What is it about H.P. Lovecraft that prevents his stories from being turned into commercially successful films?
the fact that he's unbearably plebiane
He was an anti semite, and the jews run hollywood.
the fact that he doesn't describe the horrors because they're 'too horrible.' That doesn't translate well into visual media.
They actually deem that type of storytelling (or lack thereof) as Lovecraftian.
>>7524359
Lack of story. He had an amazing imagination, but never turned his ideas into good drama. And the characters aren't particularly memorable, just the mythos.
>>7524371
>He was an anti semite, and the jews run hollywood.
stormfront is to the right
>>7524359
H.P. Lovecraft has been successfully, and with GREAT quality, translated to visual storytelling medium.
>>7524396
jesus christ, i don't think i've ever seen somebody so butt flustered on /lit/ before. Do you genuinely like Lovecraft, or do you just hate /lit/?
>>7524401
But he actually hasn't?
>>7524408
bait, pleb, jelly - you are probably all three.
>>7524359
The hero doesn't win. The protagonist always dies in the end; and he only goes insane when confronted with the alien forces (Carter from the Dream Quest of Kadath is the only exception, but even he fails in the end despite successfully arriving at his destination).
The plot is slow going, more focusing on the author gaining information and in the end realizing the horrible truth. Although the plot of some stories is great and can be used as a source for a movie (Herbert West; the one about the family that degenerated and started living under a hill; The Dream Quest can be a good movie)
No love interest. The only thing characters are preoccupied with is knowledge; and that's what kills them in the end.
>>7524396
>In fact, that leaves a lot of room for anyone adapting his work, which is a plus.
No, you don't understand. His story 'works' because it is centered around never revealing the horror fully. His method of storytelling would not translate well into visual media not simply because he neglects to reveal what the horror looks like, but because the story is dependent upon building tension with no release.
Audiences do not want this.
Now, if you just want to make one of his stories a CGI cashgrab where the monster is revealed, then I suppose that could work. But it wouldn't be Lovecraft.
>>7524413
Please name a single film.
>>7524416
>Audiences do not want this.
And yet an entire audience of readers worships him.
Why?
True Detective season 1 was Lovecraft.
>>7524418
>film
I said visual storytelling medium. I can't help if moviemakers trying to adapt Lovecraft are hacks.
>>7524424
Erm, because they are different mediums. I can name quite a few stories that work on paper that wouldn't work on film and vice versa.
Also, most of Lovecraft's develoment comes through internal dialogue...
Please name ANYTHING besides a lovecraft-written story that has matched the level of dread that lovecraft's stories have reached.
>>7524406
I'm quite relaxed, thank you.
>>7524437
Hawkes's short stories are much more unsettling to the point of being dreadful. I had to set some of those down. Lovecraft was pretty simplistic desu.
>>7524437
Anything on Berserk, Demon's Souls, Dark Souls I and Bloodborne.
Video games and manga do it better than Hollywood. what can I say?
I'd say that though he hasn't had a good straight adaption, he has influenced a lot of good horror movies (In the mouth of madness for example). Many horror writers and surreal artists.
His writing is better suited to TV shorts rather than movies though as his stories usually end with revealed horror and insanity with no denouement. So basically it invalidates the last third of the film, as in Lovecraft you hardly ever get the chance to run from the horror, let alone beat it.
Of his stories I'd like to see adapted are Shadow over Innsmouth and the Shunned House,as for me they manage to build up the horror and tension in the mind of the reader without too much Elder races stuff which could put off/ seem silly to the first time viewer.
>>7524447
Wait, so only things that directly take from Lovecraft are able to do what Lovecraft does?
Wow...
>>7524372
This.
You can't describe something so horrible that it's indescribable. Sort of loses its whole meaning.
>>7524429
it was more ligotti tbqh. Not enough weird pulpy scifi stuff to be lovecraft
>>7524734
Fucking love that twist when I was expecting some gothic horror clichés.
