Night
One
Shorts
Block 1:
The
theater was packed. People were sitting in the aisles and a
number of filmmakers were there for the premiere of Call
of Cthulhu. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.
Herbert
West: The first chapter of the 6 part story. Done in black
and white, with intentionally fuzzy and scratchy visuals to
evoke the 1920's. Decently acted, pretty faithful and technically
well done, but unfortunately, it lacks any thing special about
it. It's competent, but doesn't quite capture the spirit of
the story. Jeffrey Combs audiobook is actually somewhat more
effective.
The
Statement of Randolph Carter: I've got a confession to make.
Whenever I see a movie of "The Statement of Randolph
Carter", I groan. The story isn't that great, without
any sort of real novelty and most of the action is the main
character listening on a telephone. If you've seen it once,
that's usually enough. Yet it's one of the Lovecraft stories
that gets done all the time, like Dicken's Christmas carol.
My expectations have been low because of this.
I was surprised, because it was not only watchable, but good.
Mostly because of the film's use of humor and because the characters
felt a little bit more alive, making it more enjoyable to watch
then many straight versions.
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Antiques
Roadshow: Arkham: Not an expensive piece but one
of the better ones. Antiques Roadshow goes to Arkham
to take a look at some interesting things people have to show
them. Unfortunately, they never really realized that Arkham
is inhabited by creepy rednecks and cultists, and the kind of
objects the hosts is shown terrifies him while providing the
audience with much hilarity. The only downside was that towards
the end, it was hard to make anything out over the laughter.
I'll provide a nice little example.
(The
host has just been thoroughly disgusted after looking at a copy
of the necronomicon).
Redneck: (with greed in his eyes and tone) What do you think
it's worth?
Host: (emphatic and stressed) It's worth burning!
Brought
to us by the good people at Forbidden Donut productions.
Experiment
17: Nazis and the Occult. It's really hard to go wrong with
this combination. The film is shot in documentary style, claiming
to show secret experiments during WW2 when the Nazis try to
use the Necronomicon for their own gain. Of course, we know
how it will turn out. Technically very well done, and works
pretty well. Not perfect though, because the execution falls
a little short, never really gripping the audience as it should.
Nice work on props and atmosphere.
Let
Sleeping Gods Lie: A trailer for what appears to be something
similar to "At the Mountains of Madness", starring
CGI Old Ones and two false color humans. Not enough to really
get an idea of how good it will be, but the
false color humans is weird enough to wonder if it will be in
the full movie in 2007.
The
Gibbering Horror of Howard Ghormley: A nice little black
and white film that works rather nicely, even if the idea has
been done before and may be predicted halfway through. A bit
creepy. Kind of a cross between "The Picture in the
House" and the Star Trek: TNG episode,
"Cause and Effect" Inexplicable, but effective.
"He won't stop smiling" indeed.
Read
Me a Story: A short film involved a woman, her child, a
creepy guy and a book. Cute but no real surprises. The shot
of the night sky is effective though.
Call
of Cthulhu: The film that everyone's been waiting at least
a year for, straight from the HPLHS. One of the few Lovecraft
stories that has never been put to film and obviously one that
had a lot of hope riding on it. Luckily, Call of Cthulhu
fulfills it's job very nicely indeed. It stays very faithful
to the story and meticulous attention to props and atmosphere
help give it the right period feel. Shot as a silent movie,
complete with title cards, scratchy film effects, a period soundtrack
and 1920's era special effects, you wouldn't have a hard time
believing this film was actually made in the 1920's, hidden
away in a studio vault somewhere for 80 years and then dug out,
if you didn't know it was less then a year old. Particularly
effective in every manner. The only flaws I found with it are
that some things inherent in the story don't really translate
well to screen, such as the main character writing on calendar,
and the fact that the movie doesn't quite give the same sense
of dread as the book (granted, few can). But these flaws are
minor indeed. Watch it. Buy it. Reward the society for their
good work on this.
