I'm Kelvin Green. I draw, I write, I am physically grotesque, and my hair is stupid.
Saturday, April 07, 2007
No-Thing is Sacred
They remade The Fog and Assault on Precinct 13, they're remaking Halloween (particularly pointless, since the many sequels are essentially remakes) and Escape from New York. Will they try for The Thing?
Just throwing this out there, but The Thing is itself a remake. Carpenter had the temerity to move the setting from the North Pole to the South. True fans of The Thing From Another World want that hack nailed to a Goddamn cross.
Yeah, I wouldn't call Capenter's version a remake as such. Fed of getting fed up of lame remakes, I avoid them in the hope that the one missing ticket sale from me convinces film studios to stop doing it, how hopeful am I?!
I remember reading a while back that Carpenter considered doing a sequel, starting off where the other one ends (with MacReady and the other bloke waiting to die) and going mad from there.
Much as I rate the "original" (one of my favourite horror flicks), this wouldn't have worked... particularly as Carpenter hasn't made a decent film since... erm... Big Trouble In Little China? (I don't like Prince Of Darkness, though I know it's highly regarded by some.)
Still, the idea of a remake of this OR Halloween fills me with dread.
Believe it or not, Halloween is my favourite film, but I'm not too worried about the remake, as the umpteen sequels have basically been remakes anyway, and the original has still stood.
I'm not a huge fan of PoD either (although it has its moments), but I'd argue that In the Mouth of Madness is probably Carpenter's last good film.
Three cheers and several beers for In The Mouth of Madness, one of the great underrated horror (and Carpenter) films of the last 20 years. It's one of the few Lovecraftian horror movies done right, as well.
What's frustrating is that Madness, while great, isn't a direct adaptation of Lovecraft. So we're still waiting for a really good film version of one of his stories.
I like PoD for it's Nigel Nealeness even if it's not great. MoM is good (Cigarette Burns is similar and as good), but I think his last great film was They Live. Not sure Lovecraft is adaptable, but I'd love to see it done well. Die, Monster, Die! is fun but deviates a lot from Colour Out of Space. Stuart Gordon tries, but likes his gore too much to do it right (Dagon and Dreams in the Witch House are still worth a peak though). I'd love to see The Call of Cthulhu, it sounds great, wiki's got an entry about it with a link to the official site..... sorry for the long comment, been talking films with a friend at the pub after being blown away by Sunshine!
Long comments make me look like a popular barometer of the zeitgeist, so ramble away!
To my immense shame, I've yet to see any of Gordon's Lovecraft films, but they're on our Amazon rental list. But so are seven seasons of West Wing, which my wife has to get through first.
I still have to see the b/w silent Call of Cthulhu; I'm not sure it's rentable.
I think Lovecraft is filmable, but you have to pick the right one. The Shadow Over Innsmouth is doable (Dagon's essentialy an adaptation, is it not?), as is Call of Cthulhu itself. At the MOuntains of MAdness would be good too, although it would probably draw unhealthy comparisons with The Thing.
Ooh, and apparently 1973 Lee/Cushing monster-on-a-train-athon Horror Express is also a loose adaptation of The Thing's source material. I've seen it, and I never made that connection. Something. Learn. Day. New. Every.
Because we've hijacked this into a Lovecraft film thread, I'll add that I've always thought you could make a real cracker of a film out of The Rats In The Walls with not much tweaking at all.
And the PC game Call of Cthulu: Dark Corners of the Earth did just about the best Lovecraft-action-movie-horror-narrative I've ever seen, so it's definitely worth a look as well.
Dagon is a fairly close adaptation of Innsmouth (apart from using the title of a different story) the reason I think a Lovecraft adap would be tough is the whole unseen hinted at strange beings thing, I doubt there's many directors (or more importantly studios) who'd keep all the big stuff in shadows or round corners. It's not impossible, it just goes against the usual 'all on the screen'nonsense. Taped Horror Express off BBC1 a while back but still not watched it, I'll have to see if I can dig it out. Shorter post, but Sunshine is still amazing:)
I don't think either of our weedy PCs will run the Call of Cthulhu game, alas. Eternal Darkness on the GameCube is apparently a great Lovecraft-in-all-but-name game, and we have a Wii, so that's a possibility.
