James Wan’s Call of Cthulhu - Howie goes to Hollywood

[Cherry Eyed Hamster]

a CGI boat into a CGI Cthulhu in the CGI ocean with the CGI city of R'lyeh in the background

If Cthulhu ends up looking as good as Davy Jones did and still does then I will be thoroughly impressed.

 

[Commander X]

The term "Nautical Looking Negroes" was used as a title of a Call of Cthulhu sequel by Peter Cannon and Robert M. Price, two writers who've been prominent in Lovecraft studies, having published many essays on Lovecraft, his fiction, and surrounding matters since the 1970s. Inspector Legrasse looks for black sailors that might be connected to or know of the Cthulhu cult and is joined in his quest by one James F. Morton, political activist, real life friend of HPL and the author of a 1906 tract "The Curse of Race Prejudice". Imagine that HPL had been friends with a man who had been asked to serve on various committees of the NAACP in the 1910s. The story is, as you might imagine, a take on racial stereotypes that could be found in pulp fiction of the era.

I only thought of it because while moving some books around and sorting out which ones I was clearing out, I found a collection of Cannon's fiction that I had purchased not long ago "Forever Azathoth and Other Parodies", which features that story as well as some interesting pastiches of various authors as if they tackled the sort of stories Lovecraft did. William Faulker, James Herriot. The most successful of them to my mind, a short series of P.G. Wodehouse pastiches, originally collected years ago in some chapbook entitled "Scream for Jeeves", where Wodehouse's amiable but hapless man about town, Bertie Wooster, and his ever-competent valet, Jeeves, keep running into mysterious situations. Like the situation at Exham Priory in "Cats, Rats, and Bertie Wooster".

The telegram that Jeeves had delivered with the breakfast tray had been a lulu, a crie de coeur from my old friend Captain Edward "Tubby" Norrys:

I say Bertie old man help. I am stuck here in this newly restored medieval monstrosity trying to buck up this gloomy old American bird progenitor of my late comrade at arms Alf Melmoth Delapore. Pop Delapore or de la Poer as he now styles himself you know how these Americans like to affect ancestral spellings Bertie has been having dreams of the queerest sort. All the cats have been acting rum as well. Come here at once and bring Jeeves. Jeeves is the only one who can get to the bottom of this mystery Bertie.--TUBBY ​

"What do you make of it, Jeeves?"
"Most sinister, sir."

"I know, Jeeves. Americans with sackfuls of the greenstuff to roll in tend to the eccentric. Throw in a few overexcited cats and you've got a recipe for disaster." As a rule I'm fond of the feline tribe, but in the aftermath of a certain luncheon engagement--of which more later--cats were for the moment low on my list.

When the geezer had exhausted the subject of his ancestors--and a rum lot they were too, all cultists and murderers and health-food fanatics, if you could credit the old legends--he filled me in on present family circs.

Though the best of the three stories, for me is "The Rummy Affair of Young Charlie" Jeeves and Wooster go to Paris on command of his haughty, domineering Aunt Agatha to check on the son of friends of hers, Charles Dexter Ward. This young American chap was in search of a mysterious collector of rare books, but became more interested in a certain old German viol player who lives on a street that can't be found on any maps...fortunately, another tenant of the house in the Rue d'Auseil, an elderly American has been observing this Erich Zann with interest and is willing to help Jeeves & Wooster. This "Mr. Altamont of Chicago" has his own interest in Zann's music.

 

[Wendell X]

Spring by Justin Benson is a low-budget horror with tendencies towards being Art (I mean that in the pejorative sense) but I mention because it has some themes of pre-civilisation cultures and unknown vistas of knowledge.

You've watched Benson and moorhead's other film's right? Something in the dirt is onanism, but The Endless and especially Resolution cabin of death are way better than Spring imo.

