I'm back with some special news, I've decided to do some new interviews with live people and posting them on YouTube, look for that very soon.  Until then back to the grind.  First up is some very special news involving a film my best friend told me about years back.  Crawl Or Die, it wasn't until I looked it up and found a copy at local resale shop, and then months later I actually watched it.  Wow to my surprise, I was captivated for all ninety minutes I couldn't stop.  I even watched the extras, which normally I don't bother with, but the movie was so engulfing I couldn't resist.  And just recently I noticed via FaceBook live they were streaming some great news that part 2 is in the can and they needed help with post production costs, because it was shot in 4K! YES! It's very expensive to shoot this way so they have started a Kickstarter campaign to help finish the sequel.  Check out Kickstarter for Crawl or Die or go to CrawlorDietrilogy.com to find great perks for donations, and contests.

     Now back to the movie, Tank (Nicole Alfonso) is the baddest of the bad chicks in cinema today.  Her hair alone makes this movie worth watching. Lol, but I'm serious, she pulls it off with such style and flair it remarkable.  This movie has something for everyone badass action, stunts, comedy, beautiful women getting dirty, and the most terrifying creature.  If your claustrophobic, you will find this movie so frightening, you may just need to keep your lights on to see your surroundings.  

     Oklahoma Ward shows such style and grit in his delivery of such a dirty film.  It's mostly shot in tunnels, dripping with ooze and goo, with dirt and slime that I'm truly surprised he found anyone who would want to be the this for extended periods of time.  It's true feel is through the deep characterization of each and every cast member, the crew he assembled did such a dirty, nasty, filthy job in bringing this story to it's glory.  Oklahoma did his best to bring out the best in everyone involved, a true masterpiece of filmmaking.

     The story revolves around a virus that has destroyed all women from being fertile.  Until they found one and a group of soldiers are given the chance to bring her to safety to start repopulating the Earth.  And a creature with a thirst for blood, drives them underground into a series of tunnels to get to the New Earth 2, and the further along they go ammunition runs down, bodies pile up, and the fight to survive becomes a real struggle as the tunnels get smaller and smaller.

     The release of the film was 2014, seems like forever ago.  But the fans support has never wavered, for the need for a sequel, and it's finally here.  Plus you now get the chance to own some great perks from the film.  Please assist my new friends in helping them finish the post production, I assure you it will be well worth it.  CrawlorDietrilogy.com

Unfilmable.com has a new home on Facebook!

Hello, everyone! I've returned to the world of "Cosmic Horror Cinema", as Unfilmable(dot)com has been resurrected once more (from the essential saltes of the original, as Aaron Vanek once put it). Our new home is Facebook, which for better or worse, happened out of one part necessity and one part convenience.

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!

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 pictures

Designer 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

https://www.theguardian.com/film/gallery/2019/aug/30/movie-posters-films-never-happened-superman-lives-kaleidoscope

The Colour Out of Space + Nicholas Cage + Richard Stanley = roll for sanity?

A decade ago (!), there was mention here of a possible adaptation of The Shadow Over Innsmouth involving Nicholas Cage, and the fact that Cage was a fan:

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.

https://unfilmable.blogspot.com/2009/08/theres-life-in-innsmouth.html

There's a now a different chance at a Lovecraft-Cage project:

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.html

To 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?

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!

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.

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

My Favourite Lovecraftian Movie.

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 post an essay from John Linwood Grant, author, editor, and joint property of 

several lurchers.

THE LAST TENTACLE ON THE LEFT

DAGON 

 Director: Stuart Gordon

Writers: H.P. Lovecraft (short stories "Dagon" and "The Shadow Over Innsmouth"), Dennis Paoli (screenplay)

Stars: Ezra Godden, Francisco Rabal, Raquel Meroño, Macarena Gómez

The best of the movie posters.

We should start by saying that despite the writing credits, this film is neither Dagon nor The Shadow over Innsmouth. Instead, it blends the central revelation of the story Dagon with the folk-horror of Innsmouth to create its own little homage. So be warned.

Having got that out of the way, what do we have? Basically, an enjoyable enough 'young couple end up in the wrong place' story, with a yacht striking a reef and the surviving couple forced to seek help  in a monstrosity-haunted Spanish fishing village, Imboca. Innsmouth with tapas, in short.

Reviewing Dagon isn't easy. If you treat it as squirmy fun, it's fine. If you like groaning every time Stuart Gordon messes with Lovecraft's originals, then you might raise many eyebrows. The central couple are also problematic, because the American male lead (Ezra Godden) is an annoying wet who ought to have had a terminal accident early on. His female partner (Raquel Meroño), who is on screen for far less of the film, is resourceful, stunning, and should have been given the lead role. 

