Trans-Atlantian news circa 1930...

Check out the new newsreel-style teaser trailer for Richard Edwin Stripling Jr.'s adaptation of At the Mountains of Madness...

(Thanks to Richard Edwin Stripling Jr.)

Aklonomicon book trailer...

Canadian filmmaker Brendan Petersen, of Appalling Productions, has created an amazing trailer for the forthcoming tome, the Aklonomicon! Contributors include Dave Carson, Andrea Bonazzi, Ivan McCann, Joe Pulver, Laird Barron, Mike Dubisch, Nick Gucker, Robin Spriggs, Scott Nicolay, Ted E Grau and many, many more...

Check it out below...

 
(Thanks to Joe Pulver)

Eric Zann to play again...

H.P. Lovecraft's short story The Music of Erich Zann, my personal favorite, has been adapted multiple times (see Unfilmable.com's Lovecraft Theatre for examples), but I still get excited every time I discover a new one, and this time is no different! Funding on this latest version is underway, via IndieGoGo, and so far, they've reached the half-way point with a little over two weeks remaining...

The short film, to be directed by Jonathan Bloom, follows young Victor Strahovsky, a shy musician with a crippling case of stage fright, who moves to an old apartment building in hopes of practicing for his upcoming concert in private. During the night, he begins to hear a haunting tune echoing from upstairs, where on the highest floor lives Erich Zann, a mute former violin maestro, who lost his place in the spotlight years ago, and has now turned to forces not of this world to regain his former glory...

Pre-production, including casting and location scouting, is currently underway in Helsinki, Finland...

Check out wreckamovie.com, indiegogo.com and the production blog for more...

 

(Thanks to wreckamovie.com)

Do you read Sutter Cane...

There will be a rare screening of John Carpenter's 1994 Lovecraftian masterpiece In the Mouth of Madness (the third film in his "Apocalypse Trilogy" featuring the equally Lovecraftian films, The Thing and Prince of Darkness) at the New Beverly in Los Angeles this Saturday (April 16th) at 11:59 P.M. Producer Sandy King will be on-hand for a pre-screening Q&A...

Click here for details...

(Thanks to bloody-disgusting.com)

A street drug called soy sauce...

Not exactly news, but Don Coscarelli tweeted (ugh) this and I had to share...

"it's a street drug called the soy sauce" JOHN DIES AT THE END is my first experience making a movie with a character that's a chemical...

- Don Coscarelli

(Thanks to Don Coscarelli)

Roger Corman to attend the 2011 HPLFF...

Legendary movie icon Roger Corman will be attending the 2011 H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival in San Pedro, California! He will be on hand to accept the "Howie" award for contributions to Lovecraft cinema. Corman was the first director to adapt Lovecraft when he made The Haunted Palace in 1963, starring Vincent Price. The film will also be screening at the event...

Click here for ticket information...

(Thanks to Aaron Vanek)

Re-Animator: The Musical shows added...

Stuart Gordon's latest theater outing Re-Animator: The Musical has received extended life, much like Dr. West's unfortunate test subjects! More shows have been added, including Friday night midnight shows and Sunday afternoon matinee performances (at 3:30 PM)...

The show, much like Gordon's previous theater production Nevermore, is getting rave reviews and includes a "splash zone" with effects being handled by the same team that worked on the 1985 classic; Tony Doublin, John Naulin, and John Beuchler. The cast includes Harry S. Murphy, Chris L. McKenna, and Jesse Merlin, Rachel Avery, Mark Beltzman, Cynthia Carle, Marlon Grace, Brian Gillespie, Liesel Hanson and Graham Skipper as Herbert West...

Head over to the Steve Allen Theater site for ticket information...

Check out the reviews from Dread Central, The Hollywood Reporter, the Los Angeles Times, FEARnet, FEARnet (review #2), the Daily Trojan and shocktillyoudrop.com, as well as several interviews from npr.org, FEARnet and Dread Central, that have appeared over the show's initial run...

(Thanks to dreadcentral.com and various sources)

More talk of Toads...

Spectacular Optical, the official webzine of the Fantasia International Film Festival, caught up with Karim Hussain, Richard Stanley and Douglas Buck to talk The Theatre Bizarre, their Grand Guignol-inspired anthology horror film (along with Buddy Giovinazzo and Tom Savini). Of interest to readers of Unfilmable.com, Richard Stanley talks about his adaptation of Clark Ashton Smith's Mother of Toads...

"In The Mother of Toads I wanted to take the archetypal figure of a medieval witch, ably embodied by Catriona McColl and recontextualize her for the 21st century, putting the original folk myths through the filter of the twilight worlds of Fulci, Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith."

- Richard Stanley

Click here for more...

(Thanks to Terra Umbra - Empire of Shadows)

Greenlight Mountains of Madness...

I'm late on this one...

Dear Universal Studios,

"At The Mountains of Madness" scares you. You fear the risk in funding such a movie. You fear the film will not bring in enough profit, when in fact a fresh film like this is exactly what the industry needs. This film will take the horror genre to new places. This is your chance to be credited as a modern day pioneer studio. This is your chance to be the studio willing to take the risk and make something original in a time of uninspired remakes and reboots. Fearing the outcome of a risky venture is understandable, but risks are unavoidable. This petition should ease your fears of the outcome somewhat, as everyone signing it is doing so as a promise to see this movie in theaters. Yes, we are asking you to take us on our word. We want to show you just how much this movie is needed. We want you to make "At The Mountains of Madness". We want it to scare us.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

Sign the petition here...

(Thanks to Justin Steele)

From the Ocean it came...

Shooting gets underway this week on Baby, David Poff's Lovecraft inspired thesis film starring Shannon Lark! The film, which is lensing in San Francisco, tells the story of Pandora, a young woman who is abandoned by her husband after he finds out she is unable to have children. Failing to cope, she escapes to the beach where he first proposed to commit suicide, but there she discovers an infant that has been washed ashore. They bond instantly. Unknown to Pandora, strange and terrible things start happening after she takes in the infant, including the disappearance of her husband after a brief reunion. In the end, she comes to terms with the fact that their marriage wasn't working and resumes her life with the baby...

More as it becomes available...

(Thanks to Steve Hergina, Shannon Lark and David Poff)

Lovecraft as Theatre

Over at More Intelligent Life, writer Jason Zinoman is considering why H.P. Lovecraft adaptations might be more suitable to theatre than cinema.

He begins with a recount of Guillermo Del Toro's recent false starts, touches on why Lovecraft is important to horror writers, and quotes Lovecraft's thoughts on movies. But perhaps HPL's works are in fact right for theatrical performance...

Films may be unable to truly capture a sense of what Lovecraft called “cosmic awe”. But another form not generally associated with horror has recently proved to be a more natural home: the theatre. To appreciate why Lovecraft is a perfect writer for the stage, it’s necessary to understand his worldview—what you might call his philosophy of fear.

Zinoman goes on to review a review of the six-story adaptation now playing in New York's East Village.

But it’s doubtful any show could capture his spooky enigmatic quality better than Radiotheater, which mounts six Lovecraft stories (along with “The Dunwich Horror” and “Pickman’s Model”) performed by four actors speaking into microphones in solitary spotlights. Creepy music, a few light cues and a burst of smoke are the only design. This chilling production concentrates attention on the voice, the words and, most importantly, the darkness... The minimalism of this production is not merely style. It faithfully supports Lovecraft’s philosophy. If the strongest fear is of the unknown, then the monster itself is less terrifying once it is revealed.

It's an interesting angle for a theatre review. I actually just came from seeing a play this afternoon -- and it always strikes me how vastly different writing, acting, and presentation styles are when you contrast theatre to cinema.

Theatre is about words, and Lovecraft loved the use of prose. Cinema is about emotion, imagery, and interpretation of the ideas contained in prose.

I would argue that the sense of "cosmic awe" that Lovecraft didn't see in film versions of Dracula and Frankenstein was a problem of its time. In the decades since, we have seen cinematic artists push the form into areas that audiences of the 1930s never would have predicted. Is it the SAME as reading fiction? Do all stories benefit from a literal plot adaptation? No, but I imagine Lovecraft would have some appreciation for films like 2001, Alien, Uzumaki, and Pi.

