because people here may actually like his stories. Why would you give a fuck? It's better than another fucking Ghostbusters thread.

>Lovecraft is inherently better suited to video games to be honest.

/lit/ fucking hates this, but it's entirely true. You can actually name games that got Lovecraftian horror right.

Maybe you're boring?

So one-trick-pony shit with terrible composition? Oh I'm sure

From Beyond

Just because you read one story doesn't mean all of his stories are identical.

You probably haven't even read the White Ship.

Dark Souls does it with the sense of overwhelming scale alone, so you're a very small and rather weak little thing in a big world, and THEN you run into the horrible testicle monsters.

And then there's Eternal Darkness, which does this while also having easily the most functional and fluid controls in any horror game I've played.

It's very rare that a horror movie can make you feel small like that.

Then there's Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth, which started off with a great adaptation of A Shadow over Innsmouth. The protagonist rushing from hotel room to hotel room trying to escape from the villagers was just as thrilling to do as it was to read. Really intense shit.

Re-Animator, From Beyond and Dagon are all good films, but none of them capture the atmosphere very well. The only director I've seen actually capable of that is Carpenter with ITMOM and The Thing.

There's really three broad types of Lovecraft: Cosmic, Weird Gothic, and Dream Fantasy. Most are thinking of his Cosmic works and many have tried but few have succeeded.

Some notably Lovecraftian movies not already said in this thread:
Alien
Hellraiser
It
Prince of Darkness
Prometheus

What's the go-to Lovecraft story? I've never read any of his work but feel like I know what "Lovecraftian" is just from hanging out on Sup Forums and Sup Forums. And from watching True Detective.

Personally I think Haunter of the Dark is a really good one. The audiobook is on youtube and is narrated by Wayne June and he's amazing.

Otherwise Call of Cthulhu, Shadow Over Innsmouth, or The Outsider

It's less Lovecraft than Dagon though so no, it's not one of the best possible answers. Faggot.

DS and BB are poor examples of Lovecraftian themes in a game.

>hurr i feel so small but I can kill this imcomprehensible being with as little struggle as possible durr

rrright

Babylon 5: Thirdspace.

The Vorlons fucked up.

You're a fucking idiot. Just because it's less Lovecraftian than one movie doesn't mean it's not among the most Lovecraftian movies out there.

Hence "one of the best". He didn't say it was the best possible answer, bar none

I haven't seen season two but season one is very lovecraftian. People very often get hung up on the window dressing Lovecraft isn't about giant monsters it is fundamentally about the terror of living in an inhuman uncaring universe.

>all those fucking terrible composites

His most famous story is easily "The Call of Cthulhu."

My recommendation: look up the Youtube channel DEADNEST1. It has an exhaustive playlist of readings of HP Lovecraft. Look out for readings by Wayne June and David McCallum in particular.

>BB are poor examples of Lovecraftian themes

You really can tell when somebody hasn't actually played it. One step in Hemwick Charnel Lane convinced me that it was going the right direction, thematically. That was a place plagued with madness.

Any walk through one of the ruined churches reminded me of the protagonist's trek through the Nameless City. Even the conversations with NPCs were reminiscent of Lovecraft's own use of "dialogue" which often consisted of wordy, one-sided monologues meant for exposition.

Say what you want about the Souls series, but Bloodborne absolutely had Lovecraftian themes throughout, even before the cosmic entities showed up.

I recommend "The Shadow Over Innsmouth". It's short, it has a chase sequence, and it will introduce you to Lovecraft's thinly veiled racial anxieties.

Some of the best lovecraftian vibe in existence. TD season 1 only though...had hopes for S2 but Pizzaman played it down instead of taking the show through the rabbit hole
was pretty good for a low budget movie
always take that into account when watching movies; when you like a niche genre you have to take what you can get and appreciate fellow fans when they do something decent with a low budget. Hell, look at some of the Lovecraft Society stuff, its hokey but at the same time kinda effective!

I'll add some shit that I dont see very often in these threads

The Resurrected - a pretty decent horror detective story if you can stand the utter 90s-ness. One awesome scene which was the first of its kind...its been done to death since then though...some of you may know
The Whisperer in Darkness - an HPL Society flick that kinda feels like a long Twilight Zone episode
AM1200 - on par with Banshee Chapter
Malefique - french so find subs
Pontypool - I think theres a crazy lovecraftian insanity vibe in this...another amazingly effective movie for its budget.

I might think of more if I can be bothered. yw if I dont return before thread death. Hail Cthulhu!

Christ, it's like it really was filmed in a basement.

There was this one short that was black and white. Basically a short mockumentary about a boat that only had one raving passenger I think. Really well done and a much better fit for Lovecraft.

