Cthulhu Mythos & Related Media

I was happy to find this adaptation of Nyarlathotep again on YouTube after it the original channel (?) was terminated.


Thanks to the movie, Dagon, I was introduced to The Shadows over Innsmouth. Also I like how some of Lovecraft's works intertwine with each other (as the Cthulhu Mythos appears to do). For example, The Thing on the Doorstep includes a character who is implied to be a Deep One hybrid since she came from Innsmouth.
 
  • Informative
  • Winner
Reactions: Troonologist PhD, Pokemonquistador2 and The 8 of Spades
On the subject of HPLHS, their film adaptations of Whisperer in Darkness and Call of Cthulhu are worth a watch if you are a Lovecraft purist. They stick extremely close to the source material and take very few artistic or creative liberties. Whisperer had more of a production budget and value, which shows through in all the period props and equipment they managed to put together. Their take on CoC is a little rougher around the edges, but it's still very good for an indie film.
 
  • Informative
Reactions: crowabunga, Fromtheblackdepths and Troonologist PhD
I've read the Mythos off-and-on for almost my entire life, but I liked the Conan and especially Solomon Kane series more. I think Howard was the better writer of the two. Solomon Kane inspired a lot of the demon-hunter tropes adopted into terrible Blizzard-craft games (and that Van Helsing movie with Wolverine).

I enjoy mythos so much I have the board games for Eldritch Horror and Mansion of Madness. Eldritch Horror is much more fun, kind of an Indiana-Jones fights the Elder Gods feel to it but they are brutally difficult games. So much so I usually have to play them solo because the partner and kids won't touch them :( Bloodborne is a pretty good game but I found the glossy/moist aesthetic a little distracting at times, but it does nail the post-Lovecraft mythos writers, with the Elder God worshipping cult and the dreamlands.

Dunwich Horror is my favourite story, as Henry Armitage is one of my favourite characters in all of literature. SOmething about an elderly librarian and his coworkers fighting an extradimensiona abomination and winning is just my kind of thing.
 
  • Feels
  • Like
Reactions: ChampFantana, Linako 2.0, cecograph and 3 others
Rebel Wilson said:
I enjoy mythos so much I have the board games for Eldritch Horror and Mansion of Madness. Eldritch Horror is much more fun, kind of an Indiana-Jones fights the Elder Gods feel to it but they are brutally difficult games. So much so I usually have to play them solo because the partner and kids won't touch them :( Bloodborne is a pretty good game but I found the glossy/moist aesthetic a little distracting at times, but it does nail the post-Lovecraft mythos writers, with the Elder God worshipping cult and the dreamlands.
Click to expand...

been a while since I played it, but I think it gets easier with more players when you can help each other with tests (although can't remember how it works exactly).

actually liked the van helsing movie. it was some nice 90s throwback cheese, only dracula didn't really work for me.
bit I'm more pissed the solomon kane movie never got sequels (otoh since the final fight was already kinda "wat" maybe it's for the better...)
 
  • Like
Reactions: ChampFantana, Troonologist PhD and Rebel Wilson
I've recently finished Moons of Madness, as brought up by @Anja Din two pages ago. IMO it's a decent effort but as a "cinematic experience" you'll play it once and put it down, and besides the 2 endings that are your absolute last choice in the game it's completely linear.

The game can be broken down into three parts: bumming around in the beginning fixing broken equipment since you're an engineer at a Martian base, running away from weird things and some Wayland-Yutani/Umbrela Corp level corporate fuckery. What I didn't know until I read a comment somewhere is that it's part of The Secret World MMO universe so if you're into the lore of that you might get more out of it than me.

I got some enjoyment out of it, epsecially the last third of the game where you find out about all the corporate meddling of the entire crew and it gets psychological for one part too where the protagonist is confrontend by his and his mother's growing insantiy. There is one absolutely annoying part of the game and it's the voiced protagonist: he'll comment on and scream at everything without prompt which get's irritating after a while.
 
Idiotron said:
Prince of Darkness (1987):
A really good John Carpenter horror movie that often gets overlooked because it's slower and less bombastic than the stuff he's known for.
It's about scientists who go into an old church to investigate a weird thing that was guarded by the priests for centuries... and then things start slowly getting more and more insane.
Don't look it up, you might get some stuff spoiled, just watch it.
Click to expand...
Best ending to any American horror movie ever, as well!
 
