What characters in fiction would make good Outer Gods or Great Old Ones?
[gargles]
[size=134]Cthulhu fhtagn… [/size]
Howdy - Jarronta,
Don’t know about fictional, but these guys - the Yanomamo from the Amazon would make great Cho-Chos…
click on “romans and chimps” it’s about halfway down that page… 
So - another Hp fan…? What’s your favourite story…?
Beyond the Wall of Sleep. It’s the only story I’ve read.
Well - his style is a little archaic sometimes and he did have a bit of a low opinion of non-whites… But he’s quite a good read none-the-less.
I suggest:
At the Mountains of Madness.
The Colour out of Space
The thing on the doorstep
Herbert West - Reanimator (later made into a film of dubious quality)
The Dream quest of the unknown Kadath
The Horror at red Hook
The Mound (with Zealia Bishop)
Those are my faves anyway…
That is not dead which can eternal lie…
And with strange eons, even death may die… 
See you around.
At the Mountains of Madness is probably my favorite. I would also reccommend
“The Whisperer in Darkness”
“The Call of Cthulhu”
“The Case of Charles Dexter Ward” (if you don’t mind a novella rather than a short story.
I’m a big fan.
Edit: Oh crap, “The Dunwich Horror” and “Shadow Over Innsmouth” are both extremely good, can’t believe I forgot them.
Second Edit: And that one where the professor get’s his mind thrown back in time… Out of the Aeons?
Out of the Aeons was a story by Hazel Heald - that HP edited extensively, it is a good one - mummies with the evil eye, and retinal imprints of long dead monstrosities which, of course cannot be described in the tongue of man…
Hi - Uccisore… Don’t know about you but I always found ‘Call of Cthulhu’ a bit of a disappointment after all the hype.
You think so? I always liked it. I think the important thing about it is that it’s typical of his stories in so many ways: You can get a handle on what the Mythos is like really well from that one story.
OK, Out of the Aeons isn’t the one I mean, then. I’m talking about the one with the ruins in Australia, the Great Race of Yith, and the professor who does a bodily exchange with one of them for a couple years, then has all the flashbacks afterwords.
Yeah - I thought that was the one you meant - erm it’s the shadow out of time
- I’m a bit of a rubber-monster-movie fan - I was hoping Cthulhu would have made more of an appearance in the story than ‘he’ did - he was only embedded in a story within the story… I felt a bit let down - I had been hoping for a bit of ravaging at least…!
I just wish someone would make a decent movie out of the mythos - it must be possible with all the cg movie technology around these days.
I mean:
Re-animator 1 and 2 - schlock/comedy horror. (best of bunch)
Cthulhu or call of Cthulhu - I can’t remember - awful b-movie crap.
Dagon - not too bad…
the unameable: Awful low-budget arse.
story-wise - the horror at oakdeene is good too - though by lumley.
I’m a Godzilla nut, if that’s what you mean.
Yeah, but that’s how all the stories are, isn’t it? I think Cthulhu gets more ‘screen time’ than most.
As far as movies based on the Mythos go, the best are probably Necronomicon and The Ressurected. From Beyond is ok as well. The Ressurected is a film adaption of the Case of Charles Dexter Ward, and it has a scene in the Curwen basement that I think is genius.
The Cthulhu one you are trying to think of is called Cthulhu Mansion, and it has nothing to do with the mythos, they just ripped off the name so far as I know. And it sucks.
I’m a horror-movie junkie, and I probably like stuff that some other’s might- I don’t have a lot of faith in CG, especially in the case of something that’s supposed to be scary. Animatronics and corn-syrup fake blood are the only way to go for me- John Carpenter’s The Thing is a masterpiece as far as I’m concerned.
Yeah the thing will be hard to beat - cg still has it’s limitations - the main one I think is giving the creatures a feeling of… weight/mass - seen Hellboy…? great graphics on the vaguely cthulhoid monstrosities - but I always though a good puff of air would blow them away… Still - I’m all for it though, and bring back 3D cinema - funny specs and things that jump out of the screen. Wire my seat, put sub-woofers under my arse, release scents into the theatre, and employ someone to tickle the back of my neck at relevant points - I WANT full immersion cinema…!!!
Horror Junkie - me too - worst horror movie ever…? Jack-Frost 2 - all about a giant snow-man on a hawaiian island. Not big, not clever, not funny.
Best…? [Combs memory] Alien is still up there. Best I’ve seen recently (that sent chill up my spine) - The Grudge - Chinese/Japanese ghost stories are pretty scary, now they’ve got over the bouncing-vampire karate flicks.
Cg is good for when a monster is moving around in such a way that you can't show it any other way. I completely agree with you about the weight thing, though. It works for action movies, but anything that's supposed to be remotely creepy or frightening, and cg 'takes me out of the mood' so to speak.
You don’t have to tell me about Jack Frost two. 
Killed with with a banana-tipped arrow, only to have him turn into a giant carrot and smash a navy ship in the closing scene. That flick was wretched, one called Uncle Sam came out about the same time that was just as crappy. I don’t know what I’d say was the worst ever… The Harvesters and The Dead Hate the Living come to mind.