Wow, so any movie that has a moronic plot and name drops as much as ItMoM is automatically Lovecraftian? I best get off the computer and go watch Inception then because that's as Lovecraftian as can be according to you.

No, it means that you're a goddamned fool who can only think between one extreme and another; anything in between is beyond your comprehension. You're only right in that you're strictly suited to the likes of Inception.

Just don't respond to cunts like this...they can't be helped.

I never said it didn't have the themes, I said they were poor examples and they are. If you've honestly read the stories like you'd claim, you'd see how flawed they are and how much they missed the mark. Cosmic Lovecraft only translates over to games when the protag loses and things aren't quite as they seem.

Still doesn't change the fact it's a shit movie to recommend for someone wanting lovecraft.

"Cthulhu", despite having nothing to do with its namesake, had an interesting conceit. The prodigal son of a cult leader returns to his hometown after years of absence for a funeral and his confronted with his youth. His father needs an heir, but there's a problem: he's gay. Little by little the town starts to close in on him and pressure him to take up the cloth and repent his sinning ways... an old friend even offers up his wife for the sake of the Church (resulting in an awkward female-on-male rape) scene.

Knowing Lovecraft and his many many hang-ups, I think the spin of making the protagonist both related to the cult by blood and "incapable" of siring a really smart idea... but this film completely falls apart in the last 20 minutes or so.

>Cosmic Lovecraft only translates over to games when the protag loses and things aren't quite as they seem.

You really haven't played it. Your first impression of the major Church is the the opposite of what you end up seeing, and nearly every sidequest and story arc ends in unavoidable failure one way or another.

And that's not mentioning the endings, both of which can easily be viewed as a failure on the character's part.

>protag loses and things aren't quite as they seem.
So Dark Souls 1

>Cosmic Lovecraft only translates over to games when the protag loses and things aren't quite as they seem.

That's Bloodborne to the letter, dumbass. You're even the cause of everything going even more to shit. Attacking Rom in the first place for example.

better said to you
but your post wasnt there when I sent.

In the Mouth of Madness is the best lovecraftian film there is. You're a contrarian, kiddo. Try watching it without a dildo in your ass next time.

>Cosmic Lovecraft only translates over to games when the protag loses and things aren't quite as they seem.

Yeah, you're right. Definitely doesn't apply to BB

>better said to you

I don't follow.

It is detailed because he couldn't into dialogue. And yes, it's boring for 80% of the story.

My first impression wasn't lovecraftian. It was more gothic horror along the lines of Berserk, same as with the Souls games. As I progressed I could see clearly the inspiration and at times was slightly reminded of lovecraft but the combination of cosmic themes took away from the more gothic inspired horror. That said one of my favorite lovecraft books is Rats in the Walls and there was plenty of that, but it wasn't as focal because of the inclusion of literal cosmic horrors.

You know what game I did get alot more Cosmic Lovecraft from, Dead Space. It espoused the core themes of the cosmic monstrosities lurking behind sight than BB did.

I'm still not even sure what people mean by Lovecraftian

The Thing
The ending of The Stone Tape has strong lovecraftian elements
Hellboy

Dagon is the classic lovecraft and better than ItMoM. Event Horizon is a better lovecraft than ItMoM. The Borderlands is a better lovecraft than ItMoM. If you honestly want to suck the cock of a sheep shagger so much there're better options available, one I even mentioned above

The Thing

It's a broad term to define a collective of themes.

The Cabin is even a better lovecraft than ItMoM.

>Just don't respond to cunts like this...they can't be helped.
you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink
is a memespouting asshole...dont take them seriously...just move on

Dagon is probably the best HPL sourced movie even if it was actually more Innsmouth
Event Horizon is braindead cheese shitballs. It was Alien for niggers and even Sam Neilson cant save it...Possession was a FAR better lovecraftian movie with him in it.
That you are comparing Borderlands to In the Mouth of Madness really seals it: you are trolling or are a fucking kid

But the inhumanity has to come from the supernatural which people hanging themselves isn't.

Borderlands pulls off one of lovecrafts staples in Dunwhich Horror better than ItMoM pulls off the amalgamated garbage it ripped from several of lovecrafts stories. That alone is testamount to how bad ItMoM is.

Hellboy

I see what you're saying. I was mostly talking about the more human themes in the game, attempting to avoid the cosmic angle altogether. A lot of people like citing the amygdalas as the most lovecraftian aspects of Bloodborne, and while they are inspired by Lovecraft, there were a lot of rats in those walls before you even started noticing the cosmic signs.

Of course this didn't push out the gothic horror themes. Castle Cainhurst was a gothic fiction overload, down to the kind soldier gone mad.

The asians make better lovecraft films than the west but they don't call it lovecraftian.

