Film adaptations of HP Lovecraft's work are notoriously crappy. I mean the most recent made for TV one stars Tori Spelling. But I thought I would give these nuggets from Roger Corman's AIP a try. And boy, am I glad I did..
First up was Die, Monster Die! which is VERY loosely based on The Colour out of Space, which was one of Lovecraft's most "sci-fi" type of stories. The film is awesome because 1: Boris Karloff is in it (which automatically makes it awesome) and 2: The special effects are beyond bad. I mean, I think I did better special effects in my video class in high school.
The next film, The Dunwich Horror, really takes the cake. Dean Stockwell is one of the creepiest looking actors EVER! I forgot how crazy his eyes were. Same goes for Sandra Dee. She is scary because she could not act her way out of paper bag. Again, this is very loosely based on Lovecraft's story. Lovecraft's Dunwich Horror does not contain so many Elder God rape sequences. In fact, there are none, but in this film you can count on one every 15 minutes or so. What kicked ass about this film is the groovy soundtrack by Lex Baxter. I must have it.
That second movie, bad as it was, gave me damn Zombie nightmares all night! Not a zombie in that film, but one of the survivors in my nightmare was Ed Begley, who places the professor. Thank god Dean Stockwell did not show up...
5 comments:
I added these to my netflix queue.
I noticed you changed your mood from cute babies to monsters. Awesome.
I hope you don't have nightmares featuring Ed Begley!
We're watching the Dunwich Horror right now. Its very, very special indeed.
Please let me know what you thought of it. Isn't the soundtrack awesome!
I watched "die monster die" when B. was out doing something. Then I related the whole story back to him in great detail when he returned, so he didn't have to watch it, himself.
Some of the main points I noticed were:
1. That chic's bra totally didn't fit right in the first scene with her, when she's wearing the see-through sweater. I mean, the back was way up over her shoulder blades. Oprah would totally not approve.
2. The Boris Carloff character just randomly gets up out of his wheelchair, does some heavy labor, and then sits in it again and pretends he's a cripple or something, and no one comments on it! In one scene, he packs his butler into a suitcase, puts the suitcase on his wheelchair, wheels it out back, digs a grave, and buries the butler, and then he sits back down in his wheelchair as though nothing at all has happened!
3. Why does this girl, who has supposedly lived with her parents all her life, keep asking her boyfriend what they are up to?
Totally great for camp value, I think.
Lovecraft is rolling over in his grave!
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