What story would you use? And by movie, I mean a non-existent budget schol project. I was thinking 'The Terrible Old Man' would be doable, or *maybe* something like 'The Picture in the House' or possibly 'Haunter of Darkness'.
What story would you use? And by movie, I mean a non-existent budget schol project. I was thinking 'The Terrible Old Man' would be doable, or *maybe* something like 'The Picture in the House' or possibly 'Haunter of Darkness'.
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The Picture in the House would be doable - Two characters, one set, mostly conversation - the prop of the book needs to be well done, though.
What ever you do, don't try The Outsider - It just does not work visually. It works as a story because certain objects are wholly unfamiliar to the narrator, and are described in vague, oblique ways; unfortunately, if you show them on a screen, they are immediately recognized by the audience and the surprise at the end is ruined.
Are you planning to do it as a 'period' piece, or are you resetting the story in the modern day so you can save money on costumes, props, and sets?
For a cheap flick I think you have a good idea with "Picture in a House" as all you need is one room, one old guy and one young guy. It don't get much cheaper than that.
No Nyarlathotep, no chaos.
Know Nyarlathotep, know chaos.
Not exactly a movie, but I've always harboured a curious desire to turn The Dunwich Horror into an opera.
Re-Animator...Originally Posted by Scaevola
Cheers,
Roland
It'd take a little work, but I'd love to see a short film made out of The Statement of Randolph Carter... Actually, damn, that might be a fun house project for my roommates and I.
Here's my idea for a short and cheap Mythos film.
You see a flickering view of a couple as they look down at the camera, it becomes apparent that they are sitting at the death bed and that you are seeing them from the point of view of the dying person. The woman is obviously pregnant. Dying Man is very wheezy but man manages to convey that he would like to put his hand on the pregnant woman's bump. He is helped to do this by the man, his grandson. He then mutters some strange words that the couple don't quite catch. The view then dims as you hear the crash team arriving.
Blackness.
Then the view comes back, again you are seeing from the point of view of someone in a bed. You can see the couple again. She is no longer pregnant. They are playing with a baby from whose point of view you can see things.
Baby is making ga-ga noises, but then ga-ga noises seem to repeat same strange words that the dying man said.
The end.
The Armitage Files, now with added Ennie Award.
I think you could do "Pickman's Model" on a fairly low budget. If it was a major production, then I'd have to go for my favorite HPL story "At the Mountains of Madness."
'Rats in the Walls' was the first Lovecraft story I ever read and is still my favorite.
Not being too Mythos heavy, I think it would convert to film nicely.
Too bad Vincent Price has passed on...he would've been my ideal last De La Poer.
I can just imagine the ending:
Searchers flashlights shine on Vinnie P. screaming "Magna Mater...Magna Mater!" in the bone littered underground grotto, his face smeared in his boon companions entrail goo.
Sadly, any Mythos dream movie project would probably be ruined by Hollywood with 'Buffy-Teens' playing intellectuals, CGI monsters, an overuse of tired, jive-a$$ sarcastic humor and of course the few inevitable Pepsi product placements.
BTW- Anyone suffer through "Alone in the Dark"?
I haven't seen it, but when I saw Tara Reid was starring as a scientist that was enough for me.
DEAD BIRDS I read is Mythos based. Confederate soldiers on the run bump into an unknown terror. Check out the trailer.
If I see it I will pick it up and let you know if it's any good.
As far as a low budget student film project here is what I would do:
First of all it's gotta have a really cheesy title:
DEADBANGERS:Red Blood....Black Vinyl
A Lovecraftian ripoff of 'The Gate'.
I would set it in the 80's. Kids, metal, mythos, madness. Which would include some inevitable playing records backwards, Ouija bording, teen brooding, a drunken party that results in Satanic Sacrifice and a show trial. I would flash some newspaper headlines and maybe some 700Club-ish video as a seque, then pick up with the surviving kids 15 years later just getting out of the institution. The rest of the movie would be them getting back together, trying to piece together what exactly happened. None of them remember ritualistically mutilating the two girls. Of couse they are going to reopen the old can of worms and unleash what horrors they wrought before.
It could be done cheaply I am sure.
