Another
year has come and gone, and with it it's crop of films at this
years H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival. There were a couple I didn't
get to see, simply due to the way the festival schedule was
laid out, unfortunately. Here's my thoughts on this year's films
(just my opinions, mind you):
Cast
A Deadly Spell: I've always loved this, and it was good
to see it on the big screen. Just excellent.
Forbidden
Quest: The idea was nifty, to cut between the shots of the
old man telling his story and old stock footage clips to back
it up. It was cool to see all the bits of film they dug up to
give the flick a sense of depth and story...but it was the weakest
film at this year's festival, in my opinion. The sound work
was uninspired, and at times was non-extant, making me wonder
if the sound had a glitch or something. The repeated shifting
from dark to mild shots to stark white icescapes hurt after
a while. And there was no climax, it just went from boring to
slow build to end credits. I felt completely gypped. Wish I'd
skipped this completely.
Road
To L: - Not the BIGGEST waste of two hours, but somewhere
in the top ten, surely. An interesting premise, but a little
too "Blair Witch" with very little pay-off.
Lots of bad camera angles and angry arguments, building up to
10 seconds of garishly-coloured rubber mask.
Out
Of Mind: Heyerdahl's portrayal of the old man is incredible,
and it was just fun to watch. Good job.
Strange
Aeons: The short last year never really grabbed me that
much, but the full-length film this year was very well-done.
Good performances, well put-together, and decent effects.
Dreams
In The Witch House: I'm probably a little biased, being
a huge Stuart Gordon fan, but I thought he did an excellent
adaptation (especially considering he had to do it for a mainstream
audience). Ezra Godden turned in a much less goofy performance
than in 'Dagon'.
Dead
Inside: Hooked me quickly by having a female lead that looked
like Parker Posey and a male lead hat looked like a younger
Bruce Willis, and kept me there was a pretty decent premise.
Felt like a film written by gamers, and had a good 'quest' feel
to it. Fairly well-done, even if the effects were a little cheesy...I
can accept that in amateur films.
Arcane:
Another film that felt like something was missing...like, you
know, everything. "Here we are, here's what we're doing,
and this guy sees something strange...and it's over!"
Lovecraft
Syndrome: Just never grabbed me. Not bad, I guess, but I
just never clicked with it. Eh.
Ryleh:
interesting to see a full-3D rendered short, and decently done...but,
dammit, learn to spell R'lyeh! (Spelled it right on the cover
of the book, so why get it wrong on the film title?)
Late
Bloomer: funny idea, and well done, but seeing the live
performance of it was 20 times better.
Experiment
17: I'd have liked it more if it had been fleshed out and
made into something, but as it was, it was too short and too
hard to see. Was there and gone before I could really enjoy
it.
King
In Yellow: Yet another that felt like it was merely "chapter
one" in stead of a completed short. The flash of the King
in the chair was neat looking, the rest of it felt lacking.
No real hook.
March
13th, 1941: John Strysik and I were talking last
year about the fact that HPL is hard to film, so there are some
stories that get made a LOT, just because they are easier to
do. "The Statement of Randolph Carter" is one
of them, since there is little to no actual creatures shown.
Sadly, there isn't much else to show, either, which makes for
boring cinema...like this one. A guy on a phone and a manhole
cover.
Courtesy
Nudge: Easily one of the most interesting of this year's
crop. Funny, we-done, one of my faves.
Night
of the Octopus: French movies don't usually strike me as
impressive, but I have to agree with what I heard elsewhere;
"best use of a dead octopus in a long time!"
It's
The Great Cthulhu: Cute and funny, but the presents tossed
in to frame at the end floored me. Nice follow up to last year's
short about voting for Cthulhu.
ReCreation:
Good film, for being so minimalist, and a good build off of
a HPL story. I was annoyed at the crowd laughing at things that,
frankly, weren't funny, but whatever, I don't like most humans
anyway.
Statement
of Randolph Carter: Oops, there it is again. At least this
was built with some scenery, some build up, and some resolution.
See, it CAN be done well.
Gibbering
Horror of Edward Ghormley: another of my faves this year.
Well shot, creepy...I kept waiting to see what was happening.
The notes, the house, the man...all just perfect.
Antiques
Roadshow: Arkham: laughed my ass off. Hilarious,
and decently done. Nice to see people having fun with HPL.
Herbert
West-Reanimator: this needed work. It wasn't bad,
but it wasn't impressive, either. The constant blurring was
annoying (maybe it was just a bad copy?), and having 99% of
the film as just a narrator would have put me to sleep if the
film hadn't ended. A little life injected into this one would
have helped, ironically.
Read
Me A Story: One of the tricks to a film short is that of
back story. Too much, and the audience gets bored, expecting
something that was going right to the meat; not enough, and
an audience might feel cheated. 'Read Me A Story' could have
used a little more back story, just to establish who and what
we were looking at. This bugged me, but I also recognized that
adding to what was there would have made the film drag. The
emphasis was more on the shock of what happens, and that was
delivered quite nicely without being obvious. The effects were
well-rendered and the camera work and lighting brought the climax
to full effect. Overall, a nicely-done bit of film.
Let
Sleeping Gods Lie: just a trailer, but at least enough to
make me curious to see the finished product next year. The method
they've chosen to use could work well, or could get real old,
real fast, so we'll just have to wait and see.
Call
of Cthulhu: every year, there's at least one film that makes
me very glad I went...this was definitely one of those. Even
though the stop-motion Cthulhu was a tad goofy, it was beautifully
done, and well worth owning. I was damn impressed, though there
was one disappointment for me; in the trailer we saw last year
and which was online, after the sailors looked up to find themselves
face-to-tentacles with the Big C, there was a great shot of
a silhouetted Cthulhu reaching a hand down to get them. In the
finished film, this shot was replaced with the stop-motion Cthulhu,
and it just didn't look anywhere near as cool. Oh well, it was
still incredible.
Oh,
and, lastly, Mad Martian's guitar-strumming bumpers were a riot.
Sadly,
I missed "Beyond The Walls of Sleep", which
I heard mixed reviews of from others, and "Marebito",
which I heard was excellent. I wish I'd seen either of those
instead of "Road To L." or "Forbidden
Quest", that's for sure.
-
Mad Professor
