tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3369610344911858466.post2957558635059817127..comments2024-01-09T04:01:00.672+00:00Comments on Breakfast In The Ruins: Lovecraft on Film: Reanimator (1985) and the Great ‘70s Lovecraft Drought. (Part # 1 of 2)Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14951955227326548340noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3369610344911858466.post-18281060725459347892024-01-09T04:01:00.672+00:002024-01-09T04:01:00.672+00:00Hello mate nicee blogHello mate nicee blogZorisamahttps://zorisama.tumblr.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3369610344911858466.post-11190896422824812122020-03-06T17:24:14.206+00:002020-03-06T17:24:14.206+00:00Yes, that's pretty spot-on I think! The, uh, t...Yes, that's pretty spot-on I think! The, uh, tributes to 'The Thing' are pretty shameless, and it definitely has that classic "this is nonsense, but I love it anyway" Euro-cult feel in places. <br /><br />I'd perhaps place it more in the realm of really late era Italio-exploitation though, when some directors were trying to go for a more mainstream/family friendly approach, with generally disasterous results... even a slight 'Troll 2' vibe to the slightly 'off' dynamics between the family members perhaps, but maybe that's just me...?Benhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14951955227326548340noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3369610344911858466.post-65630046133843068952020-03-05T23:01:52.683+00:002020-03-05T23:01:52.683+00:00My feelings about COLOR OUT OF SPACE were quite si...My feelings about COLOR OUT OF SPACE were quite similar. In a funny way, it reminded me a little of Italian rip-off cinema - it's pretty low-budget, borrows liberally from a bunch of other films (Carpenter, EVIL DEAD, even POLTERGEIST at times), and creates its own distinctive melange through a mixture of inspired craft and tonal wonkiness. It would make a pretty wild double-bill with THE HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY. Tristan Eldritchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10239386613395519115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3369610344911858466.post-64158866907589201012020-03-05T19:39:19.903+00:002020-03-05T19:39:19.903+00:00Thanks Maurice, appreciated as always.
I'm no...Thanks Maurice, appreciated as always.<br /><br />I'm not sure what I'm going to find to say about 'From Beyond' yet to be honest - I'll have to re-watch it when I get a chance and think of something...Benhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14951955227326548340noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3369610344911858466.post-908722247391250822020-03-05T13:17:28.521+00:002020-03-05T13:17:28.521+00:00Great post here, Ben. Looking forward to part 2!
...Great post here, Ben. Looking forward to part 2!<br /><br />Watched From Beyond recently, so will be interesting to see what you write around that one. Maurice Mickelwhitehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05415253943533672436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3369610344911858466.post-47764264817670117842020-03-05T11:39:14.390+00:002020-03-05T11:39:14.390+00:00Yes, it's funny how there's a definite dis...Yes, it's funny how there's a definite distinction between films which are deemed to have a "Lovecraftian" feel (into which category you could also put Event Horizon, Possession, The Thing, etc), and those which draw directly from his writing... with almost no crossover between the two!<br /><br />For the most part the Stuart Gordon films just use his writing as a jumping off point for some fun, gory, well made horror movies, without really engaging with all the cosmic/existential stuff, and I find the four '60s films fascinating becasue they're basically attempts to make commercial horror films in the standard, gothic style of the era, but adding a slight twist of Lovecraft to the mix knocks them off balance, making them strange.<br /><br />Having watched it last night, I think 'Color Out of Space' actually fits quite neatly into this tradition - it basically plays like a slick, contemporary American horror film that's been left out in the rain too long and got a bit warped and peculiar (though admittedly, the strangeness in this case seems to come more from a combination of Stanley, Cage and too much weed than from Lovecraft). <br /><br />Tonally, it's all over the place, but as a result I thought it captured that uneasy mixture of genuinely disturbing stuff and outright goofiness that characterises Lovecraft's writing quite well. Watching it with an audience, there were a lot of awkward "is this funny? Are we supposed to be laughing here?" kind of moments, which is probably to be encouraged.<br /><br />It's certainly no mind-blowing masterpiece, but I found it a solid and enjoyable movie, rambling and flawed but rather charming, and I'm happy that it exists and is doing well.Benhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14951955227326548340noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3369610344911858466.post-9634365254027523062020-03-04T20:55:43.832+00:002020-03-04T20:55:43.832+00:00I've actually seen shockingly few of these mov...I've actually seen shockingly few of these movies, never having gotten around to any of the Stuart Gordon flicks for some reason. I think THE HAUNTED PALACE may be the only direct Lovecraft adaptation I've seen prior to COLOR. In terms of capturing the particular Lovecraftian mood of cosmic awe and dread, I think Ridley Scott's ALIEN and PROMETHEUS (despite it's garbled story-telling) come the closest that I've seen. Michael Mann's bizarre film maudit THE KEEP also contains some of the best Lovecraftian imagery on screen.Tristan Eldritchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10239386613395519115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3369610344911858466.post-21840553481586578092020-03-02T00:06:02.403+00:002020-03-02T00:06:02.403+00:00Well, I have tickets to see it in the cinema this ...Well, I have tickets to see it in the cinema this week, so hopefully I'll have an opinion soon enough! I may jump ahead in the timeline and do a post about it if I feel the need to write something, who knows...<br /><br />Seriously though, the timing of this post is a complete coincidence; I've been meaning to get cracking on covering these '80s/'90s Lovecraft movies for about three years, but never got beyond the first few paragraphs of trying to write something about 'Re-animator', so thought this new year I'd take a completely different approach and kind of side-step it. Much as I love the Stuart Gordon movies, what I'm really looking forward to is getting around to the more obscure, forgotten ones which I've never seen before - 'The Unnameable', Dan O'Bannon's 'The Resurrected', 'Cast a Deadly Spell' (that definitely looks like a weird one)... should be interesting, I hope...?Benhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14951955227326548340noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3369610344911858466.post-15811584893486988042020-03-01T22:18:27.786+00:002020-03-01T22:18:27.786+00:00Elephant in the room question raised by this post:...Elephant in the room question raised by this post: did you like Richard Stanley's COLOR OUT OF SPACE? Tristan Eldritchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10239386613395519115noreply@blogger.com