I was going to suggest this one, too - in fact, when I took some film production classes way back in college, I wanted to do this one. Unfortunately, the equipment we had to use was extremely limited, and we couldn't do synchronized sound: no talking on screen. I thought of tweaking the script so that all the dialog would take place off screen (the conceit of the voice through the field telephone would have helped a LOT), but I decided against it.
...ended up writing something from scratch that really didn't work, and was disappointed with the result. Of course, having a half-dozen lights and a camera set up on one of the plazas at midnight and blowing off charges of black power was a lot of fun...as was driving like a maniac down a mountain road while my friend filmed from the passenger seat (hint: mount the camera as low as possible - our camera was up at eye level, and even though I was pushing the poor WV Rabbit to the limits of my ability, it still played like a leisurely drive.
...yeah, it is a wonder I didn't end up in jail while filming that project.
Kids, don't try this one at home.
Another story that lends itself to easy, low-budget film conversion would the The Music of Eric Zahn. All you need is a two story house, a viol and two actors. Don't even need decent lighting.
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward would be good if some SFX could be used. You need the 'liveliest awfulness' creature and the dissolution of Joseph Curwen.
Shadow Minister for Ultimate Cyclopean Horrors
Yes, but you also need convincing music, and an actor who can convincingly play the violin...and speaking as someone who actually PLAYS the violin*, it is extremely hard to fake without it looking cheesy.
Rather like with Pickman's Model, you need a good artist to produce the paintings, plus a way of making a reasonably convincing photograph of a ghoul - then, of course, you are running smack into the basic problem that what the reader/audience imagines is infinitely more terrifying than anything they can actually see. That is the advantage of stories like The Picture in the House or The Statement of Randolph Carter; in the first, all you need is a gruesome woodcut, a drop of blood, a quick look at the ceiling, and lots and lots of atmosphere; in the second, you can do an awful lot with some mist, some weird lighting effects, and then go all out on the voice on the phone at the end (find the deepest and most gravelly voice you can get; have him hawk as much phlegm into his throat as he can stand, mix in some slithering or scraping noises, put a mic really close to some corn flakes on the ground and squeeze some really chunky grapefruit pulp onto it from a foot or two up...then run the whole mess through a bit of a digital delay and maybe some flanger, and you have yourself a party.)
Edit:
*Yeah, that's me in the middle
It would be easy to shoot the only time Zahn plays in such a way that you can't get a good look at what he's doing with the viol. Thus you just need some real creepy, manic violin music for the overlay. I see the blocking of the climatic scene like this:
[Wide pan of attic room, with bed, small dreser, music stand, and chair as the only furniture in the room, the chair is in the center of the room facing the window, camera positioned at the doorway]
Eric Zahn enters and pulls the chair over to the dresser and begins writing, Narrator enters and Eric waves him to the bed. Moments pass as Eric frantically writes on. Suddenly the window bangs and Eric looks at it in terror. Knocking the pile of paper on the dresser off in his haste, he drags the chair back to the center of the room and picks up his violin.
[Tight shot on Narrator's face, growing horror as music tempo increases and window begins banging harder]
[Cut to Window, flies open with some papers sucked out into the night]
[Wind blows out latern on dresser, plunging room into darkness]
Narrator screams as wood scraping is heard over the manic violin.
[Sounds of Narrator moving around with the wind blowing and voiceover of him trying to feel his way in the dark. Sudden flash of light from outside window gives b/w shot of the Narrator standing over the body of Eric Zahn with his hand on Zahn's face. Scream and sounds of running. Blackout]
Didn't Eric Zahn take place in some wildly abstract city? I'd always thought of 'The Cabinet of Dr. Calligeri' while reading it. Good story, though; and I take it I should read The Statement of Randolph Carter tonight? Another I was mulling over was Cold Print by Cambell, which could possibly be doable. I consider myself a more-than-capable artist and would have a ton of fun drawing the ghouls for Pickman's Model, but I agree, it would be far more difficult to capture the atmosphere when showing off whatever I can special-effects wise.
Oh @Fallingtower; Have you (or anyone?) heard of some movie that--I think involves a group of soldiers who happen upon some guy in a snowy locale that--I think-- eats people? I remember seeing this really chilling trailer a few years back where this evil-looking dark-haired man had a bloody cross painted on his forehead. It seemed like a big production deal too, but the name has always eluded me.[/u]
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