Her absence is filled by another of Gordon's major divergences, a seductive Innsmouthian priestess (Macarena Gómez) who would certainly not have appeared on old HPL's list. On the basis that even our 'hero' wouldn't fall for a bulgy-eyed, warty and gill-slitted girlie, suffice it to say that the more visible part of her are conveniently fey and beautiful. 

One of the denizens of the deep.

The same cannot be said for the villagers, and one of the strengths of the film is the portrayal of the half-human inhabitants. These vary from characters such as the priest and the hotel keeper, finely done in pallid, fishy shades, to robed horrors who need carts to get around. Visually, there are many fine aspects to the film – the village and the villagers work well; the whole place reeks of decay and, well, wetness. It does fall prey, though, to the dubious tentacle motif, with far too many boneless tendrils poking out everywhere, rather than the more batrachian original. Did we need frogs and squids? Possibly not.

If you seek gore, it will come. The film has a sideline in bloody sacrifice (cue Dagon) and people's faces being removed (no idea why). But the film is relatively image heavy and gore light otherwise. It's perhaps a film which works in two ways. The atmosphere and imagery are strong in both cases. As a folk-horror film, it's different and worth a look. As a Lovecraft film it's… a bit of a canonical mess, but worth a look. Innsmouth, out of Lair of the White Worm, with Dagon as tonight's guest

John Linwood Grant is a professional writer who lives in Yorkshire with a pack of lurchers and a beard. He may also have a family. He writes dark Edwardian tales, such as his recent novella A Study in Grey, and other weird and speculative fiction,including his Mamma Lucy tales of 1920's hoodoo. He has been published in a wide range of anthologies and magazines, edits anthologies himself, and is co-editor of Occult Detective Quarterly.

Occult Detective Quarterly #2 is due out in May 2017. Their Coats All Red, an anthology of strange and supernatural fiction set at the height of the British Empire, is coming later in the year from 18thWall, to be followed in 2018 by Hell's Empire, an anthology of the Victorians versus the Infernal Hordes, from Ulthar Press. News of all projects can be found on his popular website greydogtales.com, which explores weird fiction and weird art. And lurchers.

http://johnlinwoodgrant.me.uk

My Favourite Lovecraftian Movie.

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.

The Taking of Deborah Logan (2014) – movie review

By Brian M. Sammons

Director: Adam Robitel

Writers: Adam Robitel, Gavin Heffernan

Stars: Jill Larson, Anne Ramsay, Michelle Ang

Truth be told, there aren’t a lot of direct connections to H.P. Lovecraft in this movie. Sure, some people see HPL’s influence everywhere, and for good reason: the man casts a long, dark, lantern-jawed shadow. Now there is a bit here that can be tied to HPL with just a little effort and knowledge of some of his lesser-known tales, but I’m not going to spoil that for you. I’m going to let you discover it for yourself, or not. It’s a subtle connect, to be sure, but don’t worry, even if it flies right over your heard, there is more than enough good about this movie to warrant you watching it.  

What really makes this movie stand out from the typical horror fare is the wonderful weird vibe that it has. That is weird as in weird fiction. It is not as cosmic as some other stories that would be right at home in the venerable Weird Tales magazine. This film is grounded in more terrestrial history and folklore, but still at its heart it remains undeniably, wonderfully weird. Combine that with a plot that plays with expectations, the clever use of a format that is often uninspired, amazing acting by all involved, solid direction, and an ending that is just, in a word: wow, and you’ve got a hell of a movie that shouldn’t be missed by anyone. Yet so many people have still never heard of it, let alone seen it. Well I am here to help fix that egregious error and hopefully turn some new people on to this underrated gem of a weird horror film. This is my nickel tour of The Taking of Deborah Logan.

The plot of this film involves a small group of college students looking to document a woman’s sad, slow decline into the horror of Alzheimer’s disease. This is a found footage film, and this setup gives us a believable reason for the way-too-overused format. Furthermore, its pseudo-documentary style adds a palatable creepiness to the narrative, as opposed to the quick and cheap feel so many other shaky cam flicks have.

Back to the story. Pretty soon the elderly woman, the titular Deborah, is no longer thought to have the dreaded disease, but suffering from something even worse when she starts showing the classic signs of demonic possession. I mean, everyone has seen The Exorcist and the countless knock-offs that followed it, so we all know what to look for, right? Well before you write this movie off as yet another possessed by Satan flick, know there is a lot more to this film than that, and I couldn’t be happier about it.