Read "Stories of Darkness" at moreintelligentlife.com

Find out more about Radiotheatre's Lovecraft Festival at radiotheatrenyc.com

Pickman's Masterpiece...

Containing imagery as good as any I've seen in film, Pickman's Masterpiece is a series of photographs by Joshua Hoffine that tell the story of Pickman revelation to Thurber in Pickman's Model. Shot for Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine (see issue #255), Joshua set out to "create a sequence of images as if they were shots from a scene in an old Hammer movie." You can check out the images on his official site, or over at his behind-the-scenes blog...

(Thanks to Steve Hergina and cherrybombed.com)

Reading leads to terrible consequences...

Made using Adobe Photoshop and After Effects, The Book is the latest short film from ReDCroW design, and shows that no matter how interesting a book of spells may seem, you should always stay away from cyclopean literature...

(Thanks to Armando)

Six Shots by Moonlight teaser online...

The teaser trailer for Joester Films latest animated short based on Herbert West-Reanimator is now online! In Six Shots by Moonlight West and Daniel Cain are now licensed doctors, and have gone into practice together as the physicians in the small New England town of Bolton, having purchased a house near the town's cemetery so as to have consistent access to corpses. Still intent upon successfully reanimating a human being, they claim the body of a black boxing champion who died of a head wound in an illegal back-alley street fight...

Check it out below...

(Thanks to Joester Films)

The Black Book...

The Black Book is a short animation based on HPL's unfinished story The Book. The film revolves around a young man who finds an ancient, dangerous book, which gives him the power to visit strange dimensions. Check out the Cosmic Ghost blog for some behind-the-scenes images, and make sure to watch The Black Book below...

Balázs Rónyai, the filmmaker behind the short, plans to do more Lovecraft themed films, so watch this space for more...

(Thanks to Balázs Rónyai)

Lovecraft Spoof to kick-off Motor City Nightmares...

For Immediate Release:

SKF's Lovecraft Spoof to Kick-Off Motor City Nightmares Weekend of Horrors Film Festival

Stunt Kitty Films (SKF) is pleased to announce their latest short film, "A Fish Called Martha or: Who's Really Afraid of H.P. Lovecraft Anyway?" will have it's world premiere at the Motor City Nightmares Weekend of Horrors Film Festival (MCNFF) in Novi, Michigan.

Rob Robinson (writer/producer), having grown up in nearby Plymouth, could not think of a better event to premiere SKF's latest effort while helping to show support for the fledgling Michigan film industry. "If Michigan had the film industry 25 years ago that it has now; I might not have ever felt the need to relocate to California after graduation. But then of course I wouldn't have met my collaborative partner, actress and director Debora Roventini."

It's out of the frying pan and into George and Martha's rumpus room for a night of supernatural mambo jumbo when young H.P. and his slim-hipped wife, fleeing a monster of comic proportions, seek refuge on the campus of the infamous Miskatonic University in the outrageous supernatural spoof starring Ken MacFarlane (Caesar and Otto's Summer Camp Massacre and SKF's The Golem), William Bertrand (SKF's Attack of the Baby Doll), Lyle Palaski and Debora Roventini who also directs.

You can view the trailer at stuntkittyfilms.com/fish/trailer

"A Fish Called Martha..." is part of SKF's Hollyweird Collection of short films which also includes "Whatever Happened to Debora Roventini?" and "Blob on a Hot Tin Roof".

The filmmakers, who will be in attendance, encourage everyone in the Metro Detroit area who love their horror on the silly side to come out and see the show and say hello.

Stunt Kitty Films is a micro-budget film studio based in North Hollywood, California.

http://www.stuntkittyfilms.com/

The Motor City Nightmares Weekend of Horrors - Horror, Sci Fi and Comics Convention and Film Festival runs April 15th-17th at the Sheraton Detroit Novi, 21111 Haggerty Road, Novi, Michigan

http://www.motorcitynightmares.com/

Screening time for SKF's "A Fish Called Martha or: Who's Really Afraid of H.P. Lovecraft Anyway?" is 5pm, Friday April 15th, 2011.

(Thanks to Rob and Deb)

JDatE movie news round-up...

