Hello!
My
recap of the HP
Lovecraft Film Festival, held every October in Portland,
Oregon, has become something of a tradition. It is also a blissful
burden; my review occasionally has the unfortunate effect of
pissing people off that I am going to see next year. Nevertheless,
I want to make you, dear reader, jealous that you weren't there
to see some great movies, and those who were there, to savor
the sweet joy of a wonderful experience. Besides, sometimes
my quotes are used in blurbs for the films.
I
always say that this year's festival was the best festival ever,
so here it is again: this year was the best so far (and many
others agree with me this time). I have only two regrets about
this year. First, that I didn't have anything showing, not even
a short "bumper". The only time my name came
up on screen were in the end credits for "Call of Cthulhu"
and "Read Me a Story". More on those later.
My
second regret was that I arrived late Friday night, so I missed
two of the feature films that played: Marebito
and Forbidden Quest, both of which, I am told, are available
from specialty video rental houses (I heard NetFlix has them).
I also skipped Cast
a Deadly Spell, the HBO special from some years back,
but I have already seen that, at least. So this is one of the
rare years that I didn't see everything that played. Apparently,
it was impossible to see everything this time around; there
are too many good films out there to screen.
The
attendance for the three nights, from what I gather, is that
Friday very nearly sold out, Saturday easily sold out (with
people turned away at the door), and Sunday was about average
(about 60% full). Ticket prices were a bit higher this year,
but still extremely cheap compared to normal movies. The weekend
pass was a steal.
 |
The
guests this year were phenomenal: director Stuart
Gordon, who showed his film Dreams in the Witch House
BEFORE it will air on Showtime next month as part of the
"Masters of Horror" series; screenwriter
Joseph
Dougherty (Cast a Deadly Spell); actor Christopher
Heyerdahl, who plays a dead-ringer for HP Lovecraft
in the great Canadian film Out
of Mind, for which this year he won the Howie award;
and finally, legendary singer Patti Smith flew here from
Europe to be a part of the festival. For the first time
in a long while, I considered the possibility that the Lovecraft
Fest is reaching the capacity of the wonderful non-Euclidean
three-screen Hollywood Theater, it's home for the last four
years.
The usual drinking and shmoozing with forgotten pals was,
of course, one of my favorite memories of the weekend. It's
not just seeing the Lurkers again, but |
| witnessing
how far some of them have progressed in terms of talent
and skill. Ed
Martin, Craig Mullins, Christian
Matzke are becoming strong directors, and Andrew Leman
and Sean Branney premiered something very special. More
on that later. |
The
Festival program, poster, shirts, and merchandise were all of
exceptional quality this year (the program looks like a 1920's
newspaper again, very well done by Migliore and Leman). Lee
Moyer's poster art was great (I think this year's poster
is sold out, or nearly so), and some new vendors created a mob
scene every time the films finished and people shopped in the
upstairs lobby. You're going to see a lot of new cool Cthulhu
merchandise around, so start making your Spot Hiddens. Personally,
my fave item was SighCo's
new "Miskatonic Drinking Club" bowling shirt,
which I am going to show off as soon as I can.
As
for the films themselves? I found that the shorts blocks (two
of them), were the best part this year, and almost all the selections
had something going for them; even the flawed ones weren't icepick-to-the-eyes-bad.
The longer features were worth seeing, although they could stand
some improvement.
I
have to qualify all this now: all of the below is just my opinion.
Agree or disagree with it as you like. If you're a filmmaker,
you did better than I did for at least having something in the
festival this year. I still recall making a drunken bet Saturday
night that I'd have five films in the fest next year.
First,
I saw the feature The
Dead Inside (IMDb),
written directed, edited and produced by Brian Clement of Canada.
Plot centers on a girl-guy supernatural detective team (she
casts spells, he shoots bullets) investigating a haunted house,
all circa 1940's. The costumes, set, and props were exemplary,
even during the flashback scenes to the Great War (although
the paint balls whizzing close to camera were a little much).
However, script, acting, and directing were slow, slow, slow.
I don't know if it's a Canadian thing, but the characters barely
reacted to what was happening, even if it was life-threatening.
There was a monotone through most of the film. Also, the characters
talked too much, reciting exposition instead of performing actions
(films should SHOW the audience, not TELL the audience--this
isn't spoken word, it’s motion PICTURES). There was also
some killer freaky clowns in a few good scenes, prompting me
to ask Pagan Publishing chief Scott Glancy not to go into the
theater armed (don't need holes in the screen). The movie plays
like a Call of Cthulhu RPG: lots of talking, interspersed
with brief, exciting moments of action, and little reaction
to what was going on.
