Help Finding a Lovecraft Story

[vaccine]

Hey guys, first post on the site.

My friends birthday is coming up and I wanted to introduce him to Lovecraft.

Unfortunately the story I wanted to give him I've had trouble locating.

The problem is I can't remember the name of the story and though I've been flicking through a few of my books can't seem to find it.

I was hoping if I described what I remembered here someone might know of what I was reffering too.

What I remember:

- A scene where the narrator of the story is in a room with gaping holes in the floor in an underground lab. The holes contain nameless horrors which cannot get out. The narrator drops his torch down one and its eaten by the creature below and he has to feel his way out of the room for fear of falling down one of these holes.

- The villain of the story can either possess people or control them, or maybe shapeshift to their appearance.

- I think some sort of creature escapes into from the lab/house and is attacked by a mob from the village.

- The underground tunnels/lab have a back entrance onto a river which I seem to remember used to be a pirates cave and maybe used to dump bodies/failed experiments.


This was my faveourite LC story but its been so long since I've read anything by him I've forgotten what it was called. My friend said he'd be intrested in reading something by him so I really want that to be his first story to get him hooked on it.

Does anyone have any clue what that story is?

Any and all help is appreciated.

Dave

 

[j d worthington]

Wow! I'm surprised this hasn't had a response yet... and also can't figure out how I missed this question earlier this week. Well....

The problem is I can't remember the name of the story and though I've been flicking through a few of my books can't seem to find it.

I was hoping if I described what I remembered here someone might know of what I was reffering too.

What I remember:

- A scene where the narrator of the story is in a room with gaping holes in the floor in an underground lab. The holes contain nameless horrors which cannot get out. The narrator drops his torch down one and its eaten by the creature below and he has to feel his way out of the room for fear of falling down one of these holes.

- The villain of the story can either possess people or control them, or maybe shapeshift to their appearance.

- I think some sort of creature escapes into from the lab/house and is attacked by a mob from the village.

- The underground tunnels/lab have a back entrance onto a river which I seem to remember used to be a pirates cave and maybe used to dump bodies/failed experiments.

The first thing you describe fits very well with Dr. Willett's expedition into the catacombs belonging to Joseph Curwen in The Case of Charles Dexter Ward; the second almost fits (one of the "experiments" does escape, but isn't attacked by a mob, but rather is found dead later; there is a back entrance on the river, but not a pirate's cave and not used to dump bodies, etc., though following a heavy rain, some of the ... evidence? ... is washed out of the banks near the Curwen site. So I'm pretty sure we're talking about Ward here, which is available in Penguin's The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories, by Lovecraft.

Hope this reaches you in time for the birthday celebration....

 

[ravenus]

I second J.D's inference. Definitely Sounds like The Case of CDW.

 

[j d worthington]

I'm wondering, on reflection, if some of the above description might not come from the film version of CDW, The Resurrected (1992), wherein one of Curwen's "experiments" is found floating in the river by a crowd and hauled out....

Actually, despite some flaws, that film is one of the better adaptations of HPL in some ways... though it modernizes a lot of things, and introduces a detective and a love interest, it nevertheless does rather well with atmosphere and some very effective scenes, not to mention a rather grisly sense of humor and some good performances by some of the principals....

I hear, though, that Dan O'Bannon was not pleased with the final cut and wants a "director's cut" of it, restoring much more Lovecraftian material (this would also include a letterbox format, as it is currently only available in full-screen); it would be very nice to see what he had in mind... just as it will be if Stuart Gordon is ever able to release his preferred cut of From Beyond, which I understand had quite a bit cut out of it at the censors' and studios' demand....

 

[ravenus]

@JD:
There is a resurrected cut of From Beyond. The added footage is mostly a bit more of gore shots. More importantly, the new cut is in the proper widescreen aspect ratio, and looking far more cleaned-up and brighter than the crappy FS DVD's that have been around. But...AFAIK so far the new cut has only been shown on the Showtime pay cable channel and is NOT currently out on DVD.

You can find it on the interweb, if you want to watch it

 

[j d worthington]

Ravenus: Thanks for the information. What I was talking about was based on an interview with Gordon, who had been working on putting together the cut he'd originally intended, but there was a fairly vital piece for which no footage seemed to exist any longer... shortly after that interview, I'd heard they'd finally found those elements, and he was overjoyed. The "director's cut" was supposed to be released either 2006 or 2007 on DVD (at least, that was the word at that time), but I've heard nothing more about it since. I know that Gordon wasn't particularly happy about the theatrical cut, and I can see why. Unlike Re-animator, From Beyond came off as something of a mean-spirited film, a soulless film, if you will; technically often quite brilliant, but without a center; and, from what I've picked up, that was because of the cuts he was forced to make at the time... things that he would no longer have had to remove. So I'd be very interested in seeing his preferred cut, as I've been quite impressed with his various other Lovecraftian forays (with the exception of Castle Freak, which is often linked to "The Outsider", though I'd say that's debatable).

Even Dagon, which didn't catch me first time out, has grown on me to an enormous degree simply because, like the original story, it has a lot of subtle layers that, when watching it again, had pulled me back into watching it again, but which I hadn't picked up on until a second viewing... things that show it is actually a very well considered and carefully crafted film with (appropriately, considering the subject matter) an awful lot beneath the surface.... something I'm hoping is the case with the preferred cut of From Beyond. Nonetheless, I appreciate the information, and will keep an eye out for that one just to compare....

 

[Lobolover]

Hmm,the Dagon movie,never saw it,only excerpts,but god,the old man can act!