Horror Hotline is a pretty cool but tame attempt at lovecraft

Cultists, insanity and conspiracy; you fucking mong...

just stop whining like a bitch...
Why does everyone seem to know its a great movie but you. You'll be the last to know...kind of like Sam Neil in the movie. True blue irony.

Shit, he looked fucking sinister.

Yeah I can't disagree.
I guess this is one example of why Lovecraft spans generations and has such great influences. We both like the same core but how we view it is different. Both our opinions are fine and i've enjoyed hearing about how you view the games.

Thank you for the discussion user

...

I said it was a shitty lovecraft, not a shitty movie on it's own. But fine, I'm out of here. I've got some suggestions for movies I haven't seen and i'll go watch them

Nigga, those is just the trimmings. That's not what Lovecraft is, that's what all the the Cthuluverse fanfiction that came after is.

Lovecraft's horror is generally based around the horror of the truly unknown, and the existential nightmare of cosmic irrelevance. Even his more direct stories like "Shadow Over Innsmouth" follow these rules. The fish folk aren't blood thirsty monsters rampaging through the city streets, they are base aberrations of the human form and mind, twisted to something larger and more complex. They follow a complex religious doctrine, they convert the town not through force, but through existing power structures, and even the protagonist is revealed to be a product of their spread.

BB on the other hand has you play a human who gets into street brawls with the entire fucking pantheon of Old Gods, the enemies are almost always explained and are usually more bestial than intelligent, and the plot revolves around a plan to reproduce (a very relatable desire) that places humanity in a very important role. Everything to do with Brains is good, Lovecraft level stuff, but that's it.

Second this, especially if you've played Bloodborne. Fishing hamlet is heavily influenced by this short story.

>Thank you for the discussion user

It really is becoming a rare thing.

Absentia
Black Mountain Side
The Borderlands

3 I saw recently that are pretty awesome and have a spooky Lovecraft vibe to them.

>Lovecraft's horror is generally based around the horror of the truly unknown, and the existential nightmare of cosmic irrelevance.

That doesn't encompass the entirety of his themes, however. Madness, for example, fascinated lovecraft, particularly the madness that can come with faith. Yes, there was the truly unknown, but there were almost always those who worshipped that unknown, at times with obsessive and manic fervor. Bloodborne captured various descents into madness among its cast of characters, most of whom neither knew nor cared about the godlike beings that you set out to fight, and most of whom went insane, either from their beliefs, their lack of understanding, or their utter inability to solve problems much larger than they.

>plebs on Sup Forums flip out on me for years and claim I'm a fan of "MUH SAM AND DEAN" Supernatural CW show because I claim True Detective has Yug Sothothery all over it and explain how
>Delta Green immediately releases a new rulebook after Season 1 that describes in great detail how Hastur, The King in Yellow, is able to overlay the reality of Carcosa upon other realities through use of the Yellow Sign
>mfw I have no face since it's my verbatim argument

>How exactly?
Cultists, insanity and conspiracy; you fucking mong...

DS has very little to do with lovecraft, but BB is lovecraft. Have you even played the games?

Delta Green is who?

>How exactly?

You haven't watched S01, have you.

mythos MiB, sort of

it makes me so sad to see his stuff bastardized so much especially by the Epic Reddit BEarded steampunk people

Hey, Marvel Agents of Shield, Season 3 has the gang going up against Nyarlathotep. His name is Hive on the show, but basically the crawling madness in the flesh.

Problem with Lovecraft is half of his stuff was good, the other half was shit. Fucking Dreamquest of Unknown Kadath would never translate, but the Terrible Old Man would make a decent Outer Limits episode.

ItMoM, The Call of Cthulhu, Dagon, The Horror at Red Hook, and CDW would/have all made decent movies. But he died before going Tolkien and making his scrambled thoughts a coherent mythos.

>The Mouth of Madness
because Danforth looks back and sees something.
Its fucking horrifying and you don't even know what it is

>Nyarlathotep
I can pronounce this correctly, my autism wouldn't allow anything else

I know that it's At the Mountains of Madness rather than Mouth of Madness, a Carpenter film, and that the thing Danforth saw was an unnamed Great Old One that just wants to chill on its mountain due to Lovecraft's personal correspondence.

I fuck it up. Gnarly-hotep.

hahaha fuck, i've got a bunch of shit mixed up,

yea of course its an old one, but I thought you never get any idea what he actually sees, still I mixed up Mouth and Mountain soo I'm probably wrong about that too.

Is it pronounced N'yar-loth-o-tep?

Rare Exports.. Ok, not really Lovecraftian, but all the elements are there.
>great conspiracy against humanity
>an ancient, long dead diety level being
>sense of growing dread

I know it's a comedy, but it's a fucking good movie.

its tough Ny-a-yath-o-tep, kinda theirs an L sound in there
this guys good at it youtube.com/watch?v=hUqB9DRKNQk