After
a dinner break at a wonderful tapas restaurant, I caught shorts
block one in the main theater (big screen). This was something
I was looking forward to as the highlight of the weekend. In
this block, I saw:
The
Gibbering Horror of Howard Ghomley (directed by Steve
Daniels): This is a very creepy black and white film with no
dialogue about a bicyclist who finds a key to a strange old
house in the woods. As you know he shouldn't, he tries to get
inside, leading to a very dreamlike, weird tales conclusion.
The
Statement of Randolph Carter: It's very interesting
to see, but every year, there's one Lovecraft story that
appears again and again. I can look to the year of Pickman's
Model, Cool Air, From Beyond, The Outsider,
and The Shadow Over Innsmouth adaptations. This year,
it was The Statement of Randolph Carter, with three
films containing elements of the story. This one was by
Edward Martin III, who IS the most prolific Lovecraft filmmaker.
This version was fairly straightforward, no surprises, with
a little bit of comedy thrown in.
Herbert West: Re-Animator (Anthony
Dickson, dir): A fair but
|
 |
| faithful
adaptation of the first chapter of the West series. Problems
in this were: modern college kids playing the parts, too
much voice over, and shaky camera work. |
Antiques
Roadshow: Arkham, Mass.: You're probably laughing
right now, considering how obvious it would be to spoof the
great PBS series about people dragging their skeletons out of
the closet for appraisers to mock or applaud on television.
The no-budget nature of this short would normally be off-putting,
however, the jokes were geeky enough to get some well-deserved
laughs from the audience. This was made by Jon Cazares and Brian
Wood, the same duo behind last year's Cthulhu for President
video. Worth seeing.
 |
Experiment
17 (IMDb):
The latest from director Christian Matzke (Nyarlathotep,
An
Imperfect Solution), this is a great short about
Nazis stealing the Necronomicon from the Biblioteque Nationale
(when they took Paris) and trying out some of the passages.
Christian's attention to period detail was amazing, including
the use of actual documentary footage of Hitler meeting
with a Sheik. Very convincing. Lensed by Tony Penta (The
Hound, The Hapless Antiquarian), the best part
(the climax) is a little lost in camera motions, but watch
carefully, because it's really creepy. I think this is Christian's
best film to date.
|
| Read
Me a Story (directed by Craig Mullins and Bret Mix):
I had a hand in the making of this one (as did many other
Lurkers), so I am biased. It's Craig's (of unfilmmable.com,
one place where you are probably reading this right now)
first attempt at making the movies he loves so much. As
a first effort, it travels pretty high. A mother reads a
bedtime story from the Necronomicon to her little urchin…which
is perfect for "it". Craig kept the film short
and tight, with just enough information to keep the viewer
in suspense. The lead actress of the film got a shout out
from Patti Smith for her wonderfully |
 |
| droll
performance as the mother. A great, simple ending leaves
chills. Nitpicking would mention the blue light (I personally
don't like blue light to represent moonlight), and a remix
for the soundtrack. But there are more strengths than flaws,
and Craig's devotion is plain to see. I can't wait to see
what he comes up with next! |
 |
Call
of Cthulhu (IMDb):
By Andrew Leman and Sean Branney, of the HP Lovecraft
Historical Society (www.cthulhulives.org).
You've probably already heard the buzz on this film, because
there's been a lot and it has been loud. You must also
know that I had a teeny tiny part in the making of the
film (although I got a lot of "exposure"), plus
I consider Leman and Branney friends, so there's a big
bias in this review.
That
being said, this is the GREATEST LOVECRAFT ADAPTATION
TO DATE. Yes, it is. After watching (and making ) Lovecraft
movies for more than ten years, including independent
shorts and big budget extravaganzas, I aver that if you
are a fan of HP Lovecraft, you MUST see this movie.
|
|
Some people will still hate it: it's 45 minutes, black
and white, and made as a SILENT film. That's right, there
are title cards you have to read. Nevertheless, this is
the story on screen, nearly verbatim. The attention to
detail, every detail, that Leman and Branney and the whole
cast and crew put into this is, frankly, pathological.
However, what they made was not only true to the story,
true to the spirit of Lovecraft, true to the time period,
it's also a damn entertaining flick. I confess, there's
always at least one film that I'll start nodding off in
during the fest…long nights of boozing take their
toll. If I had to watch any actual silent film, I'd be
out like a light. Yet the filmmakers managed to make a
film as engrossing as any I've ever seen of any age, simply
with their great music (I bought the soundtrack), and,
sagely, their "modern" style of editing (quick
cuts and constant information revelation). The cast is
amazing, the transitions between scenes genius, the effects
outstanding, and if I said there was anything wrong with
this film, it would have to be solely because I can't
admit that someone else made a perfect film.
