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When I was in my late teens (mid-90s) a guy I knew was OBSESSED with making a movie of The Silver Key. And I mean obsessed to the point of dressing like (how he imagined) Lovecraft would have, always having 5 notebooks filled with notes for his movie. He eventually shot something on what is genuinely to this day the worst camcorder I’ve ever seen, low definition doesn’t even come close to how bad it was. Once he edited it all together he realised that he had less than ten minutes of usable footage with no comprehendible audio. It was crap, awful, but weirdly it came out as something that really was weirdly Lovecraftian; just not how it was intended. I bring this up because I kind of feel that this movie is very similar to what he would’ve ended up with if he’d tried to fix it with padding, filters, and bloom.
Honestly you are one of my favourite review channels, especially how you focus on horror, because if you I've really gotten into H.P Lovecraft style horror movies.
What a disappointment! The Thing on the Doorstep is one of my favourite Lovecraft stories, to learn that a movie was made, AND it was terrible all in one swoop... what a roller coaster. Good review, as always, though!
Not entirely sure if it's intended, with how poorly this movie is shot (and how overlit and washed out it usually is) but they really nail off kilter lighting in some scenes, adding sometimes subtle otherworldly tones. Asenath descending the staircase drew my eye to it, her shadow just seems /off/ despite having no actual fx work. I think.
Thank you for being so accessible to your followers and for giving us another HP Lovecraft month. Your show is one of my favorites. If you ever come to Maine for a Stephen King tour, drinks are on me.
Why this? There’s a damn good adaptation of Whisperer In The Darkness out there, but I don’t see that on the list, but this... it looks like a RU-vid fan film.
To be fair, The Whisperer in Darkness was made by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, who would've been put through the ringer if they screwed that up. Any other knucklehead can make a crap HPL adaptation and it's pretty much just par for the course. By the way, if you haven't seen Beyond the Wall of Sleep, DON'T.
@@WolfHreda I guess you make an excellent point. That said, they could have been completely loyal to the source material but failed with bad actors or bad film makers or terrible effects, but they actually did all that well too. I actually think I saw Beyond the Wall of Sleep, but I can't recall any details (except that William Sanderson from Blade Runner was in it). I'll give it another try, but I'm pretty sure I didn't like it. Are we talking about the same film from 2006?
Dawg I've been watching your stuff for a while an I gotta say you keep putting out some consistent badass content and I always pop up with excitement seeing a new vid
I've started to read Lovecraft. Actually because of your videos on the movies based on them. I haven't got to this one but I think it's one of my favorite reviews from you.
I've been going through your Lovecraft playlist, watching the movie and yhrn your review. But this one...yeah. I made it to the wedding party before I Noped out and just came here. Glad I wasn't mistaken.
Always love your reviews! One thing I have to say about this one, though... Usually you focus your gaze directly into the camera. It gives a very realistic feeling that you're talking to the audience. In this review, though, you're glancing to the left of the screen (right side of the camera from your perspective). It totally changes the dynamic. It made it feel like you're not aware of the audience watching, and are instead talking to someone off screen in the same room. Just figured I'd mention it. Really hoping you're covering Color Out of Space this Lovecraft Month! It's my favorite of his stories and I loved the movie.
I'm not the only one who finds the original story kind of sad, right? We see how Lovecraft Stories are scary everywhere else, but here, it almost feels like a tragedy. We have to see a long painful decline of a young man through the eyes of his best friend and know where it will end. I think that this is why this is a good story.
That shouldn't surprise anyone, though. Asylum and Troma are film companies with access to expensive cameras, lighting & audio equipment, unsuccessful but at least semi-competent actors/directors (with movie experience)...and...actual budget. This movie was made with barely if any budget, cheap cameras, no microphones or professional lamps...and... *amateur* actors/directors exclusively.
Great to see you're still doing reviews - and lovecraft stuff especially... Even if this particular adaptation is terrible - saves me the time watching it. Hope you are keeping well in these trying times
At first I was hesitant to watch this, since I've been intending to watch the movie. However, now I'm glad I did; seems like I dodged a bullet. Low budget/indie-quality movies can still be scary and/or entertaining, but a lack of skill and/or effort is always apparent, regardless of budget.
I cant really see why you think it has direct relation to anything lovecraftian, its more a modern retelling of the midwich cuckoos/ Children of the dammed then anything else, monsters with tentacles perhaps? but thats a very thin connection.
@@deusdeaconReviews Understood. I was just curious since it's one of my favorite adaptations in terms of atmosphere, even if the plot's focused more on LBGT issues. Cheers for the response. Love your reviews.
I watched this movie a while ago, just because it was a Lovecraft movie and all I ever really remember is that 1. I didn't really like it, and 2. the creators really wanted to make sure we knew this was a Lovecraft movie. I was going to rewatch the movie before watching the review but I just couldn't get into it again. In retrospect I wish I had just reread the original story. I enjoyed the review much more than I ever did the movie.
It was interesting since I knew the Lovecraft stories, but I would not think any average horror movie fan could find much in it. Honestly I did wonder if many people unfamiliar with the story or Lovecraft would come of of it really knowing what was going on in the movie.
Given what Lovecraft was going through around the time he wrote this story, I like to joke that its working title was "No I'm not still Bitter About the Divorce Guys Why do you ask?"
I personally couldn’t find much saying the marriage/divorce was anything particularly bitter, after all they didn’t actually get divorced the papers weren’t filed, so it cant have been that much of an emotional time.
