|
My first week back at college came to an end and after a couple hours to get ready at home, I jumped into my car and shot down I-5 on the way to the festival. Traffic was a bit heavier then I expected going through East Portland and I was dismayed by the fact by the inability to turn left off of Sandy Bvld, just outside the theater, but still had enough time to eat dinner and wander around the place before the first movie started. Some things had changed. New theater passes had been designed, now colored paper wristbands. Unfortunately, keeping them all weekend more annoying then holding onto the old style tickets, so I ended up carrying around the ripped remains of my band in my pocket for the last two nights. On the bright side, the booklets from last year had been replaced by cool little faux newspapers, a style which I hope will be continued at subsequent festivals. After much deliberation and studying of the guide, my first stop was shorts block 2. The Lovecraft A short parody of the old Love Boat TV show, with a new theme song and a new crew of familiar names and faces, plus an eldritch holdover from the original. I’ve never seen the show myself, but I appreciated the parody and the ending gets points for style. Innsmouth Legacy This is the newest effort by Edward Martin of Guerilla productions. A spin-off and sequel of the original Shadow over Innsmouth story, set in the modern day and concerning a man and his new bride. Unfortunately, the man learns his bride has some dark secrets in her family tree. Short, but well done. Disclaimer: I was an extra in this film, so I may be biased. Please keep that in mind. Between the Stars Reportedly based on an unfinished Lovecraft story, this Dutch film is a series of sequences with no dialogue. It is not hindered by a lack of dialogue, and the visuals worked nicely, telling the story of a man who sees stars everywhere he goes, until it finally consumes him. The Strange Case of HP Lovecraft A low-budget film with poor production values, but quite amusing in it’s own right. While transporting Lovecraft’s attaché case, a hit and run releases the evil within. Slock, slapstick and gore galore. The best way to describe would be kind of an amateur version of the Evil Dead 2. Not something you’d want to spend money on, but an entertaining 10 minutes. The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verril A young Stephan King stars as the title role in this, a segment from the 1982 film Creepshow (Directed by Zombie Master George Romero). It’s a somewhat altered but good adaptation of “The Colour Out of Space”, where a young hick sees a meteor fall into his yard one night. Dreaming of riches from the local university, he attempts to salvage it, but instead, only manages to break open the extraterrestrial object and spill it’s strangely colored liquid contents onto the ground. It doesn’t take him too long to realize that the sudden, spontaneous growth of planet life around his property and even attached to his own flesh may have something to do with it. Short and not particularly faithful, but it’s main virtue comes from the fact that it didn’t take itself too seriously. Man in the Moon The Man in the Moon is a Canadian short with good production values and a mystical, slightly creepy moment or two. Strangely a child’s voice is heard speaking in German or Dutch at one point. Two kids search through their aunts attic and begin to remember a strange ritual that took place when one of them was a child. Supposedly based on somebody’s real childhood memories. A decent effort, but no more then that. Strange Aeons A Lovecraftian B & W film with some allusions to Call of Cthulhu, and perhaps He. An ancient artifact brought back from an expedition into parts unknown falls into the hands of Snidely Whiplash and his pet monster, who plan to use it to bring about the end of all things. There was nothing terribly original for anybody who has been exposed to lovecraftian/occult-inspired film The bright spot was the villain, dubbed Snidely Whiplash, due to his over-the-top performance and facial hair that must be seen to be believed. The Signalman A 1970’s BBC adaptation of a Charles Dickens story, that I am unfortunately not familiar with, so I cannot speak to it’s faithfulness. Somewhere in England, a traveler meets a signalman stationed near a railway tunnel, who is troubled by haunting premonitions of disasters that happened on his watch. A bit slow but interesting enough, preceding a rather nice if predictable ending. The only celebrity worth mentioning is Denholm Elliott in the role of the signalman. Elliot played Marcus (“Got lost in his own Museum”) Brody in the Indiana Jones movies. A short break and then I went to see…… Professor Peabody’s last lecture A very Mythosian Night Gallery Episode. Professor Peabody (a 1970’s era Carl Reiner), disdainful of superstition, is going to finish his course on Primitive religions with a look into on the Infamous Cthulhu cult. As he reads the names we all know and love, ominous things begin to happen. The episode is helped greatly by Reiner's performance as the professor, and the writing that decided to have fun with the concept. A nice touch was some famous names attending the class that day, though I was slightly disturbed by the Kotterish Horshack vibes one of them kept giving off. The Crimson Cult Boris Karloff’s last film, and that’s about the best you can say about it. Antique dealer David manning gets an urgent letter from his brother Peter and fearing for his brother’s life, he tracks him down to an old manor in the North of England. Just his luck, tonight is the anniversary of a witch being burned to death centuries earlier. Is it merely the bad vibes or the LSD in the liquor that is making him have strange dreams with faux-symbolic overtones? A lot of witch/Satanist folklore jammed in, but none of it is particularly interesting or deep. 60’s/70’s hedonism and drug influences do little to make the movie more interesting, but rather brought several Austin Powers lines to mind. The only particularly clever bit was where, upon entering