The other day, while doing some research for Dream-Quest, I stumbled upon references to a 46-minute claymation film released in 2007 by the Japanese multimedia company, Toei. Written and directed by Ryo Shinagawa, it adapts three of Lovecraft's stories – "The Picture in the House," "The Dunwich Horror," and "The Festival" – and does so reasonably faithfully within the limited context of its chosen medium. I particularly like the adaptation of "The Festival," but then I am inordinately fond of that tale already. In any case, I thought this film might be of interest to fellow Lovecraft fans and so bring it to your attention.
Wednesday, December 17, 2025
H.P. Lovecraft's The Dunwich Horror and Other Stories
Despite his profound influence over the subsequent development of fantasy, science fiction, and, of course, horror, adaptations of H.P. Lovecraft's works into film or television don't have a great track record. Most of them deviate considerably from their source material, often because it's clear that the creators don't really understand – or want to understand – HPL and his esthetic and philosophical worldview. Consequently, the number of Lovecraft adaptations I consider genuinely worthy are few and far between. Even so, I'm always on the lookout for new ones, in the hope that I might come across a rare gem.
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Have you seen ''Out of Mind - The Stories of H.P. Lovecraft''? It's also on Youtube.
ReplyDeleteHave you ever checked out the HP Lovecraft film festival? On the east coast it runs in the days next to Necronomi-con in Providence. On the west coast it happens in October in Portland OR. They run student, independent and full on professional films for 3 days.
ReplyDeleteAside from the recent Color Out of Space directed by Richard Stanley and starring nick cage - one of the best HPL films is Out Of Mind produced by A&E - it is a little hard to track down these days but well worth it IMO.
The 1963 film “Edgar Allen Poe’s the Haunted Palace” is one of the best early Lovecraft adaptations, and a decent treatment of “The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward.” And while it is definitely a product of its time it is worth a watch.
The out of mind that sylvain suggested is the same as mine above, also forgot to mention the films from the HP Lovecraft Historical Society. Both “The Call of Cthulhu” and “Whisperer in Darkness” hew close to the source material and are filmed as if they were made in the year written. So CoC is a silent film and WiD is a talkie.
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