First there is a good mystery to be solved here, as it quickly becomes apparent that things are not what they seem, even if what it looks like is as strange and otherworldly as spiritual possession. The truth is much weirder, and horrific, than that. The backstory to what’s going on is expertly laid out during the course of the film, piece by piece. There is never any great exposition dump here. Instead you are given clues to the mystery as the story unfolds, and only at the end does everything fall into place and make sense. This is good story telling, folks, this is how it should be done. Sadly, few other movies take the time to do it so well.

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

because of the subtle way her sexuality is handled in this film. While it is never outright said, it is pretty clear that she is a lesbian, but unlike the vast majority of movies, that is not her sole, defining characteristic. In many films if a character is gay, then they are GAY! They are gay first and foremost above all other traits, because most films think subtlety is a dirty word. Here, Sarah Logan is a real person with worries, fears, and flaws that, oh yeah, just so happens to be a lesbian. While this is a little thing overall, and not integral to the plot, it’s just one example of how this movie takes care to do everything right. Here a supporting character is better written and fleshed out than the majority of main characters in so many other movies, be they horror films or not. 

Then there is Jill Larson who plays the afflicted Deborah Logan, and she absolutely kills it here. She has the Herculean task of realistically portraying someone slipping into Alzheimer’s and not just play up the stereotypes of what people think of when they hear that insidious disease’s name. Then she has to take that performance and tweak it just subtly enough so that the audience begins to wonder if is she is suffering from dementia, or something even worse. And even then this actor’s job is still not done, because she has to portray the clichés of being possessed by the devil, and yet still add something more, something just off enough so even that starts being questioned. That is a tall order for an actor, and Jill Larson not only rises to the challenge, but overcomes it in grand style.

The Taking of Deborah Logan is a damn good movie, able to stand shoulder to shoulder with any film regardless of label. I wish more horror films were made this well, then maybe my favorite genre wouldn’t still be seen as a cinematic ghetto by many. The story has a wonderfully measured pace, a great mystery with occult overtones (shades of Angel Heart came to me when I watched this movie, and that’s a very good thing in my book), and believable characters you will actually care about. Yeah, that’s something else many modern films (especially horror movies) seem to forget, but that’s a rant for another day. It grabbed my attention from the start and didn’t let go until the very end, which actually had a scene in it that me say out loud; “What the hell?” A bigger compliment than that I could not give this movie. If you have yet to see The Taking of Deborah Logan, do so at once. 

Currently I have two anthologies from two different publishers going on at Kickstarter. The first one is from Golden Goblin Press and is for the book: Between Twilight and Dawn. The book collects eleven horror and weird fiction short stories totaling just over sixty thousand words. The theme of the collection is as its title says: all the stories begin at sunset and resolve by sunrise. Darkness and the horrors that hide within are what these tales are all about. These stories take place in a wide variety of locations and historical periods and deal with the Cthulhu Mythos, folklore, urban legends, and more.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/golden-goblin-press/between-twilight-and-dawn

Then from Dark Regions Press there is The Arkham Detective Agency, a Lovecraftian-noir tribute to the late, great C. J. Henderson.  C.J. was a hell of a writer, a good friend, and he did tough P.I. vs. the Cthulhu Mythos stories like no one else. He left us way too soon, but his literary legacy remains, to be enjoyed by countless readers, and to inspire authors to follow in his footsteps. Here you will find four C.J. classics about the Arkham Detective Agency, and 15 all new tales, set in that noir-tinged Cthulhu Mythos world by some of the best writers around.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/chrismorey/cthulhu-mythos-books-from-dark-regions-press

Arkham Sanitarium, Soul Eater.

                         More like Lovecraft got stoned and decided he 
                                      didn't give a shit any more.

I know in advance that this review will be controversial, because on Amazon Prime Video, where I saw the movie, had four reviewers saying it was terrible, unwatchable, and don't bother. I was the only reviewer who actually liked the film.

Arkham Sanitarium: Soul Eater must not be confused with Arkham Sanitarium; a film I have not seen and cannot comment on. It was made in 2014 and stars Shannon Brown, Rinska Carrasco, Marc Edwards, and Ron Fitzgerald as Lewis Theobold. It is a found footage movie, about a Lovecraft Sex and Death Cult, set in an abandoned sanitarium. Shannon stars as Mark Chambers, an obnoxious wannabe who intends to become a star at any cost, and Rinska and Marc play Linda and Jerry Novak, who wish to beat him to the big story. Cue lots of roaming around in a dark and shadowy building, while odd noises and poltergeist activity scare the pants off of them, and attempt to scare the pants off of us. Then it gets weird.

I mean seriously weird, batshit insane in fact. Not since The Happiness of the Katakuris have I seen a film so bizarre and off the wall. It has possession, octopus puppets, torture porn, inappropriate humour, tentacle sex, unbelievably bad special effects, a man in a silly mask, and claymation. Yes, claymation. One gets the feeling that half way though making the movie they realised it wasn't going to be much good, so they decided to have as much fun as possible. And they still manage to put some genuine moments of fear in it. I think they would have made a truly terrifying movie if they had decided to take it seriously. As it is, Arkham Sanitarium: Soul Eater falls into the "so bad it's good" category.

I honestly suggest you try and see it. You may never take my verdict on movies seriously again, and you may even hate me, but I'd be lying if I didn't say I really enjoyed this movie. 

                           I wish I could show you the Claymation, 

                                        but this'll have to do.

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.

Quatermass 2

Quatermass 2 is one of the best sci-fi horror films ever made, even though it is in black and white, even though the science is dated, even though the special effects are less than perfect. It has other names: The Quatermass Xperiment, and Enemy From Space, but I prefer Quatermass 2.

It stars Brian Donlevy as Quatermass, and I am glad to say he is less obnoxious in this film than he was in the first, as well as less hairy. The cast is almost exclusively male, so it not only fails the Bechdel test, but sets fire to the paper and dances on the ashes. There are many interesting supporting characters in this film, including Sid James as a reporter, and Vera James as Sheila, the barmaid, and of course there is Michael Ripper. A Hammer film isn't a proper Hammer film unless Michael Ripper is in it.  All of them come across as real people, an asset to the film as we care about what happens to them. This is a Quatermass film, nasty things will happen to them.

It stands out because of the extreme tension that pervades the whole film. Even though we know almost from the start that there is an invasion going on. We are Lovecraft fans, we know the significance of hollow meteorites when we see them. Nevertheless, nothing is predictable here, this is not your typical invasion. Like the next movie in the sequence, the unforgettable Quatermass and the Pit, the aliens are already here before the events of the film start. A big part of he tension comes from us discovering how deep the invading force has penetrated into our society. Indeed, at the end one is left wondering if the protagonists have detected all the domes, and if all the enslaved ones have been released.

I return to the domes, because they are the true stars of the film, and that is not to devalue any of the actors in any way. It is just to emphasise how magnificent they are, and how ominous. The word I believe is lowering. They lower over the movie. We first see them from a distance, thus

And then as a model, in their intended context as part of a moonbase.

And then, we get this.

They overwhelm and they dominate, and upon seeing them we just have to ask "Just what the hell is IN those things".  Be patient, for we will find out. So will Professor Quatermass.

There are many things in this film to chill our blood, and we don't have to wait long for them. I don't want to make a list of them all, but the robotic behaviour of the plant's employees is one of them, the ominous masks worn by the guards, and perhaps worst of all, blood dripping from a pipe that is supposed to be filled with gas. And then there are the contents of those domes. How anyone can see them and still say this film isn't Lovecraftian beats me. Indeed my first call was "shoggoth!", although these things are far more complex and intriguing than any shoggoth could be. It is true that the special effects fail us a little here, but I have seen much worse CGI, many times. And so have you.

                                 The Call of Tutu, a short film all Lovecraft fans should see.

The well-informed people over at the Lovecraft eZine (a must for fans), recently put out a link to a short film called Blight, which was promoted as "a terrifying short horror film inspired by the H P Lovecraft story A Colour out of Space". Of course I had to watch it. But then I thought I'd check out the channel. There are only two films on this channel, and the other one is called Fools Errand. Of course I had to watch that one too.

One gets so used to these films being promoted as terrifying that one never believes it. Almost always they turn out to be very pedestrian efforts, badly-made, derivative and about as scary as Scooby Doo. In this case, they were telling the truth. Blight gave me a few nasty scares, and one jump scare. The production values are professional, the plot brief but full of import, and the monster genuinely scary. And repulsive, very repulsive. Amazingly this movie is dependant upon CGI, but the CGI actually works! The story is indeed inspired by A Colour Out of Space, but don't expect it to be faithful. There is indeed a blight, and a decaying farmhouse, and a family tragedy; but I won't spoil you as to the rest.

The second film, Fool's Errand, has a much more tenuous Lovecraft connection, set in an Egyptian tomb. However, Lovecraft did write Imprisoned With the Pharaohs, and Nyarlathotep, who in antique and shadowy Khem.... The plot is very predictable, and nothing special at all. But the way it is done! Again there's some CGI, and again it is done extremely well. There are some extremely gruesome effects in this short.

The man behind both films is called Goodman Walshe, and there is nothing on his channel about him, though I'm pretty sure that we will learn more of him in the future.

You can watch both these films in thirteen minutes, so no excuses for missing them!

Have you heard of Creepypasta?


I'm sure that many of you have, mainly in connection with Slenderman. I have a great love of listening to Creepypastas on YouTube. They vary in quality, from bad to excellent.

This one is excellent. Read by the wonderful Dr Creepen, with the vocal assistance of Black-eyed Blonde and Southern Cannibal, it was written by Ryan Brennerman and is called "No Such Thing as Ghosts".

No Such Thing as Ghosts.

Is it Lovecraft? I am sure that once you have finished the story you will answer "Yes" through trembling lips.

The Author.

I have a huge apology to make to readers of this blog. Craig Mullins entrusted it to me when the encroachment of other things made it unfeasible for him to continue it. For some reason, (menopause, madness, incipient senility?) I forgot all about it, only discovering it when I went to start my new horror blog, Morbid and Unhealthy. 

So, now I intend to try and revive this blog, as soon as I can get my rusty old brain to produce some content. But I do have Quatermass 2 lined up to watch on DVD, which is Lovecraft as fuck. 

This is a film blog, though I may make occasional mention to books and to other media, but I do want to keep it Lovecraft. 

Briefly however, I want to define "Lovecraftian" here. 

Lovecraftian (ˈlʌvˌkrɑːftɪən)

adjective

referring to or reminiscent of the work of the American fantasy and horror fiction author H.P. Lovecraft (1870–1937)

Collins English Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers

Kickstarter: The NEXT - Last Lovecraft!

Great news for fans of the Last Lovecraft: The Relic of Cthulhu, the team behind the original are working to raise funding for a sequel (second in a planned trilogy actually). The Last Lovecraft: At the Mountains of Madness is now up on Kickstarter. Seeing that we here at Unfilmable are big fans of Gregg Lawrence (aka Captain Olaf) we are even happier to hear that he may somehow return.


The first film was filled with some great visuals, fun storytelling, memorable characters...and some really funny moments (seriously, if you haven't seen it, Netflix it...we'll wait.). Now, the creative team are back in action for the most highly anticipated indie-Lovecraft sequel...well...ever.

So, why bother waiting on Del Toro for a Mountains of Madness tale? Let the Last Lovecraft team take us there...

The Last Lovecraft: At the Mountains of Madness

"Mexico’s Isaac Ezban Talks Social Sci-Fi, Lovecraft, ‘The Twilight Zone,’ ‘The Similars’"

Marianne Zumberge's December 4, 2014 post at Variety is worth reading - she notes that Mexican director Isaac Ezban's short Cosas feas (“Nasty Stuff”) was "gloriously bathed in Lovecraftian horror." The short was mentioned briefly here back in April 3, 2011 as part of "A Night of Lovecraftian Horror..."

Ezban responded to Variety, "On the horror side, Lovecraftian-Cronenbergian-Buddy-Mutant horror is I guess my favorite (and that was my biggest inspiration for my short film “Nasty Stuff,” as you mentioned), and on the science fiction side, I really enjoy intellectual/metaphysical sci-fi, and also psychological sci-fi, kind of like the one you got to see in “The Twilight Zone,” in the works of writers like Philip K. Dick, Rod Serling, Richard Matheson, Ray Bradbury, and more, or in the early films (I said early films) of filmmakers like M. Night Shyamalan or Alejandro Amemabar."

Lovecraftian-Cronenbergian-Buddy-Mutant horror is definitely an underappreciated subgenre!

A short audio interview with Slime City director Gregory Lamberson discusses "Nasty Stuff" is herein embedded. Lamberson is himself a fan of things Lovecraftian, having contributed "Arkham Film Vault: Lovecraft's Bad Book" to H. P. Lovecraft's Magazine of Horror #2 in 2005.

Lamberson pitched his own Lovecraftian-Cronenbergian film of sorts earlier this year, which raised more than what the goal had been:

KILLER RACK is a feature length screwball horror comedy about a woman whose new breast implants turn out to be Lovecraftian monsters hell bent on world domination! It's an outrageous concept which is funny as hell; it's also actually endearing. The heroine is a survivor in a sexist culture that objectifies women. Our story is ultimately a comedy about female empowerment, and a warning against changing your physical appearance to please others.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/killer-rack

I'm reminded somewhat of Cronenberg's Rabid and of the night that was the genesis of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein:

"Twelve o'clock, {128} really began to talk ghostly. L[ord] B[yron] repeated some verses of Coleridge's Christabel, of the witch's breast; when silence ensued, and Shelley, suddenly shrieking and putting his hands to his head, ran out of the room with a candle. Threw water in his face, and after gave him ether. He was looking at Mrs. S[helley], and suddenly thought of a woman he had heard of who had eyes instead of nipples, which, taking hold of his mind, horrified him." - John Polidori, June 18, 1816.

"From The Diary of Dr. John William Polidori: 1816, Relating to Byron, Shelley, etc." http://knarf.english.upenn.edu/Polidori/poldiary.html

Review - The Trollenberg Terror (1958) (UR)

Alternate Titles: THE CRAWLING EYE; THE FLYING EYE; CREATURES FROM ANOTHER WORLD; THE CREEPING EYE.
b/w
RT: 87mins
Pro Co: Tempean Films/Eros Films.
Dir: Quentin Lawrence;
Pros: Robert S. Baker, Monty Berman;
Wr: Jimmy Sangster; TV serial: Peter Key.
Phot: Monty Berman;
Film Ed: Henry Richardson;
Mus: Stanley Black;
Art Dir: Duncan Sutherland.
SFX: Anglo Scottish Pictures.
Assist Dir: Norman Harrison;
Pro Sup: Ronald C. Lisles.
Camera Op: Desmond Davis.
Cast: Forrest Tucker, Laurence Payne, Janet Munro, Jennifer Jayne, Warren Mitchell, Frederick Schiller, Andrew Faulds, Stuart Saunders, Colin Douglas, Derek Sydney.

INTRODUCTION
At the end of the 1950s, Hammer Films' biggest competitors in horror and sci-fi were undoubtedly independent filmmaking duo Robert S. Baker and Monty Berman.
Like Hammer, and its earlier incarnation as film distributor Exclusive, Baker and Berman established themselves by churning out cheap thrillers and melodramas, designed to take advantage of the generous quota system within the post-war British film industry. While Hammer were quick to exploit the burgeoning broadcasting media by adapting successful radio and television shows for the cinema, the pair concentrated on literary and theatrical adaptations.

After the international success of Val Guest's The Quatermass Xperiment (55) and Quatermass II (57), along with Terence Fisher's The Curse of Frankenstein (57) and Dracula (58), Baker and Berman were quick to spot a new market and managed to secure the services of Hammer's in-house scribe Jimmy Sangster (who had penned the brace of Fisher films, as well as other projects for the studio), whose contract allowed him to work for other production companies. Abandoning their usual literary and theatrical source material, they had Sangster adapt a successful serial, The Trollenberg Terror, produced by the Midlands-based ATV station for the recently formed ITV network, in the process bringing on board that programme's director and some of its cast.

SYNOPSIS
A week after the death of a student mountain climber on the Trollenberg mountain, next to the town which bears its name, in the Austrian Alps, a train is travelling through the area on its way to Geneva. In one of the carriages are two women and a man. The younger woman awakens from at troubled sleep and goes to look of the window at the Trollenberg mountain. She is unnerved by the sight of the mountain, and suddenly has a fit and collapses. The man, who identifies himself as Alan Brooks from America, tends to her. It turns out that the two women are sisters, Anne and Sarah Pilgrim. When the conductor announces the next stop is Trollenberg, she insists that this is their next stop and they have to leave the train there. It turns out that Trollenberg is also Brooks' stop. At the station they meet the manager of the local hotel who informs them that, although it is normally the height of his establishment's busy season, he still has plenty of rooms left. On the way to the hotel, Anne reveals that she knows a great deal about the area and the mysterious events that have been occurring recently such as the death of the climber, disappearances and locals abandoning the area. At the hotel, she is again disturbed by the sight of the Trollenberg. Inside they are introduced to another guest called Truscott, who seems to recognise the sisters' names, but can't quite place them. The women retire to their room where Anne experiences a strong feeling of déjà vu about the mountain and its surrounding area. In Brooks' room, Truscott is in conversation with the American when the former remembers that he had seen the sisters' mind-reading act in London just recently. He finds it surprising that they should abandon their journey to get off at a place like Trollenberg. He then notices that Brooks carries a gun. Shortly afterwards Truscott is heard phoning for information about Brooks. Downstairs, the American meets two men, Brett and Dewhurst who are making preparations to climb the mountain. Dewhurst is a geologist who is trying to establish a reason for the spate of accidents in the area, while the other man is his guide. Truscott and Sarah appear and he warns the climbers to watch out for their rope. When asked why, he is informed that apparently rope slippage killed the student climber the previous week, ripping his head off in the process, although rumours abound in the village that there was much more to the incident than this. Brooks decides to accompany the two men on part of their journey, with him stopping off at an observatory located on the side of the mountain. At the observatory, he meets an old friend, Professor Crevett, who had sent him a letter asking to visit him as soon as possible. They discuss the strange events happening in the area in recent weeks and their link with a mysterious, stationary radioactive cloud that never seems to move from a point on the side of the mountain. Crevett reminds Brooks that a very similar situation occurred in the Andess three years previously.

