Yes, Friday Favorites is back. Been a very busy these last couple of weeks working on a project but that is done so I can get back to rambling on here! I would also blame WordPress for changing their editing format for their site, making me have to learn new stuff. I’m old now dammit, so I don’t have time to try and learn new things! Change is bad. Anyway, let’s get to why we’re here, and to discuss a favorite.
Yesterday was the birthday of Howard Philips Lovecraft. An American writer that created new worlds of gods and monsters, just giving his readers a glimpse here and there, only to save their sanity. My first introduction to the works of his literary master was due to Stephen King’s Danse Macabre, where I quickly started seeking out stories from Lovecraft and wondered where this guy was coming up with this stuff?!?! But the movie world has not been too kind to his work when it comes to faithful adaptations, mainly because it is one of those things that is really the reader’s interpretation of what lies on the pages. But even with all of that, I think there have been several filmmakers that have taken Lovecraft’s inspiration and vision enough to create some damn fine features and a ton of different short films.
In honor of this master of the unsaid, the indescribable, the unexplainable, let’s hear what your favorite feature or short film adaptation of a H.P. Lovecraft story. I’m not talking what you think is the most faithful (because we all know that is about as subjective as you can get), but a personal favorite of yours, for whatever reason. So what say you?
I’m quite certain that I won’t be alone on this one, but it really doesn’t get much better than Re-Animator!
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I knew this one would be mentioned quite a bit. And even though it is a bit more over the top than Lovecraft ever wrote, how could you just not love this movie?!?!? It is one that never gets old upon repeat viewings.
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Re-Animator would be tops for me. I will say Dagon has grown on me the more I watch it.
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I was lucky enough to see Dagon in a theater in Chicago with Stuart Gordon there introducing it. I’ve always enjoyed this one.
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Yes, Re-Animator is certainly tops, but I really enjoyed Castle Freak. It is done in a much more serious vein and is up there as well!
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I also really enjoyed Castle Freak too. A very different feel to it and a bit darker. But still entertaining.
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“Re-Animator” is of course on my list. “From Beyond”, I loved how they took a simple 2 page short story and created a full movie. At the top of my list is “The Resurrected” (The Case of Charles Dexter Ward) well acted and filmed. I liked the spin on using the private investigation angle.
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Glad someone mentioned The Resurrected because I think that on is amazing! Again, much gorier than Lovecraft would have written but really well done and Chris Sarandon is amazing. The rest of the cast…eh…but still really well done.
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I am going to have to go “old school” here and pick The Haunted Palace as my favorite movie adaptation of an H.P. Lovecraft tale. Interestingly, this Roger Corman film was marketed incorrectly as Edgar Allen Poe’s Tale when it was released by American International Pictures in 1963.
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I do love Corman’s Poe films, and yes, even this one. Great cast, as always, but especially getting to see Price and Chaney Jr. But I still prefer the updated version of the story in The Resurrected, only because I think it is more realistic in its approach. Getting a little nit-picky here, I know, and still enjoy this version too.
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