>>7524706
beautiful
when will hollywood adapt Bloodborne properly
>>7524401
tfw you want to play bloodborne but have no other reason to buy a ps4
What is it with Lovecraft and squid?
>>7524850
my friend has ps4, played through bloodborne twice at his house. fantastic fucking game, too bad about limits of ps4, could use a texture and fps bump.
>>7524814NEVER EVER
>>7524850
i feel this so hard
>talking about video games
Get that mongoloid tier hobby out from here.
>>7524808
No kidding... Pic related fucker almost gave me a heart attack.
>>7524885
>this thread
Just kill me
>>7524359
most of the outer gods are literally astronomical. Cthulhu is sleeping spans the size of the entire ocean I can see why it wouldn't translate well to film
>>7525028
>astronomical
>size of the entire ocean
These don't relate...
>>7525095
To the common peasant the ocean and the universe are the same size.
>>7525028
wait, don't they literally run cthulhu down with a fishing trawler?
Just in case you're curious, /tv/ is having the exact same thread right now.
>>>/tv/64310431
>>7525231
The thing about Cthulhu is that he's the sloth of the pantheon. He wants literally zero trouble for when he takes over. So running a boat into him is enough to make him go "Wow, fuck this, Humans are still kicking, I'll rest for another thousand years and see if they're still around then'.
>>7524418
Dagon. And that Sam Neill flick.
Both were hilarryous.
>>7524462
>Shadow over Innsmouth
Dagon (2001). Also see the first chapter of Resident Evil 4.
>>7525005
We have this thread every day on /tv/.
>>7525344
I had a look at the Dagon film,it looked poor. i meant a proper tension building investigation version not a slock horror turn off. I actually think with a good set of directors and screenwriters, they could make a run of a dozen Lovecraft episodes and even go on from there...
... Have any of you read the weird shadows and weirder shadows collections?
>>7525374
>Dagon
>poor
Get the fuck out.
Or, just, you know, watch it and decide for yourself.
>>7525351
I already forgot what this thread was about.
>>7525412
Yeah, we have that in every thread on /tv/.
>>7524437
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPP1e7hOyik
/thread
>>7525511
>Man-child's Opium
>>7525219
The common peasant also doesn't read.
>>7524359
1. His stories are almost entirely narration-driven, as opposed to dialogue driven. He makes next-to-no attempt at character development; even his usual first-person narrator is practically a blank slate whose only job is to describe the horrors Lovecraft wishes to convey. All other subordinate characters tend to be basic archetypes (or if you prefer, stereotypes), like old rustic or obsessed scientist, who again only serve to help drive home the horror of the situation.
2. Related to the first point, there is never any romance in his stories--there are rarely even female characters, and most of his narrators might as well be eunuchs.
3. There are seldom "happy endings" in his stories; even when creatures like Cthulhu are defeated in his stories, the implication is that it's only a temporary victory borne out of dumb luck and nothing more. They will always come back, and next time they'll probably be triumphant.
4. As has been noted by everyone else, Lovecraft held on to a lot racist views that tend to creep into a lot of his stories and make them harder to stomach for modern readers (for example, The Rats in the Walls would probably be the greatest work of 20th century neo-Gothic horror... if it weren't for That Darned Cat he couldn't help but name after the one from his childhood).
5. A lot of his stories involve things that are really difficult to physically depict onscreen (The Colour Out of Space is literally a color that does not exist on earth), and it would be really difficult to depict, say, a walking tree-stump with wings and a starfish for a head, in a way that wouldn't look unintentionally ridiculous. This would be especially difficult in At the Mountains of Madness, since a fairly good chunk of that story is literally several billions years' worth of history of the Elder Things, which humans existed for almost none of.
Basically, the big problem with Lovecraft is that he cares more about non-human entities and forces more than human beings--part of the essence of his horror is decentralizing humanity's importance--while much of Hollywood storytelling is, at bottom, anthropocentric. You can't make a movie about dogs unless they behave in a recognizably human fashion. And, since The Matrix at least, every movie is about someone finding out they're more important than the they think; while all of Lovecraft's fiction is about someone finding out that humanity is far, far, FAR less important to the cosmic order of things than anyone ever imagined.