  • Agree
  • Like
Reactions: Karl_der_Grosse, Pokemonquistador2, Fromtheblackdepths and 2 others
Top three stories for me are "The Haunter of the Dark" "The Rats in the Walls" and "The Mountains of Madness," though if I had to pick one I'd probably go with "The Haunter of the Dark" since its themes have a more personal meaning for me.
Rebel Wilson said:
I've read the Mythos off-and-on for almost my entire life, but I liked the Conan and especially Solomon Kane series more. I think Howard was the better writer of the two. Solomon Kane inspired a lot of the demon-hunter tropes adopted into terrible Blizzard-craft games (and that Van Helsing movie with Wolverine).
Click to expand...
Haven't read much of Howard yet, but Lovecraft is definitely not a perfect writer. He's often much better at creating lore than he is at actually delivering a story. The best example is "The Mound," which is horribly sloppy as a story but has some fascinating lore and ideas with the K'nyan civilization. I also thought Lovecraft's interpretation of Hastur/The king in yellow was horribly dumbed down compared to Chamber's stories.
The Bovinian Derivative said:
I've recently finished Moons of Madness, as brought up by @Anja Din two pages ago. IMO it's a decent effort but as a "cinematic experience" you'll play it once and put it down, and besides the 2 endings that are your absolute last choice in the game it's completely linear.

The game can be broken down into three parts: bumming around in the beginning fixing broken equipment since you're an engineer at a Martian base, running away from weird things and some Wayland-Yutani/Umbrela Corp level corporate fuckery. What I didn't know until I read a comment somewhere is that it's part of The Secret World MMO universe so if you're into the lore of that you might get more out of it than me.

I got some enjoyment out of it, epsecially the last third of the game where you find out about all the corporate meddling of the entire crew and it gets psychological for one part too where the protagonist is confrontend by his and his mother's growing insantiy. There is one absolutely annoying part of the game and it's the voiced protagonist: he'll comment on and scream at everything without prompt which get's irritating after a while.
Click to expand...
I don't know why Lovecraft-inspired video games keep sticking to the boring cinematic walking/puzzle simulator shit. You could do some interesting things with the medium, especially if you have the gameplay match the themes of the story.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ChampFantana, Troonologist PhD and Fromtheblackdepths
Jewthulhu said:
Haven't read much of Howard yet, but Lovecraft is definitely not a perfect writer. He's often much better at creating lore than he is at actually delivering a story. The best example is "The Mound," which is horribly sloppy as a story but has some fascinating lore and ideas with the K'nyan civilization. I also thought Lovecraft's interpretation of Hastur/The king in yellow was horribly dumbed down compared to Chamber's stories.
Click to expand...
What about Clark Ashton? Everybody forgets about him.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Shield Breaker
Fromtheblackdepths said:
What about Clark Ashton? Everybody forgets about him.
Click to expand...
I have a collection of his stories lying about somewhere, but I haven't had the time to read them. I honestly haven't gotten around to reading much from the Lovecraft circle; most related authors I've read were Lovecraft's precursors (Poe, Blackwood, Chambers). I also want to read Sir Dunsany and Bierce before starting on Howard or Clark Ashton Smith.
I more or less consider this to be the essential "weird fiction" reading list, btw.
 
  • Agree
Reactions: Fromtheblackdepths
Jewthulhu said:
I have a collection of his stories lying about somewhere, but I haven't had the time to read them. I honestly haven't gotten around to reading much from the Lovecraft circle; most related authors I've read were Lovecraft's precursors (Poe, Blackwood, Chambers). I also want to read Sir Dunsany and Bierce before starting on Howard or Clark Ashton Smith.
I more or less consider this to be the essential "weird fiction" reading list, btw.
Click to expand...
You should read Smith. He does exotic and alien stories extremely well.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Shield Breaker
Troonologist PhD said:
The Deep Ones just aren’t scary to me at all. It doesn’t help that when I was reading the story I couldn’t help but picture them as the anthropomorphic fish from Spongebob.
Click to expand...
I think the horror revolves around them being more of the MC had a non-human lineage than anything else.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: millais
Troonologist PhD said:
The Deep Ones just aren’t scary to me at all. It doesn’t help that when I was reading the story I couldn’t help but picture them as the anthropomorphic fish from Spongebob.
Click to expand...
Watch the movie Dagon. That had some pretty creepy fish people in it. The fact that they've been nation-swapped into Spaniards and there's a language barrier helps them seem even more exotic and scary.
 
  • Agree
Reactions: Fromtheblackdepths
Pokemonquistador2 said:
Watch the movie Dagon. That had some pretty creepy fish people in it. The fact that they've been nation-swapped into Spaniards and there's a language barrier helps them seem even more exotic and scary.
Click to expand...
European Spainish makes everything scary.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back