I also want to add to the list of Lovecraft inspired media - weeaboo edition - Occult (2009) and Record of Sweet Murder (2014) by Koji Shiraishi, Occult in particular, wear their lovecraft inspiration on their sleeves. And Uzumaki (2000) is a live action adaptation of Junji Ito's classic manga about a town infected by spirals, and it seems like it's the only way you can get a video version of the story now the anime adaptation has been indefinitely postponed. I'm drifting closer to existential horror here though, so to pull it back I'll also recommend the anime ova Housing Complex C, written by the guy who wrote Raging Loop, and the manga adaptations of Lovecraft's work, like The Shadow over Innsmouth.

yeah Mouth Of Madness was absolutely Lovecraft Without The Lovecraft
that old (but not that old) retro silent CoC was probably about as good as you could hope
I def agree that Lovecraft generally isn't so hot in visual media. A lot of the real fun is his ability to work with the English language. And when it's "this color is unknowable beyond all logic and reason" it works fine in a book, but in the movie The Color Out Of Space is "sorta purple"
which loses a lot

I agree that it's kind of dumb that the colour ends up being 'kinda purple', and yeah, it's not like it ever could have really worked, but I did like that in the film they specifically created a shade of purple that required a combination of colours that would never form naturally. But we really should only have ever seen it in reaction.

Forever Azathoth and Other Parodies

That sounds awesome, and I would kill for an ebook version. That would be the first thing I did when kindles came out if I had written books before the internet, just to get as many people reading it as possible.

 

[Cherry Eyed Hamster]

the manga adaptations of Lovecraft's work, like The Shadow over Innsmouth

I'm assuming you're speaking of Gou Tanabe's manga adaptation. He also made a fantastic 2-volume adaptation of At the Mountains of Madness and even adapted a collection of some of Lovecraft's more obscure, early tales called The Hound and other Stories. You can get all three on Amazon for less than $50.

 

[Overly Serious]

Though the best of the three stories, for me is "The Rummy Affair of Young Charlie" Jeeves and Wooster go to Paris on command of his haughty, domineering Aunt Agatha to check on the son of friends of hers, Charles Dexter Ward. This young American chap was in search of a mysterious collector of rare books, but became more interested in a certain old German viol player who lives on a street that can't be found on any maps...fortunately, another tenant of the house in the Rue d'Auseil, an elderly American has been observing this Erich Zann with interest and is willing to help Jeeves & Wooster. This "Mr. Altamont of Chicago" has his own interest in Zann's music.

This sounds superb. I have to read this! Thank you!

You've watched Benson and moorhead's other film's right? Something in the dirt is onanism, but The Endless and especially Resolution cabin of death are way better than Spring imo.

Surprisingly, no. Spring was borderline as arthouse (am I using the term correctly?) as I was inclined to go though I did like it. I'll check out the others you mention - thank you.

I'm assuming you're speaking of Gou Tanabe's manga adaptation. He also made a fantastic 2-volume adaptation of At the Mountains of Madness and even adapted a collection of some of Lovecraft's more obscure, early tales called The Hound and other Stories. You can get all three on Amazon for less than $50.

I have his AtMoM 2 volume adaptation. Other than the small format (about 5") and the perverse way the Japanese compile their literature back to front, it's faultless. Absolutely killer art.

 

[David Kirk Ginder]

I also want to add to the list of Lovecraft inspired media - weeaboo edition - Occult (2009) and Record of Sweet Murder (2014) by Koji Shiraishi, Occult in particular, wear their lovecraft inspiration on their sleeves. And Uzumaki (2000) is a live action adaptation of Junji Ito's classic manga about a town infected by spirals, and it seems like it's the only way you can get a video version of the story now the anime adaptation has been indefinitely postponed. I'm drifting closer to existential horror here though, so to pull it back I'll also recommend the anime ova Housing Complex C, written by the guy who wrote Raging Loop, and the manga adaptations of Lovecraft's work, like The Shadow over Innsmouth.

There's also Marebito

 

[PS1gamenwatch]

The only adaptions of Lovecraft that were kinda a good were the short stories that appeared in anthology shows like Night Gallery and Tales From The Crypt, but those were loose adaptions. In Tales, their version of The Thing At The Doorstep omitted the Deep Ones connection and replaced with a witch.