>>7527345
>A lot of his stories involve things that are really difficult to physically depict onscreen (The Colour Out of Space is literally a color that does not exist on earth), and it would be really difficult to depict, say, a walking tree-stump with wings and a starfish for a head, in a way that wouldn't look unintentionally ridiculous.
Die Farbe is a pretty faithful adaptation and itshows the color.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1756479/
At the Mouths of Madness is the best Lovecraftian movie you're going to find if any of y'all haven't seen it. Good stuff. Not perfect, but good.
>>7525523
says the dweeb posting epic memes
>>7527973
Better a dewb than a child.
>>7524401
dont you fucking dare reply to me again if your not going to contribute to the thread
>>7524359
If I wanted to get into Lovecraft, which books should I start with first?
Need some recommendations
>>7525028
Cthulhu isn't one of the outer gods
>>7528688
He wasn't a prolific writer.
His complete works are collected in singular volumes and are easily read in a week or so as long as you focus.
>>7528770
Are the singular volumes any good though?
Like is it just cramped walls of text or actually enjoyable to read?
Are all Lovecraft fans unbearable autists of is it just a few anons in here?
>>7528950
Some are yes.
Just as them if they know of the Yellow King and if they don't, you automatically know they're one of the autistic one's.
>>7528950
fans in general are unbearable autists yeah
His stories would best be suited to television and radio. Currently listening to the BBC Radio version of At the Mountains of Madness, which shows the viability of a Lovecraft adaptation for a medium other than cinema. Short television plays or miniseries could do justice to his work.
>>7524359
-He intentionally didn't develop characters, he preferred to use them as mere lenses.
-He intentionally avoided action in favor of creating an atmosphere.
-He intentionally alluded to the horrors but very rarely directly painted them because they were beyond the scope of human comprehension.
-He liked to drop references to something unimaginable, some cosmic entity-deity etc, but keep the reader blue-balled and in the dark.
These are pretty much the antithesis of commercial successful films.
Gotta plug R. M. Price, the ol' gent himself:
http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-lovecraft-geek
>>7524378
Lovecraft wrote in his letters about intentionally neglecting his characters, they are supposed to be forgettable. He wasn't interested in writing good human drama, he was interested in providing a lens to a completely "other" cosmic level atmosphere, something so horrible and totally transcending the feeble and narrow scope of humanity.
It is worth pointing out that there are plenty of commercially successful films that can be considered "lovecraftian".
From "The Thing" to "Prometheus"...However, H.P.'s work itself is mostly too lovecraftian.
On this fansite:
http://lovecraftzine.com/movies/mikes-recommended-lovecraftian-movies/
They reject some attempts at adapting Lovecraft's work in that the adaptation didn't sufficiently have lovecraftian elements to the movie.
>>7524359
what about the reanimator?
ik not successful but very well done
>>7524371
Honestly he really didn't seem to have much of a problem with Jews.
>>7529498
Reanimator was really pulpy though, even for him
It's a bit outside of his usual style too, since apparently he wanted nothing to do with it and only wrote it to eat
>>7527345
>I already forgot what this thread was about.
>That Cat
Name it something other than fucking Nigger-Man (you can even be kind of funny about it, name it Malcolm or something if you want to be edgy). Problem solved.
I don't think racism is the problem. You could just cut it out.
What I find odd about Lovecraft is that even though the narrator/author hates niggers etc, they're usually obviously also victims of various evil forces. The Louisiana bayou mongrels or however he describes them are being sacrificed to some swamp monster/Cthulhu, Herbert West conducts necromancy experiments on a black guy because no one will miss him, the evil cult in The Horror at Red Hook is luring illegal immigrants into being fodder for demonic rituals, etc. None of these stories would be significantly changed by making the main character PC.
