Lovecraftian Horror
H.P. Lovecraft is regarded as one of the most significant 20th-century authors in his genre. Themes of forbidden knowledge, non-human influences on humanity, inherited guilt, religion, risks of a scientific era, fate, and civilization under threat occupy Lovecraft's twisted and horrifying universe. Lovecraft was relatively unknown during his own time. Lovecraft's writing, particularly the so-called Cthulhu Mythos, has influenced fiction authors including modern horror and fantasy writers. Film and television adaptations of his works range from sublime to down-right terrible. Even fans have a difficult time discerning trash from treasure. Some of the concepts do not translate well to film. I have tried to encompass his works as well as notable films that echo his body of work in theme, tone and atmosphere.
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- DirectorWilliam Cameron MenziesStarsRichard CarlsonVeronica HurstKatherine EmeryA Scotsman abruptly breaks off his engagement to pretty Kitty and moves to his uncle's castle in the Scottish highlands. Kitty and her aunt follow Gerald a few weeks later, and discover he has suddenly aged. Some mysterious things happen in a maze made from the hedges adjoining the castle.
- DirectorRoger CormanStarsVincent PriceDebra PagetLon Chaney Jr.Charles Dexter Ward arrives at a small village to visit the house he inherited from his ancestor who died there 100 years ago.
- DirectorRoger CormanStarsRay MillandDiana Van der VlisHarold J. StoneA Roger Corman tale of Dr. James Xavier's devastating experiments on himself and the unforeseen.
- CreatorLeslie StevensStarsBob JohnsonBen WrightWilliam Douglas"The Outer Limits" was an anthology series of insightful science fiction tales.
- DirectorHarvey HartStarsLeslie NielsenPeter Mark RichmanJudi MeredithPolice call in occult expert to help solve series of murders.
- DirectorDaniel HallerStarsBoris KarloffNick AdamsFreda JacksonA young man visits his fiancée's estate to discover that her wheelchair-bound scientist father has discovered a meteorite that emits mutating radiation rays that have turned the plants in his greenhouse to giants. When his own wife falls victim to this mysterious power, the old man takes it upon himself to destroy the glowing object with disastrous results.
- DirectorDavid GreeneStarsOliver ReedGig YoungCarol LynleyA series of horrific murders is traced to a creature that inhabits a very strange house.
- DirectorVernon SewellStarsBoris KarloffChristopher LeeMark EdenRobert Manning visits the remote country house where his brother Peter was last seen. While his host seems outwardly friendly and his niece more demonstrably so, Robert detects a feeling of menace in the air.
- CreatorRod SerlingStarsRod SerlingLarry WatsonJoanna PettetRod Serling presents tales of horror illustrated in various paintings.Episode: Cool Air/Camera Obscura/Quoth the Raven (1971)
Episode: Pickman's Model/The Dear Departed/An Act of Chivalry - DirectorDaniel HallerStarsSandra DeeDean StockwellEd BegleyWilbur Whateley travels to the Arkham Miskatonic University to borrow the legendary Necronomicon. But, little does anyone know, Whateley isn't quite human...
- DirectorJack WoodsDennis MurenMark Thomas McGeeStarsEdward ConnellBarbara HewittFrank BonnerFour friends are attacked by a demon while on a picnic, due to possession of a tome of mystic information. Told in flashbacks by the sole survivor.
- DirectorEugenio MartínStarsChristopher LeePeter CushingAlberto de MendozaWhile on the Trans-Siberian Express, an anthropologist and his rival must contain the threat posed by the former's cargo: a prehistoric ape which is the host for a parasitic life-form.
- DirectorPeter SasdyStarsMichael BryantJane AsherIain CuthbertsonA research team from an electronics company moves into an old Victorian house to start work on finding a new recording medium. When team member Jill Greeley witnesses a ghost, team director Peter Brock decides not only to analyse the apparition, which he believes is a psychic impression trapped in a stone wall (dubbed a "stone tape"), but also to exorcise it--with terrifying results.
- DirectorRichard BlackburnStarsLesley TaplinCheryl SmithWilliam WhittonA young girl who returns to her hometown to see her dying father finds herself being drawn into a web of vampirism and witchcraft.
- DirectorPeter WeirStarsRichard ChamberlainOlivia HamnettDavid GulpililA Sydney lawyer defends five Aboriginal Persons in a ritualized taboo murder and in the process learns disturbing things about himself and premonitions.
- DirectorSergio MartinoStarsBarbara BachClaudio CassinelliRichard JohnsonAquatic creatures threaten the existence of a mysterious island.
- DirectorDon CoscarelliStarsA. Michael BaldwinBill ThornburyReggie BannisterA teenage boy and his friends face off against a mysterious grave robber, known only as the Tall Man, who employs a lethal arsenal of unearthly weapons.
- DirectorLucio FulciStarsChristopher GeorgeCatriona MacCollCarlo De MejoA reporter and a psychic race to close the Gates of Hell after the suicide of a clergyman caused them to open, allowing the dead to rise from their graves.
- DirectorJohn CarpenterStarsAdrienne BarbeauJamie Lee CurtisJanet LeighAn unearthly fog rolls into a small coastal town exactly 100 years after a ship mysteriously sank in its waters.This might not fit the framework for some, but it does for me. I saw a special screening of this film and a Q & A with John Carpenter. It is more or less the film of “The Doom that Came to Sarnath”, substituting a leper colony for Lovecraft’s fish-people. The location was moved from a Dunsanian dreamland setting to 1970’s Arkham, California.
- DirectorSam RaimiStarsBruce CampbellEllen SandweissRichard DeManincorFive friends travel to a cabin in the woods, where they unknowingly release flesh-possessing demons.
- DirectorAndrzej ZulawskiStarsIsabelle AdjaniSam NeillMargit CarstensenA woman starts exhibiting increasingly disturbing behavior after asking her husband for a divorce. Suspicions of infidelity soon give way to something much more sinister.
- DirectorGary ShermanStarsJames FarentinoMelody AndersonJack AlbertsonSheriff Dan Gillis investigates eerie deaths in a sleepy coastal town.
- DirectorAlastair ReidStarsHywel BennettDinah StabbDan O'HerlihyThe epic battle for the future of mankind is fought between an angel of light and an angel of death.
- DirectorJohn CarpenterStarsKurt RussellWilford BrimleyKeith DavidA research team in Antarctica is hunted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of its victims.
- DirectorStuart GordonStarsJeffrey CombsBruce AbbottBarbara CramptonAfter an odd new medical student arrives on campus, a dedicated local and his girlfriend become involved in bizarre experiments centering around the re-animation of dead tissue.