REVIEW
Despite its SF content, The Trollenberg Terror is initially presented in the form of a thriller. This becomes evident from the startling pre-credit sequence, featuring the decapitation of the climber, which then jump cuts to a train entering a tunnel, followed by the titles. The titles themselves, along with the driving theme music by Stanley Black (City Under the Sea 65), strongly evoke the style of a thriller, with some viewers possibly being reminded of Saul Bass's credit sequences for Alfred Hitchcock.

Although assumed to be a scientist by some of the other characters, hero Alan Brooks (Forrest Tucker) appears to be some sort of special agent-cum-trouble shooter for the United Nations, part of a wider team that investigates strange phenomenon throughout the world.

Thrown into this mix are the presence of the two innocent bystanders caught up in events outwith their control, the mysterious guest called Truscott (Laurence Payne), who spies on both Brooks and the women, and whose motives remain unclear for a lot of the film, along with a nearby scientific facility which has been observing some strange activities.
The Trollenberg Terror's narrative drive is also very thriller-like in its pacing. While part of the must be attributed the skill of film editor Henry Richardson (A Study in Terror 65), another important factor is that screenwriter Jimmy Sangster has condensed some 150 minutes of television drama into a feature film of less than 90 minutes duration. Thus the main plot components are very quickly established with a handful of establishing scenes, and Janet Munro's dialogue describing recent events in the area around the Trollenberg.

Even if the condensation of the source material had been far less successful, The Trollenberg Terror would in all probability still have proved compelling, since the initial premise of Peter Key's original teleplay, with its mixture of mystery, science fiction and bizarre incidents is strong enough to survive, almost any attempt at adaptation.
Sangster is well served by a mixture of second-rank and character performers, with lead actor Forest Tucker proving to be a dependable and likeable leading man. This was, in fact, one of three sci-fi movies that Tucker made in the UK at roughly the same time, with all being based on successful television material, the others being Val Guest's Nigel Kneale-scripted The Abominable Snowman (57) and Gilbert Gunn's The Strange World of Planet X (58).

Of the rest of the cast, two were employed on the original telecast, Laurence Payne (The Tell-Tale Heart 60) and Stuart Saunders (The Horrors of the Black Museum 59), as the inquisitive reporter and doomed geologist, respectively, and acquit themselves well as do the rest of the cast. Busy character actor and future sitcom superstar Warren Mitchell (Curse of the Werewolf 61) does, however, turn in a highly theatrical performance as the excitable German scientist in charge of the observatory. By far the most striking performance seen in the film comes from the diminutive Janet Munro (The Day the Earth Caught Fire 61) as the young psychic. Munro possesses the most extraordinary eyes, and here cinematographer/co-producer Monty Berman (What a Carve-Up! 61) makes outstanding use of them, aided by the actress's not inconsiderable talent, to convey the psychological terror inflicted on her by the alien invaders. Overall, she very effectively imparts the feelings of fear, confusion and bewilderment produced by her experiences, succeeding in turning in a very touching performance.

Regrettably, Sangster's script does not always repay Munro's efforts, as he fails to develop some of the concepts connected to her character, such as the reasons her growing link with the creatures in the cloud, and the nature of the breakdown that brought her to Trollenberg. It is extremely regrettable that Sangster cannot find anything for her to do in the final act and simply halts her involvement in any further proceedings when he has her attacked and knocked unconscious by a possessed villager. Jennifer Jayne (Dr Terror's House of Horrors 65) is treated even more shabbily, with her character of the older sister being reduced to mere decoration.

On the whole, Jimmy Sangster has successfully reworked the original material by Peter Key into a feature film format, there are some issues that may have been more fully resolved in the much longer teleplay. Among these are the aliens' keen interest in acquiring human heads, of which they seem to have quite a collection, and why they feel so threatened by humans with ESP along with some plot inconsistencies about the beings' strengths and abilities (notably how they can leave and enter a locked hut so easily).

The Trollenberg Terror shares many of the traits found in other genre product from Britain cinema of the time. The most obvious, of course, is the poverty-stricken budget. This means that, apart from a few scenes taking place in spartan settings like a railway carriage, cable car and studio-bound mountainside, much of the action takes place in the hotel foyer and the control room of the observatory, which actually adds to the sense of claustrophobia generated by the story.
As every low-budget filmmaker knows, talk is cheap, and Sangsters script is certainly dialogue-heavy. Some of this, however, may be attributable to the project's televisual origins that, in turn, owe a lot that medium's debt to Britain's theatrical past. Some of this dialogue is quite useful, not just expositional, providing technical and other details about the nature and scale of the threat faced by humanity, adding some veracity to the proceedings. Modern viewers may still consider it excessive padding.