Yes, since Most of HPL's monsters were unnamable, indescribable things, it's hard to put them on film. But the Deep Ones from Innsmouth are fairly conventional by horror standards, The Rats in the Walls is nice and easy (would make a great BBC Christmas ghost story, if they still did those), and in something like Mountains of Madness, you don't really see the monsters anyway, so film isn't an obstacle there. Call of Cthulhu just requires a good cgi model of Cthulhu himself, as everything else is weird cults and the like. Coulour Out of SPace should be fairly easy to film too.
But something like The Shadow out of Time would be a train wreck.
There's been a Ghost story for Christmas for the last 2 years, pretty decent ones too, I'm sure they'll get repeated if you missed them. Rats in the Walls would make a great film, but I think you'd inevitably have to move on to the unseen monster stuff, and when that happens it absolutely has to be Guillermo del Toro directing it with some help from Mike Mignola!
I think I remember something being on BBC4 this past Chrimble, but we didn't watch it for some reason.
I've yet to see Devil's Backbone, so I'll take your word for it regarding del Toro. I've liked his action movies, and I liked that vampire thing (Kronos? With the clockwork bug?), but I didn't get on with Pan's Labyrinth at all. But as I say I haven't seen Devil's Backbone, and that's the one they say that marks him as a proper creepy horror director, rather than the big monsters and bigger guns of Blade and Hellboy (both of which I liked, but aren't appropriate tones for a Lovecraft movie).
Come on, Dagon's got people getting their faces cut off, surely that's gotta be worth some of you time Rad:) Yeah, Devil's Backbone is pretty creepy, Del toro can do slow and eerie as well as big action stuff pretty well. Of course I liked Pan's Labyrinth so I could be way off.
Well, it's been twenty-plus years since it came out, so I'm sure there's a remake in the pipe somewhere.
ReplyDeleteEspecially since that whole "make movies out of old TV shows" trend seems to have died off.
Just throwing this out there, but The Thing is itself a remake. Carpenter had the temerity to move the setting from the North Pole to the South. True fans of The Thing From Another World want that hack nailed to a Goddamn cross.
ReplyDelete...maybe that was your point, I don't know.
I'd contend that Carpenter's movie is not a remake of the (excellent) original, but a different interpretation of the source material.
ReplyDeleteI love both films, as it happens, and neither needs a remake.
I thought there had been a remake since the Carpenter one? I'm sure I remember reading about it in SFX.
ReplyDeleteThere's a video game sequel, and the Sci Fi channel were going to do a sequel/remake miniseries, but I think that's about it.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I wouldn't call Capenter's version a remake as such.
ReplyDeleteFed of getting fed up of lame remakes, I avoid them in the hope that the one missing ticket sale from me convinces film studios to stop doing it, how hopeful am I?!
I remember reading a while back that Carpenter considered doing a sequel, starting off where the other one ends (with MacReady and the other bloke waiting to die) and going mad from there.
ReplyDeleteMuch as I rate the "original" (one of my favourite horror flicks), this wouldn't have worked... particularly as Carpenter hasn't made a decent film since... erm... Big Trouble In Little China? (I don't like Prince Of Darkness, though I know it's highly regarded by some.)
Still, the idea of a remake of this OR Halloween fills me with dread.
Believe it or not, Halloween is my favourite film, but I'm not too worried about the remake, as the umpteen sequels have basically been remakes anyway, and the original has still stood.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a huge fan of PoD either (although it has its moments), but I'd argue that In the Mouth of Madness is probably Carpenter's last good film.
Three cheers and several beers for In The Mouth of Madness, one of the great underrated horror (and Carpenter) films of the last 20 years. It's one of the few Lovecraftian horror movies done right, as well.
ReplyDeleteWhat's frustrating is that Madness, while great, isn't a direct adaptation of Lovecraft. So we're still waiting for a really good film version of one of his stories.
ReplyDeleteI like PoD for it's Nigel Nealeness even if it's not great. MoM is good (Cigarette Burns is similar and as good), but I think his last great film was They Live.