Is the Grudge good? I was worried it was just recycling The Ring (which I liked), so I haven't bothered with it yet. My favorites among newer stuff is probably Saw right now, but back a decade ago or so there was a film called In the Mouth of Madness that's still probably my favorite.
That might be just because we’re ‘older’ (I don’t know how old you are) ie: we notice cg as new - and it takes us out of the movie, brains pop up and say: “ooh - look - cg effects” Maybe the kids who’ll take it for granted won’t be distracted. Or Cg will get so good it will be indistinguishable.
Damn - now I have to watch them too… 
Saw - fantastic !!! Did you predict the ‘dead guy’ was going to get up…? If you did your intellect must dwarf mine - I just about fell off the sofa.
Will try to find In the mouth of madness too. (new film or old film…?)
Grudge is good - only very superficially resembles the ring - the only ‘bad’ thing is it stars ‘Buffy’ though she doesn’t have a huge amount of time on screen.
Quite a lot of weird japanese films around - I saw one called ‘the audition’ which by turns bored the hell out of me and then just made me squirm - seriously nasty ending to that one. Another in the same vein was ‘old boy’ - meanering pyschotic story of revenge again with a totally bizzare denoument.
I’ll say something for japanese movies though, they have impact because they still hold the power of surprise - something that’s waning in hollywood horror. Something to do with different cultural traditions/themes I shouldn’t wonder.
examples - Decoys/13 Ghosts/IKWYDLSummer/any Stephen king movie.
exception - The mothman prophecies
That may very well be. I’m 28. To me, CG look all rubbery like a really good video game cut scene. But, I’m sure a younger person could point out the flaws in animatronics as well.
Nono, it’s really not necessary. Learn from my mistake.
Why yes, it was so obvious when you consider…no, actually. No I didn’t at all. Blew me away too. For some reason, it was even scarier watching it the second time around. Something about knowing what was coming, and knowing that the people sitting next to me didn’t have any idea make it super cool.
1992 or so. The lead actor is Sam Neil, who played the doctor that went nuts in Event Horizon. Come to think of it, if you like one, you’ll like the other.
I dunno about Japanese horror. I didn’t like Ringu as much as the American version. As far as foreign horror flicks are concerned, give me a good old Fulci zombie flick.
Yeah, big-budget horror movies almost always fail. Everyone is trying to be cool and sexy, folks are saying 'darkly humorous' things that let all the air out of the scariest moments, and worst of all, ever sense Scream, most movies try to be 'tongue-in-cheek'. The worst thing you can do in a scary movie is constantly remind the audience that they are watching a movie. The actors have to be transparent- ever notice that most of the best horror flicks (even the true classics) star people you've never heard of, or at least, had never heard of at that point? That's one thing foreign horror films have going for them- they don't feel like they are trying so hard to impress.
Britain has turned out a couple good ones lately. Other than the obvious 28 Days later, there's a good flick called Dog Soldiers.
Great comment - a whole in one.
- Are there any books/characters you’d like to see a film made of…?
I’d make a pilgrimage to Hollywood and kiss oscar’s bottom if someone made a really good ‘Elric of Melnibone’ tryptych…
Don’t know if you’re a comic-head (I used to be in the days of Sandman/DarkKnight/Electra/Swampthing/HellBound - about 15 years ago)
Recently:
Electra - really Stank…
Spiderman - liked the Dr. Octopus one mostly.
Daredevil - Stank…
Constantine: Not bad, but dross compared to the comics.
The Batman films - could’ve been better (just kill the boy wonder now…!)
What did you think of SinCity (Frank Miller et al) if you saw it…? - didn’t read the comic, but thought the film was stylish, if a bit disjointed and over-violent (I find I talk more and more like my Dad these days - latent gene-set triggered by early senility perhaps…?)
I seem to watch a lot of films… I blame the twin miricles of a giant TV and cut-price pirate DVDs…
Movies I’d like to see made… I’d really like to see either the Call of Cthulhu or At the Mountains of Madness as a movie. Both of them require a little bigger budget to do them justice. Other than that, I don’t read a lot of fiction…I’d like to see a Resident Evil movie that didn’t suck. Does that count?
Comic books: I don’t read any more, but I did for a while back in the day. I think the new Batman will be good, otherwise I agree with your assessment of the others. I didn’t see Constantine, I could just tell by looking at it that it wouldn’t be my ‘thing’. (Just so you know, I didn’t see Hellboy or Van Helsing for the exact same reason. I’m really tired of the “Starring: Special Effects, Co-Starring: Human Beings” approach.) I’d like to see both Iron Man and Ghost Rider movies, especially Ghost Rider.
I think SinCity filled it's niche very well. I don't mind excessive violence in this case, because it didn't [i]seem[/i] excessive based on the way the film was set up to begin with, if that makes sense. In my opinion, the sexuality was a little over-done though, in the sense that some of the scenes that were supposed to be really sexy lost some impact because of the way T&A had already been flashed around left and right.