MovieChat Forums > Necronomicon (1994) Discussion > Jeffery Combs is NO H.P. Lovecraft

Jeffery Combs is NO H.P. Lovecraft

posted 19 years ago by junkySTL
23 replies | jump to latest

I know the Yuzna/Stuar Gordon team love using him, and I LOVE him as an actor and he excelled in movies like RE-ANIMATOR and FAUST: LOVE OF THE DAMNED and even gave his BEST performance in a Peter Jackson movie (THE FRIGHTENERS), but Combs looks NOTHING like Lovecraft and should not have been cast as such in this flick.
Bad casting, all the way.
Yuzna should have taken an example from David Cronenberg- who did the best Holly-actor-cast-as-a-iconic-author job with Peter Weller playing W.S. Burroughs in NAKED LUNCH... flawless!

[–] t-a-walker 19 years ago

1) Most people have no idea what H.P. Lovecraft looks like anyway.

2) Acting is more about capturing the person's essence than looking like them. In this regard, I think that Jeffery Combs was true to the stereotypical image of the pulp authors such as H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard.

[–] 19 years ago

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[–] AlexWard 19 years ago

Combs kicks ass! Whether mad scientist, author, Vorta or Andorian, he's just the man! And the first part was cool because we got to see a Deep One.

Oderint Dum Metuant

[–] 19 years ago

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[–] ablebravo 19 years ago

"Any technology sufficiently advanced would be indistinguishable from Magic."

First of all... this is a most excellant thread everyone. I love the insightful views and the obvious love for both Lovecraft and Jeff Combs which I share. Combs is a very unusual actor. I've seen him in a couple movies (which I honestly can't recall the names of because they basically sucked) where I didn't like Combs' character. I felt he was sadly miscast in a role' which didn't suit him. BUT... as Lovecraft, or Herbert West, a Ferengi, Vorta, Andorian, or the astonishingly twisted FBI man in The Frighteners, Combs is a fabulous actor who never fails to deliver an utterly real performance.

It's funny. About 2 years ago there was one thread and 2 posts on this film. I started a new thread with two very long posts and suddenly the pipe blew open and there are now folks coming out of the woodwork from all around the world talking about this film.

[–] 19 years ago

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[–] evershame 18 years ago

Well ... I can´t deny how disappointed I am after watching this movie, and yet I find Combs´s countenance pretty close to Lovecraft´s, as far as pictures of him can show. Anyway, this movie is awful.

[–] tyranasazi-1 18 years ago

I have to disagree. I saw Necronomicon back in 1995 and I had absolutely no idea who Combs was back then. I however was impressed how they nailed the casting of HPL. This guy looked to me exact Lovecraft and I was even wondering if he was a real actor or some lookalike.

[–] hverring 18 years ago

I didn't really like this movie, though parts of it were alright.

Combs as Lovecraft is fun in this movie, because it's not about depicting Lovecraft as he really was. He would never had run around like that - his health being as it was, and his frame of mind. But it was funny in the movie.

The stories aren't really lovecratian either, but if they aren't supposed to be, what ever... Blood and gore surely isn't lovecraftian at all. Neither is partly naked women. Look to Robert E. for gore and Karl E. Wagner for naked women (and ofcourse several others :) ).

Still, being a Lovecraft afficionado(sp?), I've seen Necronomicon a couple of times. And I really like Combs - he's so wonderfully weird.

[–] tlynch2-1 17 years ago

wierd it seems hpl fans get the same out of something newhere

combs didnt look that much like lovecraft but at a glance its quite close
the acting made up for the not so good resemblence though

btw hverring re howard has his share of nake chicks in his stories too

when are they ever going to make a conan movie based on conan stories
or a proper lovecraft film (fair enough dagon was ok even though it was the shadow over insmouth but fair enough they worshiped dagon and i aint seen dreams in the witch house)

[–] ablebravo 17 years ago

Dreams in the Witch House was pretty damn good, but because it was a fairly low-budget production (as it turns out all the masters of horror products are), the filmmakers saw it fit to completely eliminate the other dimention/dream sequences from the storyline, as well as modernize it. Gilman is doing his homework on a laptop...

I do like Ezra Goddin, though. He bears a striking resemblence to a young Jeff Combs.

"Any technology sufficiently advanced would be indistinguishable from Magic."

[–] tlynch2-1 17 years ago

cheers mate another film to add to my to watch list lol

im gonna try and get the first reanimator as well
aint seen it but the story is probably the wierdist zombie tale ever

[–] ablebravo 17 years ago

Definately get ReAnimator. I have all 3. RA3 (Beyond Re-Animator) was made by Yuzna's Spanish team like Dagon was. It was a tiny bit weak compared to RA, or Bride Of RA, but still above average and worth buying-if for no other reason than to complete the set. Make sure you get Elite Entertainment's Millennium edition release of the original Reanimator. It's a 2 disc set crammed full of bonus material... over 6 hours! Digitally remastered picture, THX sound. Yes, a most excellant product.

I can think of only one other zombie movie that comes even close to the over the top-ness that ReAnimator reaches and that's Peter Jackson's Brain Dead (aka Dead Alive).

"Any technology sufficiently advanced would be indistinguishable from Magic."

[–] tlynch2-1 17 years ago

firstly thanks for the heads up about the special edition dvd id have got the vanilla version and it would have been dearer(believe me i know its happened b4)

secondly if its anything like brain dead im sure to buy it :D
brain dead has the funniest thing ever being a hyper active kid and 2 brothers who watched brain dead all the time im lucky i never went to a swing park with them lmao

[–] ablebravo 17 years ago

Yuzna and his delightfully twisted team did it first; if PJ wasn't influenced by the incredible black comedy of ReAnimator, I'll eat a shoe.

"Any technology sufficiently advanced would be indistinguishable from Magic."

[–] tlynch2-1 17 years ago

i read that somewhere else
now that i think of it i didnt read it i thought it :p
when hes giving his mom and the other zombies the sedative a thought thats like herbert west in reanimator not killing them again but just leavin them spaced out and too drugged to do any harm

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] put_junk_here 16 years ago

Rewatching the Movie last night, I thought Combs resembled Bruce Campbell with that prosetic chin lol

[–] smitthhh 9 years ago

He totally looked like Bruce Campbell I kept thinking that myself.

And didn't yall read the trivia. He said it himself that he didn't look like Lovecraft. He wasn't going to take the role.

[–] Stukach 14 years ago

Combs had pretty good make-up in the movie, i didn't recognize him at first and i only knew it was Combs because of his voice.

_______________________
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[–] 14 years ago

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[–] ContinentalOp 13 years ago

Well,Jeffrey Combs, like Bruce Campbell, is on of my favourite actors (especially of recent years) so I wouldn't say that, with a bigger budget, that Yuzna could have got better than him. And I thought his portrayal as Lovecraft was great, he was not 100% like him but he looked enough like him fo it to work. And I liked the fact he went almost action hero at the end, despite being Lovecraft.

If you are sick of the ''I love Jesus 100% signature'', copy and paste this into your profile!

[–] In_Celluloid_We_Trust 11 years ago

In terms of looks alone, I can't think of many actors who resemble Lovecraft. I'm sure they are out there but the only ones I can think of off the top of my head are a much younger James Cromwell and the late actor Paul Benedict.