Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Cthulhu Tuesday - The Wrong Medium

Every now and again, I do a web search for "Lovecraft news", just to see what comes up. Among the finds this time were these DVD reviews:

H. P. Lovecraft's From Beyond
Regina Leader-Post


Sporting cheap and often laughable special effects, this film presumably expected to horrify people with its alien-like creature bursting through a skull and other "scary" special effects. But even by 1986 standards, the effects are fake-looking, as are the blood and guts that are scattered liberally through the film, and it's considerably less scary than it is funny.

...Entirely forgettable, From Beyond has little to offer other than laughs at its campiness, and a reminder of how low-budget filmmaking by those with higher aspirations looked, back in the day.



H.P. Lovecraft's the Tomb
REEL ADVICE


I resolve to never again knowingly write about anything that Ulli Lommel does.

Lommel's The Tomb defies explanation. He's locked a bunch of people in that all-too-familiar warehouse set of his and let them run around in a vaguely Saw kind of atmosphere as they try to accomplish the ludicrous task of figuring out why they're there in the first place and the much more rational task of trying to get out alive.



I'd like to recommend that you forego these gems and try an audio-drama adaptation of H. P. Lovecraft's works. The special effects in your own mind are much better than anything Hollywood can build.

Modesty forbids me from pointing out that one popular source makes its latest live production, The Colour Out of Space, available for free download.

And if that one satisfies, there's a five-part adaptation of The Shadow Over Innsmouth featuring author (and gifted actor) Harlan Ellison, also for free.

For now...

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