 

[Wendell X]

I'm assuming you're speaking of Gou Tanabe's manga adaptation. He also made a fantastic 2-volume adaptation of At the Mountains of Madness and even adapted a collection of some of Lovecraft's more obscure, early tales called The Hound and other Stories. You can get all three on Amazon for less than $50.

I preordered the Atmom deluxe edition coming out in August, I can't wait. I've only read soi so far, but like overly serious said, it's flawless. Plus it was only $10 more than buying the two volumes in Australia.

Surprisingly, no. Spring was borderline as arthouse (am I using the term correctly?) as I was inclined to go though I did like it. I'll check out the others you mention - thank you.

Yeah Spring is definitely arthouse imo, fortunately their other films are much more conventionally structured (although I wouldn't call either of them conventionally structured, for reasons you'll understand when you watch them.) The Endless is the better made film, in part because it has a bigger budget and additional crew, plus additional experience, but Resolution is my favourite, and technically The Endless is a sequel, so I'd say start with Resolution unless the low budget student film look is too off-putting.

There's also Marebito

I haven't actually seen Marebito, it's in my library but I thought it was about a vampire?

 

[Cherry Eyed Hamster]

I preordered the Atmom deluxe edition coming out in August, I can't wait. I've only read soi so far, but like overly serious said, it's flawless. Plus it was only $10 more than buying the two volumes in Australia.

Yay!! Hope you like it

 

[David Kirk Ginder]

I haven't actually seen Marebito, it's in my library but I thought it was about a vampire?

I don't remember anything about this movie but I do remember it had Lovecraftian visuals. I think inspired by Mountains of Madness or something else.

 

[crowabunga]

I hope that we get something heavily inspired by The Whisperer in Darkness one day, forget Cthulhu and Mountains.

Unlike other Lovecraft stories, it isn't really about ancient monsters or things from deep time (though the Mi-Go technically are all those things); the aliens themselves are depicted in relatively recent Native American mythology and indeed have never left or died off. In this way it avoids the tropes that nowadays define Lovecraft in the mainstream.

Yet Whisperer also isn't so keen to humanize the alien as in At The Mountains of Madness or The Shadow Out of Time: the cruel, desperate curiosity of the (briefly surviving) Elder Things and the culturally genocidal self-preservation of the Yith, while repugnant, are repugnant in a way I can understand. The Mi-Go are never so clearly elucidated.

If anything, Whisperer is a prototype of the alien abduction story later to be popularized following the UFO craze. It includes aliens of sinister motivation, immediate interference with human affairs to otherworldly yet distinctly materialistic ends, and one of the most chilling implications of vivisection and "probing" to be committed to page.

No, perhaps "prototype" is the wrong word, because that implies later media improved on a conceptually valuable but functionally flawed base. If anything, I'd say Whisperer is better than most alien abduction media, because despite leaving plenty to the reader's imagination it still explains enough to keep the Mi-Go from being a hack fraud's "mystery box." We know the Mi-Go want precious metals. We know they influence human affairs to their own ends. We know their reasons for vivisection: deceit via the manufacture of human-derived prosthetics for alien agents to wear, and theft of human brains for - if the aliens and their human (but reconditioned? altered?) collaborators are to be believed - fantastic cultural exchanges. And at the book's close, we suspect that the Mi-Go will soon annex Earth, or at least increase their manipulation of human civilization.

This is a wealth of information on alien motivation compared to films like Fire in the Sky or Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and yet Whisperer never feels like it over -explains: Lovecraft was able to provide sufficient explanation to stop Mi-Go behavior from being ad-hoc while also obscuring enough to give them an alien menace, and this balance should be better explored in alien abduction films.

Oh, and Whisperer is also quaint in that at one point the aliens get scared off and one of them killed by literal guard dogs. I don't remember if the breed of dog is mentioned but I find it funny to imagine aliens versus pitbulls, and then suddenly it becomes plausible.

