H.P. Lovecraft

Episode 92 – H.P. Lovecraft Movies

March 19, 2025

Die, Monster, Die! (1965), Necronomicon (1993), and Gods of the Deep (2023)

While Stephen King may reign supreme when it comes to movies based on his work, good or bad, one would think that with the impact that the words of H.P. Lovecraft has had on the literary world, that filmmakers would be jumping at the chance to bring his horrors to the screen. But while there are a quite a few films, not as many as you’d expect. Could it be that since Lovecraft wrote not in details of what his characters witnessed in his stories, but what it did to them, usually driving them into some kind of madness. But yet, that was the beauty of his work.

In this episode we tackle three very different films, from three different decades, almost three decades apart from each other, all based on the works of this strange author from Providence, Rhoade Island. If not you’re not too familiar with the works of Lovecraft, then here is your chance to watch three adaptations, loose as they may or may not be, but at least will give you a slight peek into his demented stories.

Films Mentioned in this Episode:

Episode 79 – Gordon, Yuzna & Paoli

September 20, 2024

Re-Animator (1985), From Beyond (1986), and Dagon (2001)

Bringing the works of Howard Phillips Lovecraft to the screen is not an easy task. Much of the horrors Lovecraft talked about wasn’t described or explained too much, leaving it up to the reader. But when director Stuart Gordon, producer Brian Yuzna, and writer Dennis Paoli got together to adapt Lovecraft’s 1922 story “Herbert West – Re-Animator” for a movie, they changed cinema forever. Not only did they show us more than Lovecraft would ever dream of, they created a perfect blend of outrageous horror, gore, and bizarre imagery that would immediately put them in the horror history books.

The following year, they took another short story, From Beyond, first published in 1934, and showed even more strange, bizarre, and gooey things we’d seen before, going beyond then what the short story told us.

Then 15 years later, these three deranged creators returned to Lovecraft to take us to a fishing village filled with very unusual citizens, in 2001’s Dagon.

While Gordon’s filmography might not be filled with classic after classic, when he hit a home run, usually when he’s working with Yuzna and Paoli, they knock the cover off the ball.

Films mentioned in this episode: