HpLovecraft Tagged Articles at Cinematical

It's understandable if you don't get a shiver down your spine when you hear the name Danvers unless you're a fan of abandoned insane asylums, horror movies, or H.P. Lovecraft. But if you've caught the criminally underseen Session 9, which was written and directed by Brad Anderson, you'll know an apartment at the newly renovated Avalon Advantage in Danvers is not the hottest property investment on the market.

Session 9 is one of the scariest movies I've ever seen, and it boasts a fine performance from David Caruso as well, with nary a pair of sunglasses in sight. And, most pantswettingly, it was actually filmed on location in the Danvers State Hospital for the Criminally Insane in Danvers, MA. (Anderson also wrote and directed the equally excellent and underseen Transsiberian.)

As per the wonderful website Atlas Obscura, "While it was built with a surprisingly caring and modern attitude toward the mentally ill, by the 1930's the site was crowded, falling into disrepair, and was using shock therapies and lobotomies on a regular basis. The addition of criminals, alcoholics, and the mentally retarded to the overcrowded hospital made it very difficult for the hospital to help cure any of its mental patients. The hospital was shut down in 1992."

Read more at Horror Squad

Readers of this blog are well aware that Mr. Guillermo Del Toro (aka Mr. Awesome Genre Film) is about to spend the next several years helming a pair of Hobbit movies for producer Peter Jackson ... who is certainly no slouch in the action / horror / fantasy department. And we all know that Del Toro has long yearned to do an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness -- which he probably will be doing at Universal some time in the future.

Ah, but there are two words you'll hear a lot regarding Guillermo Del Toro: "Universal" and "future." More specifically, the filmmaker and the studio look to be teaming up for the next two decades! According to one doozy of a Variety article, Uni and Guille will be teaming up for (get this) new versions of Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, and Slaughterhouse-Five*, as well as an adaptation of Dan Simmons' upcoming "alternate reality Charles Dickens" novel Drood! Oh, and he'll also be producing Hater with Mark Steven Johnson and Crimson Peak with Matthew Robbins!

This guy's like the Derek Jeter of genre directors! And frankly, it couldn't happen to a cooler moviemaker. I'll include a few choice quotes after the jump, but you should probably just peruse the whole article for yourself. It actually makes you want to look PAST The Hobbit so you can get a peek at (dear lord) Guillermo Del Toro's Frankenstein. I get goose bumps just thinking about it.

(* Gotta feel bad for Frank Darabont. He really wants to make this movie.)

Guillermo del Toro is a busy man. Monika just told you that he is directing an adaptation of 60's spy television show The Champions. He produced The Orphanage, which is due December 28th and has been getting great reviews, including one from our own Scott Weinberg. (Check out the poster here, the trailer here, and James' interview with the director here.) He has penned a supposed-to-be-awesome adaptation of the H.P. Lovecraft novella At the Mountains of Madness. He wants to do another adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. He's got Hellboy II: The Golden Army coming out this summer, and a ghost story with ties to the Spanish Civil War called 3993 in the works.

You'd think the dude would want to take a little break! But no! Joblo is reporting that the Pan's Labyrinth director has signed on to direct a new project called Haters, based on David Moody's novel -- Hater. The plot synopsis sounds mighty sweet. Here's some snippets -- "Society is rocked by a sudden increase in the number of violent assaults on individuals. Christened "Haters" by the media, the attackers strike without warning. Their attacks are brutal, remorseless, and extreme...In seconds rational, controlled people become vicious killers...You can no longer trust anyone, no matter how well you think you know them...By the end of today you could be a killer. By the end of today you could be dead." Dead! Kind of sounds like a zombie movie without zombies, doesn't it? Sounds like something del Toro could smash out of the park. It's currently sold out at Amazon -- has anyone read Hater?

Just last month, our own Matt Bradshaw brought us the possibility that Guillermo del Toro, the man responsible for Hellboy and Pan's Labyrinth, would be bringing an H. P. Lovecraft novella to film -- At the Mountains of Madness. It's a creepy story about explorers who find the remnants of a pre-human society of aliens in the icy cold landscape of Anarctica. As Matt reported, del Toro has been working on an adaptation for years, and now it seems like his work will reap large rewards, if Latino Review has any say about it.

According to the website, they got their hands on a version of del Toro's script for Mountains, and it has inspired one hell of a fanboy response from El Mayimbe. According to the reviewer, who has read the story: "Folks, off the bat, Guillermo and his writing partner f**king nailed it!" He says it's full of action, adventure, sci-fi and monsters -- which sounds Lovecraftian so far. Along with the article's glowing praise is a long run-through of the first act, complete with more super-excited exclamations. Myself, I've never read any of Lovecraft's work, but I can't help but start to feel the tingle of anticipation in the face of such excitement, especially when it comes from the hands of del Toro.

[via Arrow in the Head/JoBlo]