the old house, the main character said he expected to run into Boris Karloff at any time. The most laughable scene involved using a multi-colored light shade hooked to a motorized belt to put people into trances. After the movie ended, I felt like I had wasted a couple hours of my life, much like I did after seeing the rather faithful yet extremely flawed version of the Lurking Fear “Dark Heritage”. A stiff drink was in order when I reached home, to help lull me into a dreamless sleep. Saturday Night I arrived on Saturday night more rested then the previous evening. The first thing I noticed was a far bigger crowd, and the upstairs lobby hard to move through. Chatted with the various merchants about their wares and Lovecraft in general. Notable personalities included Edward Martin, Director of this year’s “Insmouth Legacy” and last year’s “Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath”, Aaron Vanek, Director of a number of Lovecraft films, including “The Yellow Sign”, and Bryan Moore, Director and co-star of “Cool Air”, who always had time to chat at his table selling his sculptures of Lovecraft, Poe and the Head of Aton Le Vay [please note: Bryan will be selling a complete sculpture of Aton Le Vay once it is completed]. All too soon, it was movie time, and I headed into Shorts Block 3. The Monster A very short film with no dialogue and rather blocky computer graphics. Amusing but nothing special. The Summoning A short silent film with nods to Pickman’s Model in particular and a smattering of Lovecraft stories. Most notable for the recreation of the 1920’s era silent film feel in many respects, but a fairly good depiction of the great tentacled one himself helps the ending a bit. The biggest flaw would be that the main character is incredibly stupid. Call of Cthulhu The trailer for perhaps the most anticipated Lovecraft adaptation ever (aside from the Rumored Del Toro production of At the Mountains of Madness). Done in the style of a 1920’s silent film, with production values like Coen Brothers, The Man who wasn’t there, The Call of Cthulhu looks quite interesting and full of potential. I’m sure I’m not the only one who hopes that this first attempt to adapt the story comes off well, considering all the difficulties involved. Representatives of the HP Lovecraft Historical Society were at the Festival all weekend and were glad to answer questions about the film while hawking their wares. On display were various props from the film, some of the most interesting of which were some very realistic looking newspaper clippings detailing some of the events. The people working on the film clearly did their homework while preparing this film and hopefully it will be apparent when it is released in the spring of 2005. The Tell-Tale Heart It seems an unwritten rule that there has to be at least one Poe adaptation at each festival and this one is no exception. As with before, this is yet another well done film. The narration seems to be very close, if not the text of the story word-for-word, and is well done, but don’t expect any surprises due to the faithfulness. It was short, well paced, and everything that could be expected from a faithful Poe story. The only complaints I had was the shrieking towards the end, which I’m not sure was supposed to be there or was a flaw in the soundtrack, and the fact that the actions on screen sometimes failed to represent the narration. I would like to see somebody put together a video/DVD of all the recent Poe adaptations for sale at the festival. Pickman’s Model A very rare, somewhat interest adaptation of one of my favorite Lovecraft stories. Set in Contemporary Dallas, Texas, the story is a fairly close adaptation of the original story, but is marred by the poor production values (It looks like it might have been made in the late 1950’s or early 1960’s, so I was quite surprised to find out at the end that the film was made in 1981) and a rather bad transfer available at the festival. I am not sure whether the horrible sound quality is a byproduct of the poor transfer or inherent in the tape. It also loses points for atmosphere due to the sheer fact that Contemporary Dallas is not 1920’s Boston, and nothing like the North End of Boston that Lovecraft used and described. I’m fairly sure that Dallas does not have a subway that figured so prominently into Lovecraft’s story. This is a good example where going contemporary is a bad move, as it drains much of the possible atmosphere from the story. It does have a single saving grace in the form of a nice addition as the narrator last meets Pickman, drawing slightly from his extended history in Dream Quest. The Call of Cthulhu trailer was replayed for the benefit of the audience and then there was the discussion Panel. The Andrew Miglore and ST Joshi were the only ones I recognized and I don’t remember much of what was said. When I asked what their favorite commercial produced Lovecraft movie was, the answer from everyone was either Out of Mind or The Resurrected, which I would see the next night. Bryan Moore also agree with the Out of Mind Assessment when asked. A short break later, I went into the feature I had chosen to attend for the remainder of the evening. The Return of the Sorcerer An adaptation of a rather gory Clark Aston Smith story, done by Night Gallery, starring Bill “The Hulk” Bixby and the always fun to watch Vincent Price in a double role. A young man is given an offer he can’t refuse, to help a creepy old coot translate the Necronomicon. Two previous translators have already quite after a single day on the job and there are things roaming the halls that go bump in the night, very loudly, scaring the crap out of quirky old Vincent. However, the paycheck is quite large and Vincent’s daughter is quite attractive. The film works pretty well, as night gallery decided to make it campy instead of serious, and it works quite well even though it varies somewhat from the original story. The ending does leave the audience hanging, though. Quatermass 2 One of the series of TV shows and movies to come out of Britain in the 1950’s