I want to talk a little bit about H.P. Lovecraft.
I have to remember when I was in Austin and in the
atmosphere of the area and I was in the only remaining Blockbuster in the area
where I encountered a 10 year old girl wearing a ski mask with green tentacles
who chuckled when she saw me looking at her telling me that she was Cthulhu. I
responded to her that I knew who she was because I too am a reader of
Lovecraft.
That served to remind me author’s influence.
If there was no Howard Phillips Lovecraft then we would not know what we would be
missing.
There would be no ReAnimator which would probably be no
films of Stuart Gordon or the acting of Jeffery Combs or they would not be the
artists that we know today.
There would also be no Evil Dead, Sam Raimi or Bruce
Campbell because they admitted that the film was influenced by the writing of
Lovecraft. The Book alone should explain that fact.
I had a video game that was released in 2010 that I became a
fan of titled Splatterhouse that was infact a remake of a successful arcade
series of the same name and if you have played the game you will know that it
is in fact a Lovecraft orgy as a girl on Facebook pointed out to me.
There was even a reacurring segment of Attack of the Show
featuring Candace Bailey called Candace’s Cthulhu Corner.
Those are just a few examples of the legacy of H.P.
Lovecraft which is amazing considering that Lovecraft never achieved this
success in his lifetime.
Aside from having a few short stories published in Weird
Tales magazine many of Lovecraft’s stories were not published until after his
death in 1937.
Lovecraft gave us not just the Necronomicon and Cthulhu but
Lovecraft had an emphasis on other worlds inside our own. With the underworld
and it’s monsters that many believed that Lovecraft may have visited these
worlds.
The influence is called Lovecraftian
I just recently revisited a film that I have not seen in 15
Years. Now many of you know that I love Anthologies in Horror films and this
film is no exception.
Released in 1994 H.P. Lovecraft's: Necronomicon takes many
creative liberties. The film tells the story of H.P. Lovecraft visiting a
monistary to read the Alchemical Encyclopedia Vol. III to research for his new
book and gaining access to the vault that contains the mythical Necronomicon.
Ever the seeker of knowledge Lovecraft reads the book and which is the stories
in the film.
"The Drowned" Based on Lovecraft’s The Rats in the
Walls tells the story of Bruce Payne who learns of the ability to resurrect the
dead and in morning for his dead girlfriend that was killed in a drunk driving
accident resurrects her but she comes back in body alone.
The Second Story is the Cold and is based on Lovecraft’s
Story the Cool Air and features veteran genre actor David Warner as a long
living doctor that romances a young girl while trying to hide the secret to his
long life. This tale is told to an investigative Reporter researching many
mysterious deaths in the area.
Finishing up the anthology is probably the most disturbing
of the stories.
Based on Lovecraft’s The Whisperer in Darkness the third
tale Whispers tells the story of two police officers one is pregnant with the
other’s child as they pursue a killer named the butcher.
There is a disturbing twist in this story.
Now where the film takes the most creative liberties and the
best story in the film is the wraparound where Lovecraft is portrayed as a
variation of Indiana Jones which this film is not the only story that takes
this direction with Lovecraft which is entertaining if not factual.
I liked this segment and the trivia for you is that Jeffrey
Combs plays Lovecraft and he went on to play Edgar Allen Poe in Stuart Gordon’s
Masters of Horror film the Black Cat in 2007.
I think that he needs to play Stephen King in the future.
Necronomicon was the winner of the prize of best Special
Effects at the 1994 Fantafestival.
The film also features three Directors well known in the
genre.
French filmmaker Christophe Gans directed The Drowned
Segment and would go on to helm The film Brotherhood of the Wolf.
The segment the Cold is helmed by Godzilla Filmaker Shusuke
Kaneko.
The Whispers as well as the wraparound Library segment is
directed by genre veteran Brian Yuzna who
would go on to helm Return of the Living Dead 3 and had worked with Combs on
Bride of Reanimater and would work with him again on Beyond Reanimater. He would
also work with Corbin Bernsen on the Dentist films.
Jeffrey Combs is great in his portrayal as Lovecraft
8 Dead Bodies
2 Breasts
6 Beasts
1 Melting Man
1 Undead Fetus
Arms and Legs Roll
25 Gallons of Blood
3 Stars
Check it out.