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Before
the final film of the evening, Dreams in the Witch House,
we got a bit of a treat. Christopher Heyerdahl, better known
as the guy who played H.P. Lovecraft in the film "Out
of Mind" (if you haven't seen then, get thee to a web
page and buy it) came out on stage. While sporting a beard,
the resemblance was still rather uncanny. He read from a Lovecraft
essay, "What amateurdom and I have done for each other",
which is rather dry, but he does it so well that it was a pleasure
to listen to in any case. After the film, I was able to talk
to him, and he told me and others that since there are no known
records of Lovecrafts speech, he based his impression of Lovecraft
off of the region, the class of which Lovecraft felt himself
to belong to and the fact, as Mr. Heyerdahl said "he
was grammer-flogged by his mother and aunts"
Dreams
in the Witch House: Stuart Gordon has been busy and his
newest work, "Dreams in the Witch House", premiered
tonight. It was created for a Showtime "Masters of Horror"
series, set to air soon enough. I will confess that "Dreams"
is not my favorite Lovecraft story, and I've only read it once,
and that was years ago. However, Gordon's film seems faithful
to what I remember (aside from the slight change at being set
in modern time) and nicely paced, coming in at just around an
hour. The same cast and crew that was involved in Dagon
(so says Mr. Gordon) was involved here (including the same lead
actor), but fortunately it doesn't turn cheesy in the 2nd half
like Dagon did. Well done and solid.
Night
Two
Cast
a Deadly Spell: A film-noir with supernatural elements.
Magic is accepted and heavily used in Hollywood society, except
for Detective HPL (probably because he's an atheist). He's given
an assignment to go after a rare book that has been stolen (whose
name I don't need to mention). A good film noir with some nice
lines and humor. It stays away from a lot of exposition, which
helps the pacing. However, the premise doesn't quite get as
fully explored as it could be, and the film seems to be missing
a certain something that I can't quite pin down that keeps it
from being better then it is. Good, but not great.
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Beyond
the Wall of Sleep: A two hour movie based off a 10 page
story. Usually this is a bad sign. There's always the danger
of using up the original story far too quickly and then spending
the rest of the movie on a bizarre continuation of the story.
This was the case in Brian Yunza's "From Beyond".
And ironically, the movie is somewhat like that movie. It follows
the story pretty well, but focus on four characters: A young
intern who likes doing unethical experiments on the inmates
and don't believe in rules or ethics or god or having a useful
purpose for his experiments. Kind of like Dr. Frankenstein when
he decided that creating a guy out of dead body parts would
be a cool thing to do. Then there's a older guy with a cane
and top hat who has a position of some importance, as well as
being a major asshole who enjoys vivisecting the inmates for
no good reason. There's the
old German guy, who is pretty decent until he decides to try
his hand at necrophilia for no good reason. And the uncle of
the intern who believes it's better to hang mentally damaged
people instead of letting them wander
around the hallways and die while smearing blood all over the
walls. And of course, there's a bunch of inmates who wander
around unwatched, smearing blood all over the walls and dying
in the hallways.
At
first the movie is somewhat pedestrian, without any real merits.
It follows the story, has some scenes in the asylum where not
much of anything happens, spliced with some weird fast-motion
sequences with little children
running around, singing songs that are being looped in the background,
as well as various image flashes. Later, the film takes a turn
for the better, when the plot starts to make headway (mostly
abandoning the Lovecraft
story), and then go for the gory and completely bizarre, All
of the main characters go insane in different ways, but nobody
really notices by this point (plus it's much more fun to watch).
The bizarre montage sequences begin to reach critical mass as
all sorts of freaky images are overlayed on the screen. It makes
little sense but it's fun to watch. In the end, it's as if Yunza's
"From Beyond" and Cronenberg's "Videodrome"
had a mutated love child, this being it.
Special
effects are mostly well done, though the montages do get a little
tiresome after a while. The first hour needed a bit of editing,
and cutting it down by 20 minutes could have helped a bit. The
2nd half still could have
used far less of little girls singing, but it works in the freaky
manner there. I hope it was supposed to be funny during the
last hour, because otherwise the filmmakers are going to be
disappointed with a lot of the laughter coming from the audience
during that time. All in all, pretty good, at least in my opinion.
Night
Three
Shorts
Block 2:
The
Lovecraft Syndrome: A woman becomes obsessed with Lovecraft
and gradually loses her grip on reality. Nicely done concept,
though the characters and idea could have used a bit more fleshing
out. As such, it wasn't quite as interesting as it could have
been. One complaint. Filmmakers: Please, stop using dead squid
as a prop unless you have a decent idea what to do with it.
