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HP Lovecraft Film Fest in Portland

Yog-sothoth be praised! The annual Lovecraft-inspired film festival is in Portland, Oregon October 7-9. With a promotional poster this stylish, you know the film fest will be good. Lovecraft is one of the masters of gothic horror, so if you like good (and sometimes cheesy) horror films, this is the weekend event for you. The schedule of films will be up soon. In the meantime, enjoy the list of entries this year:

Feature films will include: world premiere of Stuart Gordon's Dreams in the Witch House Marebito, Beyond the Wall of Sleep, Cast a Deadly Spell, Forbidden Quest, Strange Aeons: The Thing on the Doorstep, and The Dead Inside.

Shorts will include: Arcane, The Call of Cthulhu, The Gibbering Horror of Howard Ghormley, The Lovecraft Syndrome, Read me a Story, Ryleh, The Vessel, Late Bloomer, Experiment 17, The King in Yellow, March the 13th, 1941, The Courtesy Nudge, Let Sleeping Gods Lie, The Night of the Octopus, The Statement of Randolph Carter.

I will most definitely try to be there. In the meantime, read a Lovecraft short story or entertain yourself with one of these great Lovecraft inspired/influenced stories (free dammit! where were the internets when I was a kid and had to scrape money together for Galaxy?):

• The Concrete Jungle (my favorite, winner of the 2005 Hugo for best novella)
• A Colder War (faux-documentary of the 60's cold war)
• A Boy and His God (a nice childhood tale)

I just realized that all of these were written by Charlie Strosss. I know there are more stories out there - just can't find them. Either that or nobody else is writing new fiction under the influence of Lovecraft. Here's a quick backgrounder from wikipedia on Lovecraft, for the unknowing:

"Much of Lovecraft's work was directly inspired by his nightmares, and it is perhaps this direct insight into the subconscious and its symbolism that helps to account for their continuing resonance and popularity. All these interests naturally led to his deep affection for the works of Edgar Allan Poe, who heavily influenced his earliest macabre stories and writing style. Lovecraft's discovery of the stories of Lord Dunsany moved his writing in a new direction, resulting in a series of imitative fantasies in a "Dreamlands" setting. It was probably the influence of Arthur Machen, with his carefully constructed tales concerning the survival of ancient evil, and his mystic beliefs in hidden mysteries which lay behind reality, that finally helped inspire Lovecraft to find his own voice from 1923 onwards."

Update: "A Shoggoth on the Roof" Lovecraftian musical. "Sticky stuff everywhere. And the smell..." Outstanding.

Posted by Mark Thursday, September 22, 2005 8:42:00 PM | permalink |