I watched this on amazon and, as someone who absolutely adores Lovecraft, I wanted to love it. However, I just couldn't sit through the whole thing. Not horrible, just painfully flawed.
I'm curious what the next review is going to be. We can tell from clips that you will review Color Out Of Space, but that is a direct adaptation of a story so it can't be the "not an adaptation but an expansion of the mythos".
Speaking of Lovecraftian movies that are not adaptations, I'd recommend Cthulhu (2007 or 2008, I can never remember). The director actually put the whole thing up here on RU-vid for free and heartily endorses you watching it as such.
cthulhu is an adaption, albeit a rather loose one, but an adaption none the less of shadow over innsmouth, which is one of the reason I haven’t looked at it because I looked at Dagon which is the same thing, and adaptions of shadow over innsmouth are far too common.
Great review, as usual! Why not set the film in the 1920's, where it would make far more sense??? Simply put, they didn't want to spend the money/time on set design. The set-houses look like rented air bnb's or, the old stand by, a house of one of the directors/producers. This is far worse than a student film. Really sad as they seemed to want to do the source material justice. But then again, good writing and set design takes care and cash. Neither of which are apparent in this production.
I wonder if you plan to cover Lovecraft Country? I ask because I notice some plot points that were familiar like Heirem, Immortality, and Body Switching. In the show they are Braithwhites and I only assume the language was language of Adam (called in the show)
I still think there's such a thing as too accurate for adaptations. Film and books are different mediums, And not everything works going between them. It's essentially an art in itself in knowing what to keep and what to cut, and what to change to make a film adaptation work. See Jurassic Park. Movie totally different from the novel in a lot of ways, but I love both
I agree that some H.P. Lovecraft stories can only work in the 1920s, but a few stories could work in modern times if the director did their research on the story right, like Color out of Space, the Resurrected, or From Beyond, even though that story had been expanded past it's seven page limit.
oh yeah don’t get me wrong with this i was only talking about this story specifically, A lot of the stories can be modernised with very minimal effort, but this kind of story needed a lot of skill to do right which clearly wasn’t there.
@@deusdeaconReviews I agree. This really did feel cheap, rushed, and edited badly, and that's nothing against the budget, just with the direction and style choices, 'cause yeah, others *can* do a better job with a minimum budget if they do it right. Just look at Robert Rodriguez.
The Camera-Man on this crapload of a movie thought "well, my camera angles are shit... let's just make it worse by cranking up the contrast to 100%, blowing out the highlights and shadows... this will make it look 'artsy' "
A shame this movie turned out this way, I know Poe isn’t love craft but this kind of reminds me of a film that just came out based on the house of usher called the bloodhound which takes place in modern day but it still makes the story work., The bloodhound also has the advantage of being only an hour and 11 minutes as well it’s still keep the tone and ideas of the original story but it just happens to take place in modern day.
I think this story can work in modern day just needs some small rewrites. Such as the police do come over but they simply don’t find anything. Just tiny stuff like that.
remake of Call of Cthulhu next week.................im kinda looking forward to it. That particular film is one that im gonna have to overcome a personal bias and actually watch...................
@@deusdeaconReviews i guess 're-imagining' is a better way to put it, but a remote operation that awakens Cthulhu by accident and attempts to kill him at the end is similar enough that I consider it to be an attempt to "modernize" the story with cool concepts like changing the location of R'lyeh from a remote island to the deepest ocean floors.
Again gonna have to disagree, its a story with cthulhu in it thats it, no one is trying to summon cthulhu in the story all the accounts we see are reaction to him waking up naturally, yes cthulhu is “killed” at the end of both, but thats simply not enough, theres also no smaller creatures killing people in the story, the film doesnt have a depiction of ryleh at all as well it does a disservice to the film to label it as a (whatever the word being used) “recreation”.
@@deusdeaconReviews you're probably right. Ill admit that seeing Kristen Stewart as the lead actress made me write it off without seeing it. my understanding was just that it included Cthulhu attacking the deep sea mining platforms and an attempt (most likely unsuccessful attempt) to kill him at the end. I consider it to be themes from the original story, but maybe had too much production troubles to do it properly. either way though, i have no doubt in my mind that your review of it will be illuminating and entertaining like all your work has been!
I haven't watched this one yet and I'm already in a lake of boredom from the film. Yeah it sounds like they should've done more work on it and set it during the 1920's.
What do you like to be called? Regardless my dude, I feel as if with this budget, 1920s is not happening. The cars alone are a fortune this movie is not going to spend. Still a good point though.
I don't know what filter they used to give everything that ethereal sort of effect, but it looks like garbage. Which is fitting, from the sounds of things.
almost every shot in the house look like the house or backround it self is green screen to me. maybe it just the coloring or somthing but it look like bad assyalm cgi for a room
After watching almost the entirety of this series, I just realised the intro song you use for Lovecraft Month is a rendition of Kyrie Eleison. Its a little odd to see a song, I as a Catholic, sing almost every Sunday accompanied with Lovecraft imagery. Great review, though!
Well yes the song is that too, but it’s mainly being its used because its from my favourite lovecraftian video game, and its used there as a kinda of malevolent inversion (my interpretation) so I wanted to do that for these reviews
The Thing on the Doorstep is actually my favorite Lovecraft story. It executes the ''is the man insane or is the horror real?'' concept the best. Like wise it might be the only Lovecraft story that has some decent characters since most of them are really bland.