Most of the time it seems like a bad Cthulhu stand in. It can
be done right (see "Night of the Octopus" for
a good use of a squid/octopus).
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Arcane:
Remember how I said earlier that it was hard to go wrong with
Lovecraft and nazis. Well, somebody figured out how to do it,
which it a real shame because the premise is begging to be done.
It's a South American
(Uruguay) take on "The Terrible Old Man" taking
place there. The hook is that the terrible old man is a former
nazi living in exile, a rich one at that. The possibilities
for this (Creepy, rich old nazi in exile steals the souls of
people to put in jars) are so good that it's almost a crime
how bad this was. Why? Because nothing really happens. They
did nothing at all with the premise, but just showed some fumbling
in the dark. I'm a firm believer in the "Less is more"
school of filmmaker, but that implies you have something in
the first place.
March
13, 1941: A Swedish take on "The Statement
of Randolph Carter". Ironically, this looked pretty
interesting on the poster, but for some reason the actual movie
didn't work. They never did anything with it. It's a couple
of guys talking to each other over the telephone and then...
It ends after the penultimate line of the story. Why is this
in 1941? Why was this done at all?
Another
plea to film makers: STOP DOING THIS STORY UNLESS YOU HAVE SOMETHING
ORIGINAL TO ADD! It's been done to death and only a few of them
have succeeded. Yes, it's cheap to do, but there are so many
versions by this point, there's no reason anymore. Either expand
on the story somewhat, change the ending, show us Warren's viewpoint
or something. Then I'll stop groaning when I see this listed
at the film festivals. But quit doing it just for the hell of
it! If not for my sake, for your to save your time and money.
Rlyeh:
A nicely computer animated French film about a fisherman who
draws up a mysterious chest. Somewhat predictable and could
have stood to have been a bit longer, but works well enough.
King
in Yellow: An Italian film apparently based off the Chambers
story. Unfortunately, this yet another film where "Less
is more" is taken so far that they never really tell us
anything. A girl finds a book and then goes batty in some bizarre
way, and then gets chased by zombies. Or something. The problem,
there's no real explanation for what's going on, and no plot
to speak of. I'm all for trippy sequences that leave reality
in doubt (I'm a David lynch fan), and this movie could have
nicely capitalized on it if they'd have set it up decently.
Instead, it ends up making little sense at all and I still have
no idea what this had to do with Chambers.
Courtesy
Nudge: An amusing little film that vaguely reminded me of
the movie Fight Club (as far as the office setting went).
A man who watches paint dry for a living gets madness in his
eyes. Short and sweet.
Great
Cthulhu: Two rather dim cthulhu cultists named Dexter and
Chuck plan to wait on a beach for Great Cthulhu to come..and
bring them presents. Very funny and shows nicely how a minimal
budget doesn't have to be a problem. From the same people who
did the excellent "Antiques Roadshow: Arkham",
comes this nice little homage to the great pumpkin of the peanuts
comic strip.
Late
Bloomer: For years people have been making allusions to
Cthulhu and the female reproduction system. This film, in what
feels like a cross between the Wonder Years and Alice's
Restaurant (in a good way), runs with the idea, as a young
boy in sex ed class realizes what horrors lay below the belt
of every boy and girl. Nicely done and very enjoyable. Almost
hypnotic.
Night
of the Octopus: The French are proving themselves quite
adapt at the Lovecraft business. It must be something in the
drinking water (which reminds me to buy some of that French
spring water), because the 2nd French film in the festival is
quite enjoyable. A man gets an octopus through his mail slot
one day, and things get weirder from there. Amusing, though
it may not have meant to be. Best use of a dead octopus as a
film prop to date.
ReCreation:
A nice little film that does an interesting take the idea "I
think, therefore I am" where a man attempts to use
dreams and though to create a universe to his liking. Not quite
as good as it could have been,
but works well enough.
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The
Vessel: I'll admit it right now. This film rubbed the wrong
way from the beginning, so I may have a bias here. The punk/Goth
girl who stars in it got on my nerves from the first moment
she was on screen and that impression only got worse from there.