The
hubris in making a black and white silent picture (shot
on video) in the 21st century is galling; the fact that
it still turned out so well only adds to the legendary
genius (madness?) of Leman and Branney. I will even go
so far to say that their Call of Cthulhu is a film
that all future Lovecraft adaptations will be compared
to. This is the watermark, people.
So
my biggest complaint: How is the HPLHS going to top this?
Watch carefully, this could be their breakthrough film
into the world of bigger budget features.
|
Shorts
Block Two:
I
went for all the shorts on one night. This second block had
some great stuff in it as well as the first, such as:
(I
missed "Arcane", sorry, talking to people too
much)
The
Lovecraft Syndrome (directed by David Schmidt):
A woman who experienced something terrible loses her grip
on reality. More rape therapy than cosmic horror, however,
has a great scene where the main character "wigs
out" while talking about the correlation of Lovecraft'
s writing to everything else in the world.
The King in Yellow (Emiliano Guarneri): A great
short from Italy featuring elements of Chambers, including
his infamous play. There's some great acting, cinematography,
editing and music in here. Everything goes right, although
the story is a cliché …yet inspired by one
of the original tropes of the cliché, so it is
forgivable. Nice to see someone else take a swing at Chambers'
work.
|
|
|
|
R'lyeh:
The only animated short this year (an anomaly), this French
flick directed by Mikael Genachte-Bail and Gaetan Boutel
(great names) was pretty good, despite a little CG clunkiness.
However, there's a brilliant scene where the main character's
reality slips away. Worth seeing again.
The
Courtesy Nudge (IMDb):
Directed by Jacob Hair. A hilarious short based on someone
who spends too much time huffing paint fumes. Bad things
happen. Very gross, very gory, very funny.
Night
of the Octopus: (directed by Matthew Rankin): A hilarious
short from Quebec, it's not quite Mythos, but it is about
a man losing
his mind (due to a bad breakup), and being stalked by
an octopus. Big
|
March
the 13th,
1941 (IMDb):
Directed by Robert Olsson, this Swedish piece is one
of the Carter adaptations. I don't remember much about
it (not great, not terrible).
It's
the Great Cthulhu: Another short by Jon Cazares
and Brian Wood (who did Antiques Roadshow), these
two are defining themselves as the ultimate Cthulhu
comedians. This one is a take off of "It's
the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!" cartoon,
but with a gigantic sea monster. Sex on the beach included,
these filmmakers show us what I imagine most Lovecraft
fans are like (based on my limited experience).
|
|
 |
The
Vessel (IMDb),
directed by Jason Voss and Robert Rundle, is, unfortunately,
at least twice as long as it needs to be at 25 minutes.
A Goth girl steals a spellbook, casts a spell, summons ancient
evil. Jason's great artwork gets a lot of screen time (too
much screen time?), and the girl doesn't show off her goodies,
so this is best watched in fast forward.
ReCreation:
Another by Ed Martin, starring Jason Custer and the Mad
Martian, this little set-at-home piece is about loss,
quantum mechanics, dreams, and reality. No production
value (takes place between two guys in an apartment),
but still, short enough and
|
|
original
enough to sit through.
I
also have to say that Ed Martin, the most prolific Lovecraft
filmmaker, knows how and when to end his films. They may
not look like much, but he leaves you with a bang, and
that's a great talent to have.
|
|
Late
Bloomer (IMDb):
This is the film adaptation of Clay McLeod's Broadway
performance, directed by Craig Macnell. Simply put: seventh
grade sex ed class as seen through the eyes of a young
Lovecraft. Have you ever REALLY looked at the diagram
of the female reproductive organ and compared it to a
Mythos monster?
Clay
came out to the fest and performed his one-man routine
a few times over the weekend, and it's absolutely hilarious.
The film is a little more unnerving, simply because of
the young kids involved. Nevertheless, it's not exploitative,
and the lead actor (Sam
|
|
| Borenzweig)
is pretty good. |
I'm
glad I didn't have to deal with the parents of any of the kids
(a full classroom's worth). Well shot, very funny. See the performance
if you can.
Saturday
night, Patti Smith performed for us. She read some of Lovecraft's
poems, some of her own, and sang a few songs with a borrowed
acoustic guitar. She was very quiet during the shmoozing, but
on stage, her presence and personality won over the SRO crowd.