John Cheese, partner in crime to writer David Wong, has gathered up every last drop of John Dies at the End movie news and dropped it in a shiny metal canister! The film, written and directed by cult filmmaker Don Coscarelli, will land sometime in 2012...

Check it out here...

(Thanks to John Cheese and quietearth.us)

Join Charles Dexter Ward's mystical cult...

Chris Lackey and Chad Fifer, creators of the H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast, have uploaded their hilarious 2009 "TV pilot" The Ward, which revolves around a rare book collector's (Charles Dexter Ward, played by Chad Fifer) bumbling efforts to draw a young woman into his mystical cult. Andrew Leman (The Call of Cthulhu) appears as Joseph Ward...

Check it out below...

(Thanks to Chris Lackey and Chad Fifer)

Behind-the-scenes with The Statement of Randolph Carter...

Now here is something we would love to see more of, a rare behind-the-scenes look at the making of a Lovecraft film! The video shows the first night of shooting on Jason P. Hunt & Timothy Harvey's adaptation of The Statement of Randolph Carter...

About the film: During an interrogation into the disappearance of Professor Harley Warren, Randolph Carter recounts their foray into the dark cemetery, where he and Warren excavate a grave - revealing a passage to a dark underworld. Carter's recollection of events take the detectives through the horrifying events of the night, leading up to the terror of what lies beneath the stone slab in the graveyard...

(Thanks to Jason P. Hunt)

Lovecraft lives at the Imagimovies Festival...

For those of you in the Los Angeles area, the Famous Monsters of Filmland Imagimovies Festival is almost upon you! To be held April 8th through the 10th at Laemmle's Music Hall 3 in Beverly Hills, Lovecraftian filmmaker Aaron Vanek has compiled a nice section of Lovecraft films for the event...

Screenings include David Prior's AM1200, Andrew Leman's The Call of Cthulhu, Andrew Jones's Frank DanCoolo: Paranormal Drug Dealer, Late Bloomer by Craig Macneil, Henry Saine's The Last Lovecraft: Relic of Cthulhu, The Necronomicon by Joseph Nanni and the short films of Richard Corben (Dagon, The Canal, Recognition)...

There will be a H.P. Lovecraft panel featuring Aaron Vanek, Andrew Leman and more, as well as a Last Lovecraft panel featuring members of the cast and crew...

Stuart Gordon's Lovecraft inspired feature Castle Freak (based on The Outsider) will also screen with composer Richard Band in attendence...

Horror legends Vincent Price and Stephen King are also well represented...

Details can be found here...

(Thanks to imagimovies.com)

News from the Zone...

Our epic interview with visionary filmmaker Richard Stanley received a mention over at Between Death and the Devil - The Unofficial Richard Stanley Website! There's been a lot of activity in the 'zone' lately with the release of Richard's Shadow of the Grail (purchase the enhanced version here), an article in Fortean Times magazine on Otto Rahn and the Holy Grail, continued work on the Clark Ashton Smith inspired short Mother of Toads, and the release of a teaser trailer for the long lost film In a Season of Soft Rains (see below)...
 

Compiled by filmmaker Emiliano Ranzani from the only existing footage of Stanley's underground movie from the mid-80's, In a Season of Lost Rains deals with an American hitman assigned to assassinate the last member of the Royal family in a mutant-riddled, flooded, futuristic London...



(Thanks to William Wilson, everythingisundercontrol.org and Scarlett Amaris)

Updated: Finding Lovecraft: Life is a Hideous Thing...

Finding Lovecraft: Life is a Hideous Thing is a new feature-length "documentary fantasy" currently lensing in Lovecraft's own Providence, Rhode Island! In making the film, the cast and crew have set out to explore the unique legacy of HPL, while using a mix of narrative and documentary storytelling, in which a Lovecraft-inspired story unfolds as the filmmakers delve into the life of H.P. Lovecraft through research and interviews...

The project, written and directed by and starring Cat Hainfeld, also stars Jim Wolpaw (who co-wrote and co-produced), Steve Gervais, Stanley Matis, Mark Taber, Bernard Larrivee, Jr and James Christopher White. Lovecraftian filmmaker Anthony Penta (The Hound) helped with camera operations...

Check out the extended trailer at the official site...

Update: Check out the extended trailer below...



(Thanks to findinglovecraft.com)

Strange Aeons #5 on the horizon...

Issue #5 of Unfilmable.com's favorite magazine, Strange Aeons will be available soon, and you can check out some of the amazing artwork from the issue below! The latest issue of Aeons features Robert M. Price's Lost Gods of Lemuria, Lee Davis's Through Demon Skin, Vin Ferrante's Window on the Old World, Ben Hansen's Night of the Driving Dead, Rob Corless's Hell Dorado and more...

You can pick it up through the official site, or better yet, ask your local comic book store to carry it...

cover image © Brett MacDonald

Hell Dorado  © Laurence Amiotte and Rob Corless

Night of the Driving Dead  © K.L. Young and Ben Hansen

(Thanks to Kelly Young)

Paul Giamatti talks John Dies at the End...

While Don Coscarelli (Phantasm) has been a little tight-lipped in regards to his adaptation of David Wong's John Dies at the End, news has filtered out occasionally thanks to actor Paul Giamatti, who plays a small part in the film...

Head over to reelnewz.com for a short video interview, then check out indiewire.com for more...

(Thanks to reelnewz.com and indiewire.com)

The Festival is almost upon us...

Richard Terrasi's The Festival will have its world premiere screening at the Pelham Picture House, in Pelham, New York! Details are forthcoming...

(Thanks to Richard Terrasi)

Lovecraft Writes a Letter...

Filmmaker Mark Redfield is hard at work developing a new play titled Lovecraft Writes a Letter, that will star Matthew Bowerman as H.P. Lovecraft! Mark will produce and direct the play, which is set to debut sometime in 2011...

Watch this space for more...

image © Mark Redfield

(Thanks to Mark Redfield)

H.P. Lovecraft: Re-Animated updated...

Mike Boas' animated short The Other Gods, and an exclusive clip from The Whisperer in Darkness have been added to H.P. Lovecraft: Re-Animated, which debuts April 15th in London, England...

Other events include live Lovecraft readings (performed by The Fitzrovia Radio Hour), the launch of SelfMadeHero's latest graphic novel The Lovecraft Anthology: Volume I, comedian and crooner H.P. Lovebox, period music, a Lovecraft quiz and more, all hosted by the H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast's Chris Lackey...

Tickets can be purchased here...

(Thanks to Mike Boas)

The Key To Annabel Lee official trailer...

The official trailer for Staci Layne Wilson's Poe adaptation, The Key To Annabel Lee (A Woman In Triptych) is now online, and can be seen below, The film features Wilson, as well as Ogre, the iconic frontman for the industrial band Skinny Puppy. Cherilyn Wilson and Corrie Shenigo also star...

Several screenings have already been lined up including the Famous Monsters of Filmland and Viscera, Women In Horror film festivals...

(Thanks to Mike Boas and twitchfilm.com)

Cthulhu Films tackles Madness...

News broke recently that Cthulhu Films and Michele Botticelli, creators of the fan favorite A Lovecraft Dream (watch it here), will next tackle Lovecraft's epic novella, At the Mountain's of Madness! A trailer for the film, created in association with Sebastián Ohaco, can be seen below...

Look for an exclusive interview with Michele Botticelli and Sebastián Ohaco, coming soon from Unfilmable.com...

(Thanks to Sebastián Ohaco)

Pick up The Dunwich Horror on iTunes...

Colin Edwards audio horror film, The Dunwich Horror, is now available on iTunes! Narrated by Scottish radio and television star Greg Hemphill, the film stars Gavin Mitchell (as Wilbur Whateley), Innes Smith, Vivien Taylor, Charlie Ross and Vivien Grahame...

Check out the trailer below, and pick up a copy on iTunes...

(Thanks to shocktillyoudrop.com)

Steve Daniels unleashes Dirty Silverware...

Dirty Silverware, the lastest short film from Dirt Dauber writer/director Steve Daniels is a dark, whimsical fantasy in which a man travels deep into the forest to stop a creature from creating cursed silverware that brings unhappiness to the world...

The film, which was created with a grant from the South Carolina Film Commision, plays heavily upon the fear of the unknown, and according to Steve, "is a pulpy, weird tale that would be right at home with any short from the wierd circle." He hopes to submit it to the 2011 H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival...

It was shot using a Canon 5D Mark II...

(Thanks to Steve Daniels)

Miskantonic River Press to pay homage to Ligotti and Chambers...

For Immediate Release:

     We're proud and delighted to announce two releases we have coming in 2012.

     

     Thomas Ligotti is beyond doubt one of the Grandmasters of Weird Fiction. And in The Grimiscribe's Puppets editor Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. has commissioned many of today's most acclaimed authors of weird fiction and horror to contribute all new tales that pay homage to Ligotti and celebrate his eerie and essential nightmares. Poppy Z. Brite once asked, 'Are you out there, Thomas Ligotti?' This anthology proves not only is he alive & well, but his extraordinary illuminations have proven to be a visionary and fertile treasury of inspiration for some of today's best authors.

     The Grimscibe's Puppets will be released Fall 2012.

     A Season in Carcosa is a loving tribute to Robert W. Chambers' beguiling creation, The King in Yellow. Again, editor Joseph S. Pulver, Sr., long a devout and vocal advocate of RWC, has commissioned many of today's most respected horror and "Weird" authors to contribute all new tales that spring from the haunted realms that Chambers' infamous "play" and characters spring from. H. P. Lovecraft himself believed Chambers to among the finest practitioners of the Weird Tale and Pulver returns to the roots of the King In Yellow with these tales that are inspired by the transcendent "core" tales and avoid the tentacles and trapping of the Cthulhu Mythos authors like August Derleth tethered it to.

     A Season in Carcosa will be released in Summer 2012.

(Thanks to Joe Pulver and Tom Lynch)

New Pickman's Model film announced...

Devinshire Jamestown Pictures and just some guy productions, who are currently wrapping up The Statement of Randolph Carter, have announced that their next Lovecraft film will be Pickman's Model...

Details on both projects are forthcoming...

(Thanks to Jason P Hunt)

Purity seeks funding...

With funding currently underway on Russell Bellew's Purity (from a story by Thomas Ligotti), the filmmaker sends word that there has been a small shakeup in the cast, but that the principal cast of David Wassilak, Sean Green, Kim Marie Fikes, Matthew Amend and Samantha Smith is still intact. Locations for the film have also been secured...

Keep up-to-date on all things Purity by visiting the official site, twitter and facebook pages, or head over to IndieGoGo to see how you can help...

(Thanks to Russell Bellew)

A Night of Lovecraftian Horror...

I'm really late on this, but I wanted to give a shout-out to our friends from down under, who will be screening The Last Lovecraft: Relic of Cthulhu and a block of Lovecraft inspired shorts later today...

Australia's A Night of Horror International Film Festival will screen Henry Saine's 2009 feature The Last Lovecraft as well as a block of Lovecraftian shorts including, Dagon (by Michael Chase), The Picture in the House (by Miles Finlayson), Fyren (by Unfilmable friend Robert P. Olsson), Call of Cthulhu (by Michael Chase), The Music of Erich Zann (by Ryan Atimoyoo), Rats in the Walls (by Alastair Macleod) and Nasty Stuff (by Isaac Ezban)...

Screenings are scheduled for 4-6 PM (shorts) and 7 PM (feature) today at the Dendy Cinema Newtown in Sydney, Australia. Click here for details...

(Thanks to Dean Bertram)

Casting call for Lovecraft inspired zombie film...

For Immediate Release:

Union & Non-Union

Unpaid

Casting call for a B&W Lovecraft inspired horror feature film called Creeping Paralysis. Two female roles in their 20's. This is an unpaid position, compensation will be food, beverages, and DVD copy of the finished film. This will be a fun experience learning the workings of making an independent film, not just in front of the camera, but also behind it, plus you get to act with zombies. Shooting will take place in June.

One character is tough Punk Rock/Mad Max like police officer! The other tough M-16 shooting, zombie killing Marine!

Send inquires below with resume and headshot.

Contact Person: Joe Lemieux

Company/Organization: Ion Spire Pictures

Click here for contact information...

(Thanks to newenglandfilm.com)