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VeryInnocuousPerson t1_j7rhfm5 wrote

Reply to comment by RabbitSlayre in Shoggoth by Departedart

Unknowable alien monstrosities do not make compelling villains for most audiences. There are tons of popular entertainment media universes with Lovecraftian characters/themes (Marvel comics and movies, Warhammer, Elder Scrolls) but a lot of those are more action oriented than horror oriented.

It’s just hard create a relatable central conflict when the antagonist is a slumbering idiot god and your protag has literally no chance of ever beating them.

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RabbitSlayre t1_j7rks5v wrote

Yeah that's fair I guess. What is the power dynamic of an entity that makes anyone that witnesses it completely insane? Not Much, I suppose.

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volchonokilli t1_j7tgr3z wrote

Lovecraft has other various stories which are pretty different from that. He even wrote sci-fi story with interesting take on future for the times

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VeryInnocuousPerson t1_j7uwnl7 wrote

I’ve read most of lovecraft’s stuff. He’s one of the most influential horror writers of all time. I’m certainly not putting him down.

It’s just that his stories are hard to adapt because they are more focused on concepts than narratives or characters. And that issue persists even in Lovecraftian stuff that isn’t by him, mainly because it’s hard to have a relatable human drama set in the shadow of Cthulhu. The themes of alienation and human inconsequentialness kind of just squash all the other stuff.

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volchonokilli t1_j7uzsxv wrote

How about The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath? I've read it recently, and it seemed to be pretty focused around the character. Although original story is a bit hard to follow at times leaving much of descriptions up to imagination, with adaption it could really fit well into a movie in my opinion

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VeryInnocuousPerson t1_j7v43l0 wrote

Yeah I’ll admit I had to look up the plot to that one because it’s been a decade or so since I read it. That’s probably a better candidate for adaption than most. Dunwich Horror is another one that has a more conventional plot.

The new Del Toro Netflix horror anthology adapts a couple Lovecraft stories, Pickman’s Model and Witch House. They had to add a lot of filler to get to the ~60 min run time. The anthology is decent but those episodes are sort of muddled in my opinion.

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volchonokilli t1_j7wjntc wrote

Feels so weird that they had to add filler to get more screen time, as when reading Witch House it felt like a lot of time has passed in my imagination :D

But remembering the story, it actually totally makes sense that when adapting it as a movie, it would be hard to get much to show for longer time. Didn't think before that adapting something from text to movie could cause such quirks! New perspective to see things from

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