Cigarette Burns = The King In Yellow
Did anyone else see this connection?
shareActually as a huge fan of Lovecraft and Chambers, i saw the 'resemblance' and could easily make only the slightest mental alterations in this episode to make it a literal 'what if the King in Yellow ever got filmed" it has a lot of the same feel, the sense that anyone who has any prolonged exposure to it is a path to certain madness, and a complete viewing a one way ticket to your ultimate worst fate.
i did also find it interesting how they gave a false explanation for the 'cigarette burns' but it fits the story in its own way as well (the marks on films was a time marker, warning the projectionist that it was coming up time to have the next reel on an alternate projector ready, and to help synch up the two projectors for a smooth transition).
on a vaguely related note, if you have a chance to catch the short film "the Yellow Sign" (2001) with Shawna Waldron, i think you will find it an interesting attempt to catch some of the feel of the King in Yellow, with the threat present but removed and hidden, though it does have a few elements i don't regard highly, i think overall it is a very successful addition to the King in Yellow's catalgue...as i consider this. 'Le Fin Absolue du Mond' is, if not the King in Yellow, his Lear's Jester.
Thanks for the recommendation. I will definitely look it up.
On a side note, I wonder why Lovecraft/Chambers have so few successful film adaptations. It can't be true that their work is somehow uniquely unsuited to cinema -- good directors just haven't taken enough notice.
That has been an issue discussed at great length, with varying levels of answers. There have been some stories that have captured a lot of the feel, but very few that get anything approximating a consistent reaction from the fans agreeing they've done well. The HPLHS adaptation of The Call of Cthulhu is one of the best adaptations, with a rather unique approach, and their version of The Whisperer in Darkness, to me, works to a large extent, though it makes a left turn towards the end that's hard to reconcile completely with the original.
I won't take up the time in this particular forum to ramble on about it, but i have my favorites in the adaptation field (and, given that Masters of Horror did do an adaptation of Dreams int he Witch House which has received mixed reviews on the board, i will shift slightly in that direction. On that one i will say it does better than i expected it would, though a fair cry from perfect. i did enjoy how the viewer has a resolution for the story, while the police who are effectively the only people still trying to find the truth only manage to figure out that they cannot reconcile the information they have with the truth they're willing to accept.
I think the best Lovecraft adaptation is John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness... which isn't a Lovecraft adaptation! (Although it's cleraly an homage to the Lovecraft lore)
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