Sunday, September 15, 2019
Unfilmable.com has a new home on Facebook!
You see, most of my free time takes place away from my computer, so I have to do all of my research and updates on my smart phone. Blogger, of course, is notoriously glitchy on mobile browsers, so that makes updating Unfilmable nearly impossible. Facebook, on the other hand, is very easy. It's also the home of many of the films and filmmakers that we cover, so that's an added convenience. Another thing we like is that we're able to gauge the type of articles, reviews and content that readers enjoy through likes and comments.
We've actually been going strong over on Facebook for a while, with many of the same contributors helping out. Some of the films we've covered recently include Richard Stanley's COLOR OUT OF SPACE, THE COLOUR OF MADNESS starring Barbara Crampton, the CASTLE FREAK "re-imagining", Aaron Vanek's THE FINAL REPORT OF HENRY BARROW, THE LIGHTHOUSE, SYNCHRONIC and so many more!
I would also like to take a moment to thank TOFF, Morgan Scorpion, Bob Brinkman and Lady Lovecraft for taking over the blog in my absence, and giving visitors original content to read. Your help and support mean a lot, and I appreciate you keeping the Unfilmable name in the public eye!
So if you're interested in following us on Facebook, please visit us here, and don't forget to like and share!
Friday, August 30, 2019
Fernando Reza's poster (and a ticket!) for Del Toro's At The Mountains of Madness
Ones that got away: posters for films that never happened – in pictureshttps://www.theguardian.com/film/gallery/2019/aug/30/movie-posters-films-never-happened-superman-lives-kaleidoscopeDesigner Fernando Reza has created a set of imaginary posters for films that couldn’t make it past pre-production, from Tim Burton’s Superman Lives to Alfred Hitchcock’s Kaleidoscope. Each print can be purchased and arrives with a fake movie ticket
Fri 30 Aug 2019 01.00 EDT
[...]
At The Mountains of Madness – Guillermo del Toro
‘Del Toro has demonstrated a passion for HP Lovecraft’s themes, creatures and settings throughout his entire career. At The Mountains of Madness would have seen Del Toro taking on one of Lovecraft’s most iconic novellas. In 2012, Ridley Scott made Prometheus, and the similarities in setting and tone were a key factor in the film not being made. Additionally, a disagreement on whether to go for a PG-13 or R seemed to further derail the film. The production was expensive and the studio was hesitant to invest in an R-rated film of that scale’
Photograph: Fernando Reza / Fro Design Company
Saturday, January 26, 2019
The Colour Out of Space + Nicholas Cage + Richard Stanley = roll for sanity?
actor Nicholas Cage's Saturn Films was in possession of the project, as explained by Rob, "As per the rumor of Nicholas Cage being involved, yes that is true. Cage is a die hard Lovecraft fan and while working on Adaptation, Joel Harlow mentioned the script and Cage wanted first look. Saturn Films (Cage's production company) is currently in possession of the project.There's a now a different chance at a Lovecraft-Cage project:https://unfilmable.blogspot.com/2009/08/theres-life-in-innsmouth.html
Voets, Cedric. "Nic Cage Has Met His Crazy Match In The New Lovecraft Movie." Cracked. January 25, 2019. http://www.cracked.com/article_26170_nic-cage-has-met-his-crazy-match-in-new-lovecraft-movie.htmlTo get an idea of how potentially creative and strange such a film could be with Richard Stanley directing, see for example two of his early genre films Hardware (1990) and Dust Devil (1992) (The Final Cut). To get an idea of how the man's mind developed since the 1990s, see the 2014 documentary Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau - he'd been the original director of the adaptation starring Marlon Brando with Nelson de la Rosa as Brando's "Mini Me."
Another potentially promising sign that Stanley might potentially be a good Lovecraftian director is his 2018 appearance at the HP Lovecraft Film Festival reading Clark Ashton Smith, a festival that screened a documentary about Smith in which Stanley appeared. See also the Richard Stanley interview on this blog from 2011!
Richard Stanley reads The Hashish-Eater from Darin Coelho on Vimeo.
The Colour Out of Space could be strange and wonderful, or bonkers but in a good way, or it could be the latest never-to-be-made HPL film... let's hope for the former?
Friday, May 4, 2018
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lawriebrewster/automata-feature-film-gothic-lovecraft-horror/description
The Trailer promises a thoroughly chilling experience for the horror lover. Shot in the Giallo style, and featuring a rather beautiful mechanical doll known as The Infernal Princess, this movie includes my genre favourite, Jonathan Hansler, as a (possibly undead) villain.
Just what the Lovecraft connection is, I cannot say. I don't want to spoil the plot. I can say that Lovecraft is not just about tentacled, extra-dimensional monsters: he uses other themes and tropes too.
The company, Hex Studios, is also behind three other movies, one of which is The Unkindness of Ravens, which has had some critical acclaim. They also created the Owlman, who has a cult following; one of the pledge options gets you an Owlman plushie. Not quite as cute as the Cthulhu plushie, but still!
Saturday, June 10, 2017
A Diversion. An audio version of When the Stars Are Right by William Meikle.
So S T Joshi doesn't like William Meikle. I do.
