Movies that have that Ravenloft feel

[The Giamarga]

Just spotted this...

Snow White And The Huntsman 2012

Got a real 'Tepesti' feel I think?

That looks amazing!

[The Giamarga]

I'll second Vidocq. Very much Ravenloft feel.

Another great movie albeit not that Ravenlofty is Cyrano de Bergerac with a rhyming fencing Gerard Depardieu...

Dave Gross blogged about Dark Fantasy in Kung Fu movies here and also has a few movie reviews up in his blog (look in may and later). One of them Detective Dee and the Mystery of Phantom Flame sounds decidedly Ravenloftian.

Let's hear some more asian movies with a RL feel...

[The Giamarga]

City of Lost Children is a great surreal movie by the director of "Amelie" and "Delicatessen" with a very Ravenloft adaptale storyline.

Freaks (1932) also needs to be listed here.

[Wiccy of the Fraternity]

Just spotted this...



Got a real 'Tepesti' feel I think?

It does look pretty interesting, but i have my reservations about it. Something about it just sends up warning flags in my head.

Grave Encounters has some suitable material for people wanting to set things inside places like The House of Lament and so forth plus some parts are nice and spooky, if not scary.

[MichaelTumey]

Well I love Ghost movies and haven't seen any/many on this thread so far.

The Haunting - although the recent version with Liam Neeson is OK, the original 1959 version is much better and scarier, of course it's also worth the read as Terry Jackson's Haunting of Hill House, the inspiration for both movies. The 1959 version is one of my favorite ghost movies of all time.

And since I am still developing Kaidan, there are many Japanese movies worth looking at. One I highly recommend is Noroi - the Curse, problem is it is entirely in Japanese with English subtitles. Still any good movie with subtitles, after awhile, you don't notice you're reading and after the movie is over you remember it as if you just watched a movie. Noroi is a supernatural investigation movie about a curse affecting many, and the investigating journalist tracking this curse eventually finds the source, but it ends up with his disappearance and the death of his wife. It's very cool and scary, but as said in Japanese.

[High Priest Mikhal]

And since I am still developing Kaidan, there are many Japanese movies worth looking at. One I highly recommend is Noroi - the Curse, problem is it is entirely in Japanese with English subtitles. Still any good movie with subtitles, after awhile, you don't notice you're reading and after the movie is over you remember it as if you just watched a movie. Noroi is a supernatural investigation movie about a curse affecting many, and the investigating journalist tracking this curse eventually finds the source, but it ends up with his disappearance and the death of his wife. It's very cool and scary, but as said in Japanese.

Let's just hope they don't make an "Americanized" version. The Ringu was excellent both as a movie and an example of how different Japanese (indeed, most Asian) horror is to American: you can't destroy the supernatural, only trick, divert, or contain it. The American version lost some of its edge in cultural translation.

[Number Six]

Nightmare Castle. Old black and white Italian gothic horror at its finest.

[High Priest Mikhal]

Grave Encounters - Follows the Blair Witch Project style of being seen from the camcorders of the characters, but is truly creepy and a fine example of a phantasmagorum in action. It's hard to tell if the characters are going insane or if they really are trapped in a transdimensional space; it is set in an asylum and one of them does wind up acting like a patient, but then the things they see end up on digital recordings. Mind games using figments instead of phantasms?

[Algaris]

Snow White: A Tale of Terror
The Name of The Rose
Rose Red

[High Priest Mikhal]

Rose Red

Stephen King at his best. The novel was better, but the mini-series did it justice.

[Rucht Lilavivat]

Surprised no one here has mentioned The Woman in Black, which came out recently. It is very, very Ravenloft in tone and theme.

You have a tortured town ruled by a Darklord. There's plenty of mist and fog in the movie and a number of scenes which show the main character getting lost in the fog. The movie itself is decent. The problem with it being the problem most haunted house movies have - there is no reason the main character wouldn't just leave the bad situation. If you can get past that aspect of the movie, it's decent.

Also, while this is not a movie - the series Once Upon a Time really strikes me as very Ravenloft in theme. The whole series takes place in a town where none of the people can leave. We haven't found out what happens when you try to leave, but apparently something bad. Just like in Darkon, most of the people in town have false memories. Also, the town as a Darklord - a very Ivana Boritsi-like Evil Queen.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

I know I'm a bit behind, but I just watched Hellboy II: The Golden Army. Overall, not as good as the first, which I love, and a big lull in the middle, but with some good stuff sprinkled throughout. HOWEVER, the fey stuff felt straight from the Shadow Rift. If you want to see Loht in the flesh, look no further than Prince Nuada.

[Zilfer]

I know I'm a bit behind, but I just watched Hellboy II: The Golden Army. Overall, not as good as the first, which I love, and a big lull in the middle, but with some good stuff sprinkled throughout. HOWEVER, the fey stuff felt straight from the Shadow Rift. If you want to see Loht in the flesh, look no further than Prince Nuada.

I like his fight scene's the most in that movie. The transforming spear is nice as well. Though his connection with his sister would be an interesting dilema for a group if you introduced the sister NPC waaaay earlier. Or should I say the "linked" PC. Should an Innocent have to die for the sins of the wicked? And what if they were a "True Innocent?"



oh the Dark Powers are so cruel.

Innocent: But alas all things must come to an End my friends. Even stories such as this.

[High Priest Mikhal]

Frozen - A pretty cheesy movie with a plot like water and so-so acting, but a good place to mine for ideas for Gothic Earth. Especially since Antarctic expeditions started in the late-Nineteenth Century when whale oil was still used for lamps before kerosene, and later electric lights, overtook it. Who knows what dark things lurk unseen under the snow and ice?

House of Bones - I know I've discussed this before, but it really is the best example of how a living wall could be made into an entire estate. Grounds and all. Or worse still, a phantasmagorum and a living wall turned living estate in one. Especially one that needs an "owner" to help it feed by luring in unknowing victims.

[Grigg_Deadbreaker]

Ginger Snaps Back, the third film of the trilogy, is a period piece set in the old Canadian wilderness, and has an excellent feel for Verberek.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is a great inspiration for Scaena.

While a terrible film, the zombie flick Oasis of the Dead screamed sinkhole of evil to me.

Event Horizon, Deathship, and Ghostship are all good 'haunted vessel' films.

Curse of the Golden Lotus made me think of a darklord cursed to watch his family tear itself apart even as his kingdom thrives.

Ninth Gate, Near Dark, Skinwalkers, They, and 1408 are all honorable mentions.

And while not really Ravenloft appropriate, The Last Lovecraft is a fun comedy for anybody who loves the Cthulu mythos.