ReplyDeleteNot sure Lovecraft is adaptable, but I'd love to see it done well. Die, Monster, Die! is fun but deviates a lot from Colour Out of Space. Stuart Gordon tries, but likes his gore too much to do it right (Dagon and Dreams in the Witch House are still worth a peak though). I'd love to see The Call of Cthulhu, it sounds great, wiki's got an entry about it with a link to the official site..... sorry for the long comment, been talking films with a friend at the pub after being blown away by Sunshine!
Long comments make me look like a popular barometer of the zeitgeist, so ramble away!
ReplyDeleteTo my immense shame, I've yet to see any of Gordon's Lovecraft films, but they're on our Amazon rental list. But so are seven seasons of West Wing, which my wife has to get through first.
I still have to see the b/w silent Call of Cthulhu; I'm not sure it's rentable.
I think Lovecraft is filmable, but you have to pick the right one. The Shadow Over Innsmouth is doable (Dagon's essentialy an adaptation, is it not?), as is Call of Cthulhu itself. At the MOuntains of MAdness would be good too, although it would probably draw unhealthy comparisons with The Thing.
Ooh, and apparently 1973 Lee/Cushing monster-on-a-train-athon Horror Express is also a loose adaptation of The Thing's source material. I've seen it, and I never made that connection. Something. Learn. Day. New. Every.
ReplyDeleteBecause we've hijacked this into a Lovecraft film thread, I'll add that I've always thought you could make a real cracker of a film out of The Rats In The Walls with not much tweaking at all.
ReplyDeleteAnd the PC game Call of Cthulu: Dark Corners of the Earth did just about the best Lovecraft-action-movie-horror-narrative I've ever seen, so it's definitely worth a look as well.
Dagon is a fairly close adaptation of Innsmouth (apart from using the title of a different story) the reason I think a Lovecraft adap would be tough is the whole unseen hinted at strange beings thing, I doubt there's many directors (or more importantly studios) who'd keep all the big stuff in shadows or round corners. It's not impossible, it just goes against the usual 'all on the screen'nonsense.
ReplyDeleteTaped Horror Express off BBC1 a while back but still not watched it, I'll have to see if I can dig it out.
Shorter post, but Sunshine is still amazing:)
I don't think either of our weedy PCs will run the Call of Cthulhu game, alas. Eternal Darkness on the GameCube is apparently a great Lovecraft-in-all-but-name game, and we have a Wii, so that's a possibility.
ReplyDeleteYes, since Most of HPL's monsters were unnamable, indescribable things, it's hard to put them on film. But the Deep Ones from Innsmouth are fairly conventional by horror standards, The Rats in the Walls is nice and easy (would make a great BBC Christmas ghost story, if they still did those), and in something like Mountains of Madness, you don't really see the monsters anyway, so film isn't an obstacle there. Call of Cthulhu just requires a good cgi model of Cthulhu himself, as everything else is weird cults and the like. Coulour Out of SPace should be fairly easy to film too.
But something like The Shadow out of Time would be a train wreck.
There's been a Ghost story for Christmas for the last 2 years, pretty decent ones too, I'm sure they'll get repeated if you missed them.
ReplyDeleteRats in the Walls would make a great film, but I think you'd inevitably have to move on to the unseen monster stuff, and when that happens it absolutely has to be Guillermo del Toro directing it with some help from Mike Mignola!
I think I remember something being on BBC4 this past Chrimble, but we didn't watch it for some reason.
ReplyDeleteI've yet to see Devil's Backbone, so I'll take your word for it regarding del Toro. I've liked his action movies, and I liked that vampire thing (Kronos? With the clockwork bug?), but I didn't get on with Pan's Labyrinth at all. But as I say I haven't seen Devil's Backbone, and that's the one they say that marks him as a proper creepy horror director, rather than the big monsters and bigger guns of Blade and Hellboy (both of which I liked, but aren't appropriate tones for a Lovecraft movie).
Prince of Darkness? Is that the one with Alice Cooper? If it is it's shit!
ReplyDeleteDagon = Shit! Can't believe I sat through it.
In the Mouth of Madness creeped the hell out of me.
Come on, Dagon's got people getting their faces cut off, surely that's gotta be worth some of you time Rad:)
ReplyDeleteYeah, Devil's Backbone is pretty creepy, Del toro can do slow and eerie as well as big action stuff pretty well. Of course I liked Pan's Labyrinth so I could be way off.