More fun with Lovecraft

March 28, 2005 1:57 PM

As long as we're on the subject of Lovecraft, did you know that his works had inspired a role-playing game, a cute plush toy, a breakfast cereal, and a number of blasphemously bad films (flash, sound)? The best, though, is the unspeakably evil musical.
posted by gurple (26 comments total)

Some of these links have been seen on MeFi before, but I was pretty thorough in trying to make sure they've never been in an FPP. If I missed one, I'll play the "my first post" card.
posted by gurple at 1:58 PM on March 28, 2005

I asked Cthulhu, "How much do you love me?"

"This much," he answered, and he stretched out his arms, and jRigF grJjes ndj%eDXs.

(From the now-defunct Plurp. The original externally-linked image there was of plush Cthulhu, arms spread wide.)
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 2:12 PM on March 28, 2005

I saw Dagon and thought it was mildly interesting and well done. This site has a more comprehensive list of films based on his stories:

http://www.cathuria.com/bcd/bclovecraft.htm
posted by JJ86 at 2:13 PM on March 28, 2005

Dagon is probably my favorite Lovecraft-based movie. In the Mouth of Madness is also really good, though it's not based on a particular story and I'm not sure it admits it's based on Lovecraft at all.

On the other end of the spectrum there's at least one Lovecraft tale-based movie in which a man sits in a chair and smokes a cigarette for 10 minutes while a painfully slow internal monologue and some terrible psychedelic effects go on. Lovecraft's desire never to have his stories made into movies makes more and more sense the more you see of those.
posted by gurple at 2:19 PM on March 28, 2005

One of the best roleplaying experiences I've ever had was a Call of Cthulhu/Delta Green game run by two friends. They'd take turns playing the role of gamemaster, so no one had complete knowledge of what was going on in the world. It added a certain sense of uncertainty and trepedation to the game.
posted by geekhorde at 2:28 PM on March 28, 2005

Let's not forget the psychedlic/early prog rock band from Chicago, circa 1967. H.P. Lovecraft & The Flock were two of the most intriguing bands of the era in Chicago. For fans of psychedelia, add Mountain Bus to that lineup.
posted by beelzbubba at 2:41 PM on March 28, 2005

Forget that RPG.
posted by Pretty_Generic at 2:42 PM on March 28, 2005

Lets not forget Vancouver BC local band The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets and their contribution to the continuing madness that is Cthulu fandom gone mad
posted by pixelgeek at 2:55 PM on March 28, 2005

what, no mention of a shoggoth on the roof? this appeared on the blue a few years ago...
posted by pxe2000 at 3:04 PM on March 28, 2005

oh, shit, didn't see that it was in the post. carry on!
posted by pxe2000 at 3:05 PM on March 28, 2005

"Hello Cthulhu" has been linked here an infinite number of times before, down through all the dark echoing caverns of eternity, but once more won't hurt. A great favorite of mine.
posted by jfuller at 3:29 PM on March 28, 2005

I've played my share of Call of Cthulhu, oh yes.

If you're a fan of Lovecraft, in all his eldritch goofiness, and you live in Seattle, make a point of checking out the yearly production of various Lovecraft-based and Lovecraft-inspired short plays by Open Circle Theater. I went last year and had a really good time. There are puppets.
posted by Hildago at 3:56 PM on March 28, 2005

Actually there's another roleplaying game, this one played in a very different method from Call of Cthulhu (which is probably my favorite RPG, and which with any luck I'll be playing later this week). If you can't track down a copy, it's basically a psychodrama game played entirely by in-character letters; you write the story in epistolary fashion. The game is quite a read, because it's written as if it were a series of in-game letters.

For the Lovecraft neophyte, I must recommend the recent Penguin editions, which are well annotated by Lovecraft scholar S.T. Joshi.
posted by graymouser at 3:58 PM on March 28, 2005

I actually already have Cthulu slippers. They're quite comfortable, but one of the arms flails wildly when i walk so I can only wear that one on the right foot (so it doesnt hit my other ankle). Unspeakably ironic!

Hildago, I fit that description, maybe i'll check that stuff out. Thanks for the tip.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 4:06 PM on March 28, 2005

Sweet! Thanks for the headsup, hidalgo. I do indeed fit that description. Looks like OCT last ran the Lovecraft plays in October; hopefully they'll do it again this year.
posted by gurple at 4:09 PM on March 28, 2005

Let's not forget the infamous Chick Tract: Who Will Be Eaten First?
posted by Eideteker at 4:37 PM on March 28, 2005

I had a lot more apprecation for Dagon when I listened to the director's commentary. I have a lot of respect for those guys.

How can no one have mentioned the Randolph Carter comic? That this was AWESOME.
posted by absalom at 5:06 PM on March 28, 2005

I'm been gaming off and on for 20 years now, and I can honestly say that Call of Cthulhu is my favorite RPG ever... particularly with the out-of-print Delta Green variant mentioned above by geekhorde.
posted by the_bone at 5:44 PM on March 28, 2005

I'm still partial to last fall's "shrill unholy madness" meme, what with its Krugmanomicon references, faculty notes from Miskatonic University and all that.
posted by Zonker at 5:47 PM on March 28, 2005

Alan Moore's comic mini-series The Courtyard (originally found as a short story in the anthology The Starry Wisdom) is quite good, IMO.

Tomrrow night there's a "Kthulhu Old Time Easter Pageant" at The Parlour in West Hollywood. I won't be there as I am (sadly) back in Florida, but a couple of friends are going.
posted by the_bone at 5:58 PM on March 28, 2005

Just happened upon this today: Family Circus re-captioned with Lovecraft prose.
posted by bitpart at 6:01 PM on March 28, 2005

I live not far from Providence, R.I., Lovecraft's haunted dwelling. The World Fantasy Convention held its first meeting in Providence decades ago, and mayor Buddy Cianci (now in jail) gave a speech about how there should be a special Lovecraft Day in Rhode Island. That never came to pass, but I understand there is a yearly Providence ritual of resident fans who visit his grave site.

I have read only a few of his works, The Colour Out of Space being a favorite. Deliciously creepy and lovingly descriptive.

Alas, Lovecraft spent too much of his talent writing to penpals and fans. Thousands of letters.
posted by ember at 6:30 PM on March 28, 2005

I can't believe no one has posted the Lovecraft search engine:

Cthuugle

posted by login at 7:46 PM on March 28, 2005

H.P. Lovecraft, the Troutfishified* condensed version :

"From the cyclopean city deep under the sea, dead but dreaming Cthulhu's shifts in his sleep, restlessly, and his eery dreaming ululations of impotent rage echo through the cthonic realm and the myriad dimensional reaches of time and space.

He summons his grotesque, miscegenated minions, howling and flopping, crawling and swimming from every quarter. He reaches across the Aeons, summoning the banished Old Ones from their exile in the far reaches of space and time. He patiently waits, gathering strength, waiting for the hour of his coming......

"Aieee........Shub-Niggurath.......NO!"

*soggy noises, as if from a sort of terrible liquefaction, then.......silence, and then a faint, foul odor. "


*I haven't cracked a Lovecraft book in a few decades. I was an early adopter.
posted by troutfishing at 8:24 PM on March 28, 2005

I adore playing CoC — and now that they have a modern-day Japan adventure? Ohhhhhhhhhh....nerdgasm!
posted by Katemonkey at 1:16 AM on March 29, 2005

And how can we forget the Cthulhu Christmas carols CD. I bought it a while back and it now makes every christmas something special.
posted by ciderwoman at 6:17 AM on March 29, 2005