Friday, March 10, 2017

My Weird Taste in Movies, or Not Exactly Appendix N

Partly inspired by this Google+ thread. Partly inspired by the way Kiel Chenier took Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory and turned it into something very different with Blood in the Chocolate. Can't promise you'll think all these movies are "good," but at least they all contain some element I like or find interesting. (Disclaimer: Opinions are subject to change. No refunds.)

Favorite dungeons in cinema (may not be a comprehensive list): Big Trouble in Little China; As Above, So Below; The Raid: Redemption; Dredd; The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring; Cube; House; House II: The Second Story; Raiders of the Lost Ark; Krull; Star Wars; Hellraiser; Hellbound: Hellraiser II; Silent Hill; Alien; Aliens; Alien: ResurrectionPrometheus; Dark City; Event Horizon; Escape from New York; Labyrinth; Dawn of the Dead; Die Hard

Favorite wilderness adventures/hexcrawls/pointcrawls in cinema (definitely not a comprehensive list): Pitch Black; Riddick; Conquest; The Lord of the Rings (all three); Dead Man; Valhalla Rising; Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior; Mad Max: Fury Road; Conan the Barbarian; Conan the Destroyer; Krull; Pathfinder; Army of Darkness; Monty Python and the Holy Grail; The Burrowers; The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly; Flesh+Blood; Cyborg; The Revenant; The Wizard of Oz; The Road; Undead; Predator; Predators; Apocalypse Now; Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart at the River Styx

Movies with characters I would love to play in D&D or some other fantasy adventure RPG some day (not comprehensive): House II: The Second StoryBig Trouble in Little ChinaDreddEscape from New YorkTotal RecallDead Man; Yor, the Hunter from the Future

Movies with characters I would love to play in Call of Cthulhu some day (not comprehensive): Drive; Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans; They LiveEscape from New York; Evil Dead II; John Dies at the EndReturn of the Living DeadRe-Animator; Reservoir DogsPulp Fiction; Brick; The Legend of Hell HouseThe Thing

Favorite zombies in cinema: Return of the Living DeadDead Alive/BraindeadRe-AnimatorCemetery Man/Dellamorte DellamoreThe Evil Dead series

Favorite romance movie: Drive

Favorite superhero-movie-disguised-as-film-noir: Sin City

Favorite film-noir-disguised-as-superhero-movie: The Dark Knight

Favorite depiction of retired 20th-level fighters: Kill Bill

Favorite cinematic depiction of Mars/favorite extraterrestrial colony: Total Recall

Favorite vampire movie most in need of being turned into a survival horror game: 30 Days of Night

Favorite accidental low-budget movie adaptation of The Legend of Zelda on LSD (before the video game series even existed): Conquest

Favorite point-and-click adventure game disguised as a movie: 10 Cloverfield Lane

Favorite PSA about the dangers of unsterilized body modification and inattentive driving: Tetsuo: The Iron Man

Favorite H. P. Lovecraft adaptation that isn't actually adapted from any particular H. P. Lovecraft story: In the Mouth of Madness

Favorite film adaptation that purposefully serves as a giant middle finger to its source material: Starship Troopers

Favorite cinematic depiction of murder by broken bicycle: Prince of Darkness

Favorite cinematic depiction of a guy shooting at a bat: Black Sunday

Favorite killer vehicle movie based on a Stephen King story, and yes I know the other one you're thinking of is directed by John Carpenter, and yes I will fight you over this: Maximum Overdrive