 

[Cherry Eyed Hamster]

Screenrant.com (they’ve been keeping tabs on the film development):

James Wan's H.P. Lovecraft Movie Risks Following Another Adaptation Into Development Hell​

• James Wan faces challenges in adapting Lovecraft's The Call of Cthulhu due to its complex cosmic horrors and limited commercial potential.
• Lovecraft's stories, including Cthulhu, have not been fully realized on screen due to their unimaginable cosmic entities and non-traditional storytelling.
• Wan's blockbuster success with Aquaman and trendsetting in horror may give his Lovecraft adaptation a better chance than Del Toro's failed attempt.

Horror legend James Wan would need to use all of his considerable clout to ensure that his ambitious H.P. Lovecraft adaptation The Call of Cthulhu ever made it to cinema screens, but even this might not be enough to make the project happen. Although his racism tarnished his literary reputation, the author H.P. Lovecraft remains one of horror literature’s most important figures. Lovecraft influenced everyone from Stephen King to Neil Gaiman, but his unique stories have rarely been adapted to the screen. Many of Lovecraft’s stories still need screen adaptations since the author’s style doesn’t translate easily to film.

Many of the prolific writer’s stories, particularly those that include Lovecraft’s most famous monster Cthulhu, haven’t been brought to life. Although a 2005 experimental short movie did adapt The Call of Cthulhu, Lovecraft’s monsters are unimaginably awful cosmic entities whose appearance alone can drive characters to insanity. This poses a problem for filmmakers trying to bring them to life. The few great Lovecraft movie adaptationsare either only loosely inspired by his work (like In The Mouth of Madness), or adapt Lovecraft's more conventional stories (like 1985's wild horror-comedy Re-Animator).

 

[Overly Serious]

Oh, and Whisperer is also quaint in that at one point the aliens get scared off and one of them killed by literal guard dogs. I don't remember if the breed of dog is mentioned but I find it funny to imagine aliens versus pitbulls, and then suddenly it becomes plausible.

It's harder to do that these days because audiences are less capable of nuance. Things have to be overwhelmingly powerful or they're weak. The concept of a weak thing being dangerous is lost on modern media-saturated audiences despite it being a very true thing in real life. For a similar symptom look at old Raymond Chandler movies - you have ordinary people having ordinary fights with one maybe two punches being exchanged and it worked for audiences back then because they knew real fights, because they'd just come out of a world war, because they lived when life was more overly precarious. They'd have found modern endless fight scenes ridiculous because they knew that one good punch to the jaw took a man down. Any old mook can club you round the back of the head with a cosh if they get the drop on you.

Someone in the 1930's could still find an alien scary even if one of its fellows was killed by dogs. Because they understand that the alien was still threatening and unknown. They didn't need an enemy to be an invincible force to think it was dangerous. Heck, in Well's War of the Worlds I'm fairly sure the navy took down at least one of the alien walkers. Danger isn't real to most of the audience anymore, so if something isn't cartoonishly power, they don't get it.

 

[crowabunga]

It's harder to do that these days because audiences are less capable of nuance. Things have to be overwhelmingly powerful or they're weak. The concept of a weak thing being dangerous is lost on modern media-saturated audiences despite it being a very true thing in real life. For a similar symptom look at old Raymond Chandler movies - you have ordinary people having ordinary fights with one maybe two punches being exchanged and it worked for audiences back then because they knew real fights, because they'd just come out of a world war, because they lived when life was more overly precarious. They'd have found modern endless fight scenes ridiculous because they knew that one good punch to the jaw took a man down. Any old mook can club you round the back of the head with a cosh if they get the drop on you.

Someone in the 1930's could still find an alien scary even if one of its fellows was killed by dogs. Because they understand that the alien was still threatening and unknown. They didn't need an enemy to be an invincible force to think it was dangerous. Heck, in Well's War of the Worlds I'm fairly sure the navy took down at least one of the alien walkers. Danger isn't real to most of the audience anymore, so if something isn't cartoonishly power, they don't get it.

I agree, but unfortunately I am not capable of escaping that desensitization.