through 1970’s, Quatermass 2 is a prequel to “Quatermass and the Pit” though to my knowledge none of the films have too much in common other then the main character and a common theme. Quatermass 2 begins with the namesake character quite upset over having his atomic moon rocket grounded because of budget cuts, forcing a hold on the planned colonization of the moon. However, soon enough he is drawn into something else, when the radar at the rocket base begins picking up strange objects falling from the sky and a hollow and quite artificial looking meteorite being brought into his office. Investigations take him and a collogue into a restricted government area, occupied by a well guarded factory that Quatermass feels looks like his moon base (I personally thought it looked like a chemical plant or an oil refinery). The plot continues from there into a 1950’s cross between the x-files and invasion of the body snatchers. Lovecraftian content is rather slim, other then the nature of the aliens who are fated to show up, and the ending scene will remind many people of certain mythos creatures who need not be named. Not as Lovecraft-themed (even if by accident) or as good as “Quatermass and the pit” was, but quite entertaining none the less, even if it does suffer from certain clichés (IE, Humans taken over by aliens may be well armed, but they can’t hit a slowly moving car with a sub-machine gun at point blank range). Sunday Night Usually if Saturday nights at the HPLFF can be compared to Rush Hour, Sunday nights are often the equivalent of 3 AM on weeknight. At least, that’s how it’s felt in previous years. It behooves anyone who attends for the entire weekend to buy souvenirs on Saturday night, because there is no guarantee the merchant you want to buy from will still be there on Sunday night. This year was a present surprise, with a fair crowd and all the merchants still there on the final night of the festival. Attendance was noticeably lower, but it no longer felt as lonely as last year’s Sunday night. With some planning, I had set aside this evening for features and soon found myself watching……. The Last Wave An interesting little film from Australia, made roughly 10-15 years ago. Richard Chamberlain played a lawyer assigned to help a group of Aborigines accused of murder, but soon gets drawn deeper then he wished to into their beliefs and culture. Set against a dismal rainfall that never lets up from the beginning of the film until the end, giving the film a rather oppressive tone that is arguably it’s most appealing quality. It has no actual Lovecraft references, but it does a fairly good job of incorporating Aboriginal beliefs (if they are authentic) into the storyline and atmosphere. Unfortunately, it never really hooked me, and I looked at my watch many times during this film. It picked up a bit before the ending, but is muddled by a muddled script, where’s the main character’s motivations become murky and confused. It becomes a moot point anyway as the ending just around the corner at that point. Worth a look for the atmosphere and use of mythology, but there is little else to recommend it. Another break, during which I picked up a CoC RPG book. I’d heard much about the game and wanted to check it out for myself. It looks like I’m going to be spending some of my income on the supplements now. A quick trip to the car to free up my hands and then my final film of the weekend. The Resurrected The crown jewel of this year’s festival, in my opinion, and a perfect way to see out the weekend, was The Resurrected. The film is a fairly close adaptation of The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. The film is set in Contemporary (early 1990’s) Providence, RI and is narrated by the protagonist, a Private detective named John Marsh. Beginning with Ward’s famous escape, it then flashes back several weeks earlier as the obligatory shapely stranger waltzes into his office to offer him a case. Her husband, Charles Ward, has been acting strangely and, well, we all know where this is going. The movie is well paced and it says something when I didn’t want to get up for fear of missing anything. Most of the action and dialogue belongs to the Marsh and the Mrs. Ward, as well as Lonnie, whom works for Marsh. Ward only showing up at intervals during the investigation, but is quite…intense when he does. The added characters are interesting and so is the dialogue, but their intelligence seems to very. They are smart enough to bring flashlights, firearms and explosives when they go into the basement, but no extra batteries and the main character’s revolver is only loaded with three bullets for no explained reason (Perhaps in case they needed to kill themselves?). The real kudos goes to the set designer, particularly towards the end when they investigate Ward’s/Curwan’s old farmhouse. The atmosphere is very rich during the section in question and I wish that more Hollywood films could learn a lesson from this. The ending is changed a bit, with freaks roaming around Curwan’s basement, a big explosion and a “time-cop”ish ending, but nothing that really makes too much of a difference. The story is also simplified a bit, but I don’t mind because the original occasionally got rather hard to follow at times. Enter the Dagon I’m not sure if this is supposed to be a precursor of a real film or the end product itself [please note: It is the end product, and not a trailer/making of...]. Whatever it is, this making-of/trailer shows the journey to filming a cotemporary adaptation of “The Shadow Over Innsmouth”, except with bad production values and a cheesy Kung-fu setting. It was quite amusing, particularly a scene at the end where the Old Gent himself makes an appearance to show his distaste for such treatments of his work. A good job at being intentionally bad, but I’m not sure how well it would work as a full-length movie. By next year, we’ll know if the trailer was indeed the full extent of the project. And with that, I said my good-byes and headed home for a long sleep before reentering the weekly rat race. - spauldingae |
