Reaction Shots

Okay, one last quick recommendation. From the H.P. Lovecraft Society comes this gem. It’s a short feature at 45 minutes, but so worth it. You can purchase it directly from the HPLHS or watch it on Tubi. There is more information and trailers here . It follows Lovecraft’s story to a T and uses silent film as the medium to excellent effect. This might be not only the most accurate adaptation of a Lovecraft piece but also, frankly, one of the best. Please do check out the  HPLHS  if you’re not familiar with their fine work. And do check out this wonderful little film!

Not quite as highly regarded as his adaptation of Herbert West, Re-Animator , Gordon’s next Lovecraft work is still pretty solid. The fact is, it’s still pretty damned good! Gordon and his team took a reasonably representative short work by HPL, fleshed it out (so to speak), and updated it to the 1980s to stunning effect. Along with his producing partner Brian Yuzna and screenplay writer Dennis Paoli, Gordon gives us a directly unsettling, funny, and occasionally gross story. Crawford Tillinghast (Jeffrey Combs) is second banana in the lab to Dr. Pretorius (Ted Sorel having a field day hamming it up!) as opposed to being the primary and sole investigator/scientist. That’s a cast expansion of the source material right off the bat (and the first cheeky character name). Crawford is assisting Pretorius in an experiment to expand the capacity of the pineal gland to expand the mind and sensory possibilities. Of course, this being Lovecraft-based, this has to go tits up, but quick. And does i...

Daniel Haller directed Die, Monster, Die! , the second feature adaptation of a Lovecratt work, with variable results. What came out was a fairly standard creature feature that in moments, proved there might be more to it. It didn’t exactly herald a rush to devlop more Lovecraft films.  That said, four years later, Haller returned to direct after Mario Bava proved unavailable, with a script co-written by Curtis Hanson and starring Dean Stockwell, Sandra Dee, Ed Begley (his last role), and Sam Jaffa. It, too, is a mixed bag, but a more dynamic and exciting one (if still clunky at times0. The film departs from HPL’s story in some telling, and perhaps, cecessary, ways. Wilbur Whately is portrayed by a young and handsome Stockwell, as opposed to being the “goatish” creature of the story. There’s less emphasis on his procuring the Necronomicon here than in Lovecraft’s tale and his brother doesn’t play quite the same role. Oh, and there’s sex and, if I”m being completely up front, date r...

It’s become a cliche, of sorts, to say that at a certain point, this or that artist can do whatever they want. Francis Ford Coppola is certainly at that point and has pretty much been doing whatever he wants for the past couple of decades, with variable results. None of his recent works ( Youth Without Youth , Tetro , Twixt , for example) are the works of a novice or even of someone who’s aged out of the game. Each has merits, each has flaws and some outweigh the other in each film. None are masterpieces, but then, I don’t think Coppola even believed they were going to be; they’re just stories he wanted to tell. For forty years, he’s been kicking around the idea of Megalopolis , what would be his magnum opus . Not a small film, but epic in scope and ideas. In large measure, he’s succeeded in bringing that to the screen and there is something marvelous about it. It is, indeed, a massive work. It is visually remarkable; now glorious, now garish, but never not opulent and engaging. The fi...

“ West of Arkham the hills rise wild, and there are valleys with deep woods that no axe has ever cut. There are dark narrow glens where the trees slope fantastically, and where thin brooklets trickle without ever having caught the glint of sunlight.” The Colour Out of Space, Lovecraft’s 1927 short story has been adapted as a feature five times, I believe. Equally as much if not more so as a short film or a TV adaptation. It is likely his most highly regarded short work and one he himself favored.  It’s easy to see why. There is a pervasive sense of dread that grows in the telling and an even worse sense of how little human beings matter in a universe where a meteorite can just land in someone’s backyard, bringing with it blight, pestilence, and madness. Each of the films I’ve watched has something to commend them. The 1965 American International Pictures’ Die, Monster, Die! is a nice try. It’s the second known feature adaptation of a Lovecraft work and given the period, perhaps is...