LOVECRAFT and the cinema : The Lair of Madness

Nnew read more about Howard Phillips Lovecraft and the cinema, with a large piece that is waiting for us today. If until then we had dealt only with the adaptations claiming as inspired by a work precisely of the author, we will be tackling something quite different, with the critique of The Lair of Madness, the monstrous John Carpenter. Famous for The Night of Masks, or The Thing, often cited as the monuments of the genre horror, director u.s. owes a lot to the master of the fantastic, and it pushes the reference to his climax in this film is incredible. So it seems to me legitimate to discuss this feature in our folder, as it emphasizes the full understanding and full of a filmmaker vis-à-vis an author deemed inadaptable. The Lair of the Insanity is the result of a meeting, shining ; the fruit of an alliance between the master of fantasy literature and one of the greatest director of horror films that the cinema has ever known.

John Carpenter had the gold between the hands when it is launched in the achievement of The Lair of Madness. Enjoying a recognition that is certain, which allows him to engage in more personal projects, it embodies this advantage by a film major, and an intelligence mad at all the points of view. We had previously seen, and the films adapted from the new Lovecraft does often touch on the scope of the writings, voluntarily sometimes, it is the case of Re-Animator in particular. But here, the filmmaker makes a choice absolutely consistent ; no mention of Lovecraft, not of adaptation of a particular text, no citations of places or objects of worship of the author as Arkham or the Necronomicon. What interests John Carpenter, this is the essence of what it is to Lovecraft. This is what he has between his words. It is the unspeakable terrifying, shifted, who just upset a reality by introducing a madness progressive. The director managed the tour de force of scene-setting in that which cannot be filmed. There is in each of its plans, in every look and every situation, the feeling that finally we capture the indescribable that is used to suggest the author also frequently. It is difficult to express with mere words the way that John Carpenter manages to snap up the spectator into a universe of unhealthy mixed with the reality and the unspeakable, just can we say that the sublime realization of the master of horror plays, without doubt, a huge part. The world is in full destruction, the logic in a full deconstruction, the camera becomes a window into a nightmarish reality far exceeding any idea of rationalization. In the village of Hobb”s End, John Trent is seen mingled with the inexplicable, and as in the majority of the new of Lovecraft, his encounter with occult forces will push it to a conscious madness, he saw what the Men should never see. It is camped by a Sam Neill impressive and led to perfection, navigating between multiple dimensions while playing in a rather vague manner as to lose the viewer as it loses the character. A characterization of strong well thought out and transcribed to the screen ; thus, one clings to the hero without losing sight of the fact that it is not an excuse for that John Carpenter takes us to his village ghost is absolutely terrifying, and filmed with the hand of a master.



The few small awkwardness in the staging of several of his films, Halloween included, disappear here entirely, and the filmmaker delivers a cutting and incredibly successful, managing to make it feel a constant threat in some plans. Unlike other adaptations, there is no specially game on the off-field, on assembly, to avoid showing this that Lovecraft himself does not describe. The achievements of John Carpenter – they have a lot of qualities, including that of fully assuming their lack of subtlety ; everything, or nearly everything, is shown explicitly to the viewer. However, in contrast to the legitimate fears that this could cause, this does not affect absolutely not the atmosphere of the work. On the contrary, it is reinforced by the hard-line position of a stage director and multiplying the situations are twisted, and unhealthy, and playing a lot on the length of its plans to give birth to what Lovecraft called the unspeakable. A tour-de-force also linked to a scenario of high-fly without any dead time, where this idea of train-ghost. The spectator is caught up by force and brutal way in this universe which is not let go during the 90 minutes of the film – and which it is difficult not to rethink after viewing. It is also wrapped in a sound atmosphere is absolutely perfect, much more subtle than the staging, but also successful. Special Mention to the music and to their use, even if we would not have expected less given the importance that the producer gives to each film. But what actually marks, they are her ideas. The imagination of John Carpenter and screenwriter Michael De Luca is all the more impressive that, without relying on precise account of the author’s fantastic, they manage to replicate some of the twists, turns, and a psychology that does would point to not among its biggest new. Each medium, one chooses the literature, the other in the cinema. Still, each plan’s film director produces the same effect that every word of the writer, and this legitimise the idea a bit crazy to adapt it without the quote. The way the stage director introduces in a few plans, what many fail to touch in two hours is phenomenal, and ends to make The Lair of Madness one of the greatest fantasy films ever made.

”Lovecraft, it is an environment that distils through the 3,000 pages of his work, and John Carpenter has had the genius to understand and transcribe to the screen. Rare are the artists who can boast about.”

The Lair of madness is a perfect example of what should be an adaptation ; thus successfully pull of the writings which seemed to be impossible to represent notes of the prodigy. By an artistic direction is fantastic, John Carpenter signs his best film, and invades progressively the insanity of formidable in the daily life of a character absolutely Lovecraftien. Because that’s what Lovecraft : a vibe that is distilled through the 3,000 pages of his work, and this, the filmmaker has had the genius to understand and achieve to transcribe to the screen. Rare are the artists, all visual art confused, which can make that claim. The film does not forget to be a masterpiece independent, on the edge of the neophytes of the american author as his most fervent admirer. In front of so many ideas and scenario of realization, difficult indeed not to bow down. I’ll see you in the next part of the file, for a new critique of a film from Stuart Gordon, otherwise more serious than his Re-Animator, and entitled Dagon ! In the meantime, feel free to read the entirety of the first part, or the reviews of the various films studied in this folder :

– LOVECRAFT – author presentation

– LOVECRAFT and the cinema : author is he, in essence, inadaptable ?

– LOVECRAFT and the cinema : The Curse Of Arkham

– LOVECRAFT and the cinema : Re-Animator

– LOVECRAFT and the cinema : The lair of madness