Progenitors (inspiration and source material)

[jemmus]

Interesting! I need to watch it again. I only saw it once, and that was via a bootleg VHS that I bought on the street in NYC. I kept thinking, "Everybody says the graphics are great, but why are the visuals and audio quality so crappy?" It was bad enough that it was hard to follow the story. Then at the end a whole audience of Asian guys in a theater stood up and started heading for the exit. That explained the poor quality, some bootlegger videotaped the film in a cinema.

[Inferno]

Come on! It's on TNT once a week!

[ravenn4544]

The Matrix is a great movie. I love it. I remember watching it the first time and being blown away and immediately re-watching it. Let it be known, however, that the subsequent two movies can be ignored in my opinion . They have some interesting moments but nothing at all like the feel of the first one. I read that they are coming out with a new matrix movie. Let us hope that it isn't just a retread of the original one..................

Another movie that comes to mind where things aren't exactly as they seem(and perhaps more fitting with Inferno's ''Horror' campaign) is Pandorum.

[Inferno]

I agree with you on those Matrix sequels.

I'll have to check out Pandorum!

[Urson]

I loved the concept and the worldbuilding in The Matrix. The second movie had some interesting ideas- but it got kinda cluttered, IMHO. The third was a pretty obvious cash grab with more plot holes and lapses of logic than anything else.

[Inferno]

The Thing / Invasion of the Body Snatchers







As Stephen King shows us in Danse Macabre, if you want to understand a culture, look at their sci-fi horror movies.

In the seminal 1950s flicks, The Thing From Another World and Invasion of the Body Snatchers, whether the enemy kills us or absorbs us and replaces us, Americans' fear of a communist invasion is what's being exploited, be that a military invasion or a McCarthy-esque secret invasion of society.

By the late 1970s, fear of cancer outweighed fear of communism and so in both remakes, the body horror is dialed up to eleven. The Thing and Invasion of the Body Snatchers now exploit the fear of losing control over your own body...



... plus a healthy dose of post-Watergate paranoia. In each case, you can't identify the evil among us.

Alien, Coma, Altered States and The Fly with Jeff Goldblum are other great examples of sci-fi body horror from the same era.




And, like Alien, John Carpenter's The Thing might be one of the greatest Lovecraftian movies ever made.







Both are on my top ten sci-fi film list.

How about you?

[ChubbyPixie]

Best viewed with a slightly scrambled reception in your grandma's basement when you are 10 or 12 so you can't quite make out what exactly is happening and you never sleep again...

[Inferno]

True.

[ravenn4544]

Good choices. The thing was awesome.

I’ll add Prince of Darkness. Salems Lot was good and Christine.

Never cared for any of the Freddy of Jason movies.

There was a fee that scared me back in the day. Used to be on Creature Double Feature on local TV here. Baron Blood. And I think the original house on haunted hill

[Inferno]

Never heard of Baron Blood (except for the vampiric Captain America villain). Will have to check it out!

[ravenn4544]

Here's another great one.

https://archive.org/details/the-haunting-1963_202106

[ravenn4544]

Okay, last one (for now). The ending of this freaked me out as a kid on saturday morning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjfUGRIpdN8

[Inferno]

The Brain That Wouldn't Die. Great title!

[Inferno]

Lovecraft



Anyone who's been playing in my games has realized by now my unhealthy interest in Lovecraft.

In my horror game, Lovecraft is served straight up. In my Hyborian Age game, it's indirect, as Lovecraft was a penpal of Robert E. Howard's and clearly influenced some of his Conan stories.

In this game, given its tone and genre, I've focused on the sci-fi aspect of Lovecraft's work, which is considerable. In truth, Lovecraft's later work is sci-fi masquerading as horror.



With Pluto just discovered in 1930, Lovecraft writes about the unknowable reaches of a universe inhabited by star-faring aliens far more advanced than we. Their intelligence, motives, power and technology are as mysterious and advanced to us as ours is to an ant colony. Mankind's utter insignificance within an uncaring universe is the horror Lovecraft exploits.

The other aspect I've focused on, given the meta theme of this game, is Lovecraft's incredible influence on D&D.




For that, you can't beat Erol Otus. He was born to depict the fusion of Lovecraft and D&D.




Lovecraft's insanity manifested as unreasoned intolerance, the aspect we can happily forsake.

Any love for Lovecraft?

[Urson]

Lovecraft has always been a favorite of mine. My problem with him has always been his use of obscure words to describe things.
I keep reading stuff about how Guillermo Del Toro wants to/wanted to do a Mountains of Madness movie. I hope he can manage the funding for such a project.

[jemmus]

I've only read Mountains of Madness. It kind of freaked my chicken-hearted self out.

[Rex]

i have to be in the right mood to really enjoy Lovecraft but I have read everything that is commonly available anyways. He was an interesting individual.

[redwarrior]

Love Lovecraft! And it was interesting to actually read the original Conan stories and see just how big of of lovecraftian flavor they had. Much different from the Conan I grew up with from the media (movies & comics) and the later books.

[Urson]

Since HPL and Robert E. Howard were good friends, it was almost inevitable that their mythos would blend together, at least a bit.

[SilverBen]

Joining this conversation a little late but I want to jump in to respectfully disagree. Neither Lovecraft nor Howard leaves me feeling I have gained something redeemable from reading their work. I prefer JRR Tolkein or CS Lewis and I know I am going to grow from the reading, whereas Lovecraft disturbs me - and perhaps that is his intent but its Lovecraft's nihilism and central focus on insanity is just too dark for my taste.

Nevertheless, I love your game's tone and its not too dark for me - at least yet. I was quite anxious I'd have my dwarf controlled by a hive-minded intergalactic parasite and risk losing his personality to the game's enemy. Thanks for the chance to escape and looking forward to its denoument!