Need inspiration for your next adventure or gaming session? Roll on this table for a movie from which to borrow elements. (The first 73 of these were listed above. The next 18 are pulled from that G+ thread I mentioned earlier; I've only included movies that I've already seen. The last 9 are just movies I pulled out of my ass because I like them, and I apparently keep movies I like in my ass.)
  1. 10 Cloverfield Lane
  2. 30 Days of Night
  3. Alien
  4. Alien: Resurrection
  5. Aliens
  6. Apocalypse Now
  7. Army of Darkness
  8. As Above, So Below
  9. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
  10. Big Trouble in Little China
  11. Black Sunday
  12. Brick
  13. Cemetery Man/Dellamorte Dellamore
  14. Conan the Barbarian
  15. Conan the Destroyer
  16. Conquest
  17. Cube
  18. Cyborg
  19. Dark City
  20. Dawn of the Dead
  21. Dead Alive/Braindead
  22. Dead Man
  23. Die Hard
  24. Dredd
  25. Drive
  26. Escape from New York
  27. Event Horizon
  28. Evil Dead II
  29. Flesh+Blood
  30. Hellbound: Hellraiser II
  31. Hellraiser
  32. House
  33. House II: The Second Story
  34. In the Mouth of Madness
  35. John Dies at the End
  36. Kill Bill
  37. Krull
  38. Labyrinth
  39. Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart at the River Styx
  40. Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior
  41. Mad Max: Fury Road
  42. Maximum Overdrive
  43. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
  44. Pathfinder
  45. Pitch Black
  46. Predator
  47. Predators
  48. Prince of Darkness
  49. Prometheus
  50. Pulp Fiction
  51. Raiders of the Lost Ark
  52. Re-Animator
  53. Reservoir Dogs
  54. Return of the Living Dead
  55. Riddick
  56. Silent Hill
  57. Sin City
  58. Star Wars
  59. Starship Troopers
  60. Tetsuo: The Iron Man
  61. The Burrowers
  62. The Dark Knight
  63. The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
  64. The Legend of Hell House
  65. The Lord of the Rings
  66. The Raid: Redemption
  67. The Revenant
  68. The Road
  69. The Wizard of Oz
  70. They Live
  71. Total Recall
  72. Undead
  73. Valhalla Rising
  74. 2001: A Space Odyssey
  75. Black Death
  76. C.H.U.D.
  77. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters
  78. Live and Let Die
  79. Oculus
  80. Ravenous
  81. Sauna
  82. Season of the Witch
  83. Sleepy Hollow
  84. The Brothers Grimm
  85. The Fountain
  86. The Mist
  87. The Prestige
  88. The Thing
  89. The Witch
  90. They're Watching
  91. Triangle
  92. Blade Runner
  93. Desperado
  94. Dune
  95. First Blood
  96. Johnny Mnemonic
  97. Return of the Killer Tomatoes!
  98. The Beyond
  99. The Stuff
  100. Videodrome
Edited on December 3, 2017 to add a few more movies.

5 comments:

  1. It's cool stuff. I would've put The Thing a lot higher, though it's not really a Dungeon or Wilderness or the like. But I think it'd make a pretty good CoC scenario, as long as people are fine with some PvP.

    You might also want to check out The Void, which looks neat, and very Call-of-Cthulhu influenced. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4UYuY0Fldo Not out yet, sadly.

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    1. I'll have to check out The Void. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

      The Thing is one of my favorite movies of all time. (I'm a big John Carpenter fan, in case you couldn't tell.) :D This list isn't really put in any kind of "best-to-worst" order or anything like that, which is why the movie isn't "higher." That said, in hindsight I should have put The Thing on my list of must-play Call of Cthulhu characters. But yeah, this isn't necessarily a list of my favorite movies, just a list of movies that I think might work well as inspirational material for RPGs (or that I could get a cheap joke out of).

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  2. This is truly a great list, man. But it looks like there's a typo--you accidentally listed Johnny Mnemonic as a recommended movie. :D

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  3. Such a great collection. The only ones of my favorite movies that are missing are Blade Runner and Ghost in the Shell, though they aren't exactly gameable adventures.
    I'd recommend watching them if you haven't. Actually, I do recommend weatching them even then-

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    1. Thank you!

      Oh yeah, Blade Runner is one of my favorite movies. I have Roy Batty's final speech hanging on the wall over my TV. I still need to check out Ghost in the Shell, though. But this isn't a "favorite movies of all time" list so much as a "movies that fall into ridiculously specific, semi-serious categories" list. :P

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