The H.P. Lovecraft story you’d most wish a serious film maker would put on the screen (big or small)

That is a thing of beauty. It should have happened!

 

In some ways, "Innsmouth" is the closest thing to an "action" story Lovecraft wrote, with the narrator's escape from the hotel and through the town being one of the most effective bits of narrative he wrote.

 

I recently re-read "Whisperer", and loved the atmosphere, but kept thinking, "All those poor dogs Akeley kept buying from the pound!"

 

Back in the 1960s/early 1970s a publishing company called Arkham House issued 5 (or was it 6?) books reprinting letters exchanged between Lovecraft and some of the other horror and sci-fi writers of the 1920s and 1930s. August Derleth (himself one of the writers) ran Arkham House in Sauk City, WI, and I made it my business to acquire a copy of each of the books. The writers in Lovecraft's circle exchanged a lot of correspondence, and the books make for fascinating reading.

Might be worth looking for copies, although I would imagine they'd be VERY expensive nowadays!

 

I feel like you! But keep putting myself back in the timeframe where animals were "expendable items"...

 

I'd like a high quality biography film on HPL himself. I'm not sure how much of his glee for the macabre can translate from the page to film otherwise.

 

There's been at least two attempts to film The Case of Charles Dexter Ward but neither one was very successful. That's one novella that needs a decent cinematic treatment. It's my favorite Lovecraft.

The Tomb would make a good Hammer Horror movie - surprised that they never did it.

 

Uh, no it's not!! It's an AMAZING horror movie, and one of the best of the Lovecraft adaptations.

 

I would just die . Love Dagon despite the bad cgi.

 

So . . . why? Why are we on the second and third remake of Stephen King films and not a single decent Lovecraft film has ever been made? Especially in a golden age of modern horror we seem to be in right now.

 

The Resurrected (1991) - IMDb

It's said the German blu/dvd combo is the one to have, it features footage cut from the original dvd which adds coherence.

 

I read S.T. Joshi's two volume biography of Lovecraft and his life would make an interesting drama/comedy. Apart from the issues early in his life with the deaths of his parents, he pretty much spent his time traveling the eastern United States, meeting with fellow amateur and semi-pro writers, struggling to get his own work published, editing other people's work, struggling with little to no income, and watching movies. He also liked eating ice cream as the entire meal.

 

Because most of his stories are really short and it would take a filmmaker with talent, such as Del Toro, to expand them into a feature film that could appeal to a modern audience. There have been several amateur adaptions and many are excellent attempts, such as the silent version of The Call of Cthulhu:

 

That was on "Night Gallery" and it was disappointing.

 

There was also "Cool Air" from the same season. We are additionally treated to "Professor Peabody's Last Lecture", where Carl Reiner gleefully invokes Lovecraftian gods, and students named Derleth etc object. Oh, and "Miss Lovecraft Sent Me" featuring Sue Lyon.

 

My local library had several Arkham House editions of his works in the mid 70s. I read those around the age of 9 or 10 and they were supremely chilling to my young sensibilities.

 

There is a Lovecraft story about a man who lives in the woods and is visited by these lobster like creatures whom his dogs hate.

That story would make a fantastic film, the tension could build throughout the picture and whether the creatures were shown or not probably wouldn't matter.

 

To add to my last post, a good director would be able to convey the "is he crazy or is he being visited by creatures" vibe quite well in film.

 

Yes. But they would have to explain the baffling photographs and the content of the horrible record... unless of course the recipient of these objects had turned crazy or paranoid himself over time...

This story is called The Whisperer In The Darkness; it's already commented upthread. Excellent pick! Both, cinematographically, for the weird horror setting and the pastoral poetry of the description of the Vermont hills under the full autumn sun.

 

Lots of support for The Whisperer in Darkness here, one of my favorites too! There is a decent film version, from the same talented people who made the fabulous silent version of The Call of Cthulhu:
HPLHS - The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society

 

The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward.
Do not cast Johnny Depp please.

 

Wow!!

 

I was watching Mandy when I wrote my comment, which similar to Supiria (2018) and The Void, involves have a certain amount of suspension of disbelief to make it plausible.

 

I've always been impressed by the fact that lots of horror in Lovecraft happen in broad daylight. I think this is special, and any good film director should respect that as far as I'm concerned.

 

Agreed, I always felt the "don't show too much of the monster, the worst horror in the human mind" argument was really a cop out for lack of imagination.

As an aside, it kinda reminds me of this.