She proceeds to steal an old book from a bookshop, summon a
demon that kills her boyfriend and only then proceeds to read
the instructions after her hands are covered with her boyfriends
blood. So why don't I give a flying frack about her? Because
she's a dumbass and clearly deserves her fate, whatever that
may be. By the end, I was just glad that it was over.
Was she meant to be so unsympathetic or is it just me who saw
her that way? This kind of thing has been done before but better.
This particular incarnation just dropped the ball.
The
only real thing I liked about it is that they did away with
the cliché that all demons must be summoned with Latin
(though the circle still has Latin written on it), which tends
to bug me (Since Latin is used by the Catholic church for mass
and by cultists to summon demons, does that mean Latin in the
language of the other side? Does God only respond to prayers
said in Latin?). But I digress..
H.P.
Lovecraft: The Terror Inside: One of the most divisive
horror movies of all times was a little film that made it big
a couple years ago, by the name of The Blair Witch Project.
Most people either loved it or hated it.
Personally, I rather liked it, though I admit it had it's failings,
like the fact the characters really did get on your nerves after
a while. But it worked well in the sense that "Something
is not right here". This film, set in the Po Region
of Italy, appears to be trying to be a better remake of the
film. Unfortunately, it ends up being more similar then it should.
The Story in a nutshell: Several young Americans and Italians
go to the Po river region to investigate a manuscript that could
prove that Lovecraft had visited in 1926, around the same time
he penned some of his most famous stories. They begin looking
for the source his inspiration and proof that he was here.
It's
both interesting and annoying the way the film is done because
while the filmmakers do seem to make progress...discovering
old tunnels running under a church, finding a seemingly abandoned
village with music flowing from one of the bordered up houses
that closely resembles innsmouth, hearing legends of river monsters
that seem like deep ones, for some reason, none of this seems
to phase them. Instead they get frustrated and bitchy, and begin
yelling at each other much of the time. Granted, the evidence
is circumstantial, but compelling nonetheless and I would think
as much as one would hope for in this kind of situation. Instead,
we are treated to a scene in the middle of the film where they
are standing in front of the remote, seemingly abandoned innsmouth
village. Music is playing somewhere in the background, while
one of the guys is in front of the camera attempting to read
a passage from "The Shadow Over Innsmouth"
for comparison. He is continually interrupted by the girl who
is with them, who keeps saying she wants to find out where the
music is coming from. The guy says "Let me
finish this". Finally, he gets frustrated by the interruptions
and begins walking towards the houses. The girl asks him where
he is going and he says "To go find out where the music
is coming from. Let's go". Despite this apparently
being what she wanted, she now starts pouting and saying she
doesn't want to go. At which point, I'm thinking "WTF?
Are you doing this just to be contrary? And exactly what is
your purpose on this project?"
And
it goes on like this. Interesting information is ignored until
the worst time or entirely. A sub-plot involves a young man
who disappeared after looking for the river monsters in 1997.
His car was found by the river, and papers were scattered along
the bank. No one ever thinks of trying to get a hold of these
papers to find out what they say (unless I missed that). A tape
seems to appear out of nowhere that proves danger, but is only
shown at the very end, when those left are exploring one of
the creepy abandoned houses in the innsmouth village in the
middle of the night. Why now? Because it has the most dramatic
effect, but it's strange considering they never bother to even
mention the tape before this, or watch it as a group when it's
daylight. It almost seems like these people have no clue what
they are doing or what they want to accomplish, making this
an exercise in frustration for both the cast and audience and
succumb to screaming at each other. At least the kids in The
Blair Witch Project had the excuse of being cold, hungry,
lost, confused and scared out of their minds. These people are
just bitchy and frustrated. The kind of people Lovecraft were
not interested in the least. The kind that would make me sorely
tempted to murder them in their sleep and say a deep one did
it.
And
it's a real shame, because there was so much there, the production
values are good and the real story is enough to keep an interest
without all the backbiting. It wouldn't even have been that
bad if the backbiting had been better handled. Instead, we have
a film that is so close and yet so far away at the same time.
Next time, maybe an improvement would be to kill the actors
before the film starts.
-
spauldingae
.25
Cthulhus
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.5
Cthulhus |
.75
Cthulhus |
1 Cthulhu |