Though on further consideration, even from that modern perspective it works since the Mi-Go on earth aren't necessarily militarized, so even if I retroactively apply modern notions of alien military might, that's irrelevant in the case of a few extraterrestrial miners and anthropologists frantically trying to prevent an opsec disaster.

 

[A Sentient Cloud]

I can be cautiously optimistic about this. Everyone thought The Lord of the Rings was unfilmable too, and it's not like anyone would have named a campy b-tier horror director like Peter Jackson to be the one to pull it off.

A confident creative voice who cares about the material is a promising first step.

 

[Your Starter for 10]

Peter Jackson had already made The Frighteners and Heavenly Creatures before he took 5 years to develop LOTR. He also didn't have to operate within the constraints of DEI.

This is going to be utter shit (at best, I still doubt it ever gets made), and if you're even remotely optimistic, you haven't been paying attention.

 

[XYZpdq Jr.]

and it's not like anyone would have named a campy b-tier horror director like Peter Jackson to be the one to pull it off.

tbh once my nerd circle in the day realized that Peter Jackson was the same Pete Jackson who introduced lawnmower to zombie we got a LOT more hype about the prospects of the LotR movies

 

[Cherry Eyed Hamster]

Peter Jackson had already made The Frighteners and Heavenly Creatures before he took 5 years to develop LOTR. He also didn't have to operate within the constraints of DEI.

This is going to be utter shit (at best, I still doubt it ever gets made), and if you're even remotely optimistic, you haven't been paying attention.

I feel like the only way to have a faithful film adaptation of Lovecraft nowadays without external meddling is if you’re an indie film director and your movie is circulated only at film festivals (like a majority of films that show at the H.P Lovecraft Film Festival, which never make it onto physical media or streaming services. but unfortunately whoever runs the festival is now demanding that movies be more inclusive) or the Director 100% funds the film from their own savings.

Lovecraft has a very tainted reputation now despite being prolific in nerd circles, so most Investment companies aren’t going to want to take the risk of adapting one of his stories unless it includes changes to cater to “modern audiences”. You can’t even admit to be a fan of his work without acquiescing that he was a terrible racist and that you feel guilty for supporting him. The particular investment company backing this project is a Chinese firm all-in on the DEI shit so yeah, I will be very, very shocked if this movie isn’t cucked from the start. Also I think this movie has a much better chance of getting made than Del Toro’s ATMOM for the Call of Cthulhu namesake, alone.

 

[A Sentient Cloud]

Peter Jackson had already made The Frighteners and Heavenly Creatures before he took 5 years to develop LOTR. He also didn't have to operate within the constraints of DEI.

This is going to be utter shit (at best, I still doubt it ever gets made), and if you're even remotely optimistic, you haven't been paying attention.

The Frighteners bombed hard, and while it was a good movie I really don't recall a lot of nerds out there stanning hard for Heavenly Creatures. Wan has much more of a track record of critical and commercial success than Jackson did at the time, you can nitpick the details all you want but he just does.

I guess I haven't been paying attention, because I don't think there's any harm in looking forward to a movie that hasn't even begun production yet and may not ever see theaters. If it's bad, fine it's bad, it doesn't hurt Lovecraft, his works have generated more than their fair share of schlock across various media over the decades and yet they continue to exist. If I want to sperg about DEI, I can do that on literally any other thread on this board, from what I've seen of Wan's movies, he seems to be able to largely avoid the DEI treatment.

 

[Overly Serious]

Peter Jackson had already made The Frighteners and Heavenly Creatures before he took 5 years to develop LOTR. He also didn't have to operate within the constraints of DEI.

Tangent, but Heavenly Creatures is not a good movie. I always thought it was something of a rip off of "Fun" with Alicia Witt, though looking them up they weirdly came out in the same year. Alicia Witt > Kate Winslet.

BTW, who was it recommended that P.G.Wodehouse Cthulhu cross over. I got hold of it and am reading it. I'll post back some thoughts once done. I'm about half-way through.