Quentin Lawrence's background in television production is apparent throughout this film, to its frequent detriment. Although benefiting from moody photography by Monty Berman (featuring some imaginative composition) and the oversized expressionist-tinged settings from Duncan Sutherland (The Vulture 66), Lawrence's direction is at best workmanlike, with little in the way of style and imagination, apart from the occasional visual flourish (like the high-angled shot employed when showing Janet Munro attempting to escape from the observatory). He largely fails to generate any real tension and excitement, outside of that inherent in the narrative itself and it is plain to see why he worked almost exclusively in television, apart from the occasional minor cinematic work.

If Lawrence's overall contribution to The Trollenberg Terror is, overall, disappointing, there are some sequences, in a macabre vein, where he does raise his sights.

The first of these has the sisters perform their mind-reading act for the residents of the hotel. At first, everything goes as planned, then, apparently triggered by the image of the Trollenberg mountain in a paperweight, the psychic sister goes into a trance and seemingly witnesses events unfold on the peak as if she were actually present there. During this sequence, very effective use is made of deep focus and extreme close-ups (especially of Janet Munro's eyes) along with extremely atmospheric underlighting to create a genuine frisson.

In a later scene, a climber (Andrew Faulds, Jason and the Argonauts 63) thought lost on the mountain, suddenly reappears at the hotel. Acting somewhat disorientated, he gives the impression of being otherwise well, until he attacks the psychic girl with a dagger. At the start of this sequence, Faulds make a startling entrance, his face, lit and shot from below, suddenly filling the whole frame. He then lurches towards the camera, which tracks rapidly away from him. Where Lawrence really excels, however, is in the next few minutes when it becomes apparent, through small details and growing sense of unease, that something is terribly wrong with the climber. Faulds's performance here is exemplary, effectively conveying someone who is not in control of his own body. Munro's horrified reaction to his presence is also very good.

In a piece of filmmaking heavily indebted to the horror genre, an apparently dead Faulds is later resurrected, and escapes from the room where he is being held by graphically strangling (shot from a low-angle with a hand-held camera) the hotel manager (Frederick Schiller) and obtaining his keys. He then grabs a cleaver and makes his way to Munro's bedroom. With its expressionist lighting and composition, this harks back to an earlier era of genre filmmaking, while the shuffling, zombie-like human it looks forward to George A. Romero's classic Night of the Living Dead (68).

While somewhat primitive, the gore content in The Trollenberg Terror is significantly higher than would have been allowed in its television incarnation. Therefore the makers here can show images like a bloody headless corpse, a head sticking out of a rucksack and, most impressively, the skin on an arm melting away to reveal the bone.

A the climax of the movie, the cloud which has been hovering about on the side of the mountain, descends onto the town of Trollenberg itself and those controlling it are finally revealed. Seemingly inspired by the creatures seen in Jack Arnold's It Came From Outer Space (53), the alien invaders most prominent feature like the earlier work is a huge single, glaring eye. The cloud creatures, however, also feature lots of tentacles, to ensnare unwary humans and pustulent, pulsing bodies. Their overall grotesque appearance is enhanced by sound recordist Dick Smith's bizarre audio effects.

Some reviewers have drawn attention to the possibility that the normally hidden, multi-tentacled and mind-controlling aliens along with the movie's original title, The Trollenberg Terror, may in fact be an allusion to the work of American fantastic author H.P. Lovecraft, in particular his writings as part of the Cthulhu Mythos. While this is certainly an intriguing possibility, there appears little hard evidence to support it, since screenwriter Jimmy Sangster has never commented on it, and apparently nothing has ever been written (to this writer's knowledge) about original scripter Peter Key or his career (which seems to have ended at the end of the 1950s).

If the creatures themselves are of a nicely gross design, their actual creation and use is compromised by the lack of time and money that is such a feature of the world of low-budget film production. The remain impressive as long as they stand still but lose some of their menace when seen lumbering towards the camera (even though Forrest Tucker's character exclaims: "Those things can really move". Not true),

The effects credited to Anglo Scottish Pictures, but featuring the talents of Les Bowie (The Evil of Frankenstein 64) and his team, are ambitious for such a project and unfortunately are found wanting in a number of respects. A recurring bugbear in British cinema (including more lavish films like those in the James Bond franchise) is the ineptitude of much of the optical work. This is certainly true of The Trollenberg Terror, especially when live action, matte paintings and rear projection are used together.

Some of the best effects work is in the use of miniatures, such as that of the observatory along with the hotel and surrounding area, where some of the detail is impressive. This is somewhat marred, unfortunately by some very obvious scenic backdrops that are very obviously paintings.

Things really start to go wrong in the finale, when a pack of creatures descend onto the observatory, where they have to be fended off with petrol bombs. Even taking into consideration that this is