Friday, May 19, 2017
Argentinian director Marcelo Schapces' feature film Necronomicón (2017)
CANNES — “Clementina,” “Necronomicon” and “Our Evil” have made the cut for the Cannes Festival’s 2017 Blood Window showcase of the best and most promising in Latino – Latin American, Spanish, Italian – fantastic cinema. Departing from its prior format, the 4th Blood Window Cannes spread will offer 10-minute sneak previews of seven pix-in-post, plus the screening of three complete films endorsed by international fantastic film festivals. [...]Previewed, “Necronomicon (The Book from Hell)” is directed by director- producer Marcelo Schapces (“Velocity Begets Oblivion,” ”Juan and Eva”). A horror film inspired by the universe of H.P. Lovecraft, it follows Luis who investigates the mysterious death of Dieter, a librarian at the National Library of Buenos Aires, where a copy of the Necronomicon is hidden. Starring Federico Luppi, Luis Luque and Jorge Marrale, Necronomicon” is produced by Schapces’ Barakacine in Buenos Aires, which backed Carlos Saura’s “Zonda, Folclore Argentino.”
Mayorga, Emilio. "CANNES: ‘Clementina,’ ‘Necronomicon,’ ’Our Evil’ Set For Cannes’ 2017 Blood Window." Variety. May 19, 2017. http://www.variety.com/2017/film/festivals/cannes-film-festival-2017-ventana-sur-blood-window-1202437246/
NECRONOMICÓN TEASER from Mariano Suarez on Vimeo.
An interview with the director, in Spanish:
Casella, Patricio. "Interview with Marcelo Schapces, director of Necronomicón: El libro del infierno." Geeky. April 25, 2017. https://geeky.com.ar/entrevista-marcelo-schapces-director-necronomicon-libro-del-infierno/. For machine translation, try Google Translate: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=es&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fgeeky.com.ar%2Fentrevista-marcelo-schapces-director-necronomicon-libro-del-infierno%2F&edit-text=
Internet Movie Database webpage for the film: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4491146/combined
Tuesday, May 16, 2017
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The best of the movie posters. |
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One of the denizens of the deep. |
Tuesday, May 9, 2017
A regular feature (we hope) by guest fans of H P Lovecraft. Some of these guests will be authors, editors, reviewers, publishers or just plain fans. All will be welcome to promote any projects that they are involved with, Lovecraftian or not.
This week I am delighted to publish an essay by Brian M Sammons: editor, author and reviewer.
Then there are the actors, each and every one does an excellent job here, and the characters they are portraying are expertly written and realized. There’s not a bad performance in the bunch, but for me, the one that takes the top honors is Anne Ramsay as Deborah’s long suffering daughter, Sarah, and mostly
Thursday, April 20, 2017
Arkham Sanitarium, Soul Eater.
didn't give a shit any more.
Sunday, April 9, 2017
The Void.
I was looking forward to this movie with mingled hope and fear. Two kinds of fear in fact, the fear that it wouldn't live up to the hype, and the fear that it would. For if The Void lived up to the hype, it would be terrifying.
Nowadays, movies are hyped up so much that disappointment is almost inevitable. The wise punter allows for this, and consequently, won't be too let down by the reality.
The reality is, this is a good movie. It has flaws, but so does everything, including some of My favourite movies. It kept me watching right through to the end, which is a plus in itself. I was even motivated to watch it a second time, and found it had improved on second viewing. The first time I watched it I was in a bit of a strop about how long it took me to get it to play. I watched it on Amazon Instant Video and it took forever to get sorted. Bloody Silverlight! Anyway. Because of said strop, I was unable to concentrate on the first half of the movie, and I missed a few things that helped the movie make sense. I cannot tell you what, as this is a spoiler-free review.
I was not helped by the fact that the movie dragged in places in the first half. The characters have to be introduced, their backstories have to be filled in a little, the scene has to be set. Sadly for me the characters were totally uninteresting. I really didn't engage with any of them except a nursing trainee: Kim, played by Ellen Wong. Even when two rednecks broke into the hospital with violence on their minds I wasn't engaged. Unpleasant men with violence on their minds are ten a penny in horror movies. However, the special effects that were rationed out to us in the first half were enough to keep me watching. Monsters. With tentacles!
The second half is where this film really picks up, there are monsters galore, mutilated humans, mutated humans, mutilated and mutated humans, and in time, The Void begins to open. There are some inspired moments that drew the breath from my body. Some of the lines given to the main villain are wonderful, memorable. When enough people have seen the movie, I expect to see them quoted with the same frequncy as "We'll tear your soul apart!" and "Your suffering will be legendary, even in hell!"
There is a reason why Hellraiser comes to mind, and you'll see it yourself when you watch The Void. It is derivative, very derivative. You will be reminded of Hellraiser a lot; also of Baskin, The Thing, Prince of Darkness and possibly a little of Fulci's The Beyond.
Of course it's derivative, all movies are. Plots don't materialise out of thin air, even when the screenwriter writes from scratch. Even if the writer is not deliberately referencing any movie or book that has gone before, they won't be able to avoid using familiar tropes and scenarios. This doesn't make it a bad movie, but it does commit the error of reminding the viewer of better movies than the one they are watching.
In spite of it's flaws, I enjoyed this movie, and will certainly watch it again. It is not a great film, but I think it is a memorable one. Some images will stay with you, possibly forever. But I doubt the names of any of the protagonists will. The best thing about this movie? No CGI! It should get a gold star for that alone.