Her love of Lovecraft (one of her imaginary boyfriends, she
calls him) was easily apparent, and hearing his words read through
her mouth added a huge dimension to an author that I normally
think of as nihilistic, uncaring, hateful. But it's obvious
he was far from a pure curmudgeon, and it was amazing to see
Lovecraft's passion for history, for art, for astronomy come
alive through such a legendary personality. It's one thing for
fan boys such as myself to be inspired by Lovecraft, it's another
for major artists to be as well.
Kudos
to Andrew Migliore for his persistence in getting her to the
festival, and great thanks to Patti for giving us a little of
her time and talent.
I
missed the Howie award ceremony this year, given to actor Christopher
Heyerdahl for his uncanny portrayal of HP Lovecraft in Out
of Mind. It was great to hang out with Christopher, who,
despite his long hair and beard, still exhibits tics and traits
I now think Lovecraft had.
As
I carried some HPLHS merchandise back to Andrew's house, Christopher
opened the door for me, bowing very low (he's taller than I
am), and saying, in a sonorous voice, "Yeeessss?"
I had to stop and savor the moment (although I missed him and
Bryan Moore reenacting the scene where Lovecraft and Carter
meet in the movie). I hope Chris can make it to more of the
festivals.
There
were many question and answer opportunities with the filmmakers
after the films, but I didn't stay for many of them; I either
needed to reload on sugar and caffeine or empty out the bladder
to make room for more. But, for those interested, many of the
filmmakers were on hand to talk about their labors to the audience.
Sunday
brought the annual brunch at Andrew's, another great tradition.
This time, I wisely waited until the homemade French toast (with
homemade maple syrup laden with sliced walnuts, almonds, and
dried cranberries) arrived before I dug into my food (there's
a caterer that brings other goodies, but the French toast is
a special treat, this year whipped up by Linda and her new sous
chef, Kirsten).
This
year, we were treated to a new teller of the "Dog Head
Story", from the firsthand perspective to John Tynes.
One of the most revealing parts of the story is that Tynes may
be the Messiah.
Fully
loaded with brunch, we tromped back to the theater for the last
day of films. It was going to be a long day, as I scheduled
myself to see only the features, yet skipping Marebito
and Forbidden Quest, which I may rent on video someday.
Or not. I did, however, manage to catch:
 |
Beyond
the Wall of Sleep (IMDb)
by Barret Leigh and Thom Maurer
This
reminds me of another indie feature that screened a few
years ago, The
Attic Expeditions. This film is based on Lovecraft's
story of an asylum inmate who talks to Elder Gods, and
the doctors who want to do the same. This flick makes
Stuart Gordon's Re-Animator look tame (well,
except for the severed-head cunnilingus, that's not tame).
This film, in production for years, has acting that is
so over the top, the characters come out their own asses.
There's no one likable in the picture, except maybe the
orderly that stands around until it's necessary to smash
the evil resonator-like machine. After a certain point,
instead of walking out, I started laughing, because it
was so bad,
|
it
was enjoyable.
Good money was spent on this, and they do have the acting
talents of Tom
Savini (in one scene) and William
Sanderson (who plays the possessed psycho in touch with
the Great Old Ones). |
If
big gulp scene chewing, one great location, good props, a few
buckets of gore, a mix of black and white and color footage,
and the trend of fast cutting, "jitter-cam" and "shaky
stop motion head" style of horror films is your thing,
then stop watching scrambled porn on cable, leave the roadkill
where it is, pick up a six of Coors light, fire up the last
of your pipeweed, and enjoy. Otherwise, forget it.
|
After
the dinner break, I watched Strange
Aeons:
The Thing on the Doorstep, by two filmmakers
whose names are not in the program (and I'm too lazy to
look it up. You look it up and prove how smart you are
to everyone). (Please note:
Strange Aeons was directed by Eric Morgret and
written by Kelly Young)
Anyway,
this feature had a number of things going for it; first,
they updated the original story well, going exactly in
the direction you should go with a tale of an evil power
hungry sorceress who is possessed by her distant male
ancestor, and that's into SEX.
|
 |
There
are some great moments including intriguing notions of "feeling
you inside me" screw scenes and a little nudity of an attractive
woman to boot!
Second,
the lead actor who played Prof. Upton was good. The very last
scene of the movie is pretty powerful, mostly due to his performance.
Third,
the script and direction were at least competent.
However,
there were some minor problems: the camera was often not placed
in the best location, nor did it move much in the shot. Visual
repetition begins to wear on the viewer (at least this one),
and despite the good story, the clunky editing from static shot
to static shot began to wear on me, and my eyelids grew heavy.
I wish the filmmakers would have paid more attention to production
design, for some of the locations looked a little too real…that
is, boring.
Nevertheless,
I'd be interested to see what's next in the Strange Aeons
series (they plan on starting a franchise, similar to the Tales
From the Crypt HBO series of movies), and, given some more
experience (and money, maybe), they might be able to put out
a pretty tight adaptation.
I
took another break (need to move around or pass out in the theater),
before watching the last two flicks:
HP
Lovecraft:
The Terror Within (IMDb),
is a Blair Witch Project rip off, concerning a supposed
"lost letter" of Lovecraft that he wrote while visiting
some remote villages in Italy. A modern film crew retraces Lovecraft's
steps, discovering the true source for "The Shadow Over
Innsmouth".
Italy
is gorgeous, and I wanted to step into every frame that flickered
by…but I also wanted to strangle the people in the way
of the beautiful history and architecture, because they were
obnoxious and useless. My wife had to leave this screening before
barfing from all the hand held camera work. I managed to hold
my bile down (although closing my eyes for minutes at a time
certainly helped) and get through this. It's not a bad idea,
and I can see what the filmmakers were going for, but I'd rather
watch an episode of "Backpack Explorer" instead.
 |
Finally,
I watched the last flick on my list, Stuart Gordon's Dreams
in the Witch House, part of Showtime's "Masters
of Horror" series. I skipped the simultaneous
Secret Screening to catch Stuart's show. Plus, there are
only so many bad movies I can stand in a weekend, and since
there weren't that many this time around, I didn't want
to ruin a good batting average by watching Elwood again--although
I miss him now. Andrew also showed something else at the
Secret Screening that should not be seen by human eyes (or
worse, heard by human ears--that accursed MIDI song created
by a tone-deaf shoggoth won't get out of my head!) that
is best left unmentioned.
Anyway, Stuart's piece was surprisingly slow, but a faithful,
albeit |
| modern,
adaptation of the story. It stars Ezra
Godden of Dagon, playing roughly the same type
of character in the previous feature. Now he rents a room
in a haunted house where a witch tries to get him to kill
a baby. Brown Jenkin, the witch's rat-like familiar, is,
unfortunately, funnier than scary (although it's better
than a ferret). The effects aren't bad, and the climax works,
but it takes a long time to get there (although not as long
as that OTHER version). It'll play on Showtime in November,
and the whole series will be released on DVD next spring,
I believe. I almost find myself wishing Stuart would go
back to the gross-out comedy, because his serious adaptations
seem to fall just short of the goal line. Still, his devotion
to Lovecraft, at least for one filmmaker working in Hollywood,
warrants acknowledgment, and his winning of the Brown Jenkin
Award (new this year, and amazing looking), is perfectly
appropriate and well-deserved. |
It
was late by the time we had everything packed up and moved out
of the theater, and I had the mad idea to go to Voodoo donuts,
originally suggested by Kirsten. This amazing donut place has
weird hours (10pm-10am, or something else arcane), which would
be perfect for a delirious horde of Lovecraft fans, however,
they closed at 1am on Sunday. Thanks to Bridget (sp?) who heard
our suggestion, she managed to call ahead and Fast Talk her
way into getting the bakery to open up just for us. We samples
about two dozen donuts, from the Cock N Bull (donut shaped like
male genitalia, with cream filling) to one with a Fruit Loop
cereal topping. We didn’t get the bacon donut or their
signature piece, a donut shaped like a gingerbread man, filled
with raspberry cream and plastered with a look of horror on
his chocolate-glazed face. I hope Voodoo donuts becomes a tradition
at the festival, because I want to eat a shoggoth donut.
That
night, while the remaining Lurkers and friends enjoyed late
night donuts and the comfort of Andrew's living room, we started
trading stories again. It was so late, though, that I thought
Andrew was going to fall asleep in mid-sentence. So we left
the stories for another night, and we headed off to bed (or,
in my case, the floor; which brought back memories of my first
year in Chicago).
The
sad thing is that we never have enough time to sit around and
chat with each other; there's either too many people, too little
time, or my ego is too big to listen, so I come away knowing
scant more about people than I did going in. Rarely do I meet
the new filmmakers (sorry!), so I'm not keeping up with current
trends. But I realize how good the Festival must be if my biggest
gripe is that I don't have more time.
Monday
was the requisite too-short trip to Powell's Bookstore, and
then a ride to the airport for Byran and Heather (who were,
as always, extremely well-dressed), a few beers in the bar while
watching the Yankees-Angels playoff game, a flight back home,
and here I am.
Five
films for next year, that's what I have to do.
-
Aaron Vanek
|
