Search - The H.P. Lovecraft Collection, Vol. 4: Pickman's Model on DVD

I really wanted to like this but.....

William E. Warner | Norfolk, Virginia USA | 06/11/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This series of Pickman's model version is truly appalling. It is a perfect example of film makers not reading or understanding the literary work they are trying to adapt.

In the original Pickman's Model the reader is presented with the vivid and disturbing paintings. they are vividly described. The twist is when the narrator finds that the visions of horror in Pickman's painting are real and the are based on a photograph from life.

In the feature version from Chile, we find a newspaper man investigating the death of his friend only to find that there are creatures that live in the sewers and come out to kill those who find out about them. Pickman is an artist that knows the truth and runs off to a remote island, which seems to have a cellar full of the monsters. Its kind of Pickman's model meet the lurking fear. You never see the paintings or the photograph.

The second version is Italian. It has Pickman as the weird guy who lures women to photograph while the monster kills them. The only painting we see is Goyas "Saturn Devouring One of His Children"(which seems to be used in all version)and it is attributed to Pickman. We do see the Photograph at the end but, we didn't see any of the painting with the monster in it there is no real impact.

The third version is from Austin Texas is the most faithful of the three, but the monsters look like guys with wolf heads and they add some silly power to the main character that he can experience the picture by touching it. The worst part of this is that you don't ever see the picture at the end.

The last two features are a short film base on an unfinished tale called between he stars which makes no sense(and the author tells you this)and a badly done animated version of "In the Vault" that completely misses the point of the original story.

I give this three stars for the effort. But I highly recommend that you go back and read the original Lovecraft stories which are much better.
I hope this sub-par attempt will inspire future film makers to do it right. Don't just take the tile and make up some junk."

Lovecraft

M. Crow | Beaverton, Or USA | 12/23/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"if you are familar with Lovecraft, than you know of the pickman model. Several tales of an different approach are presented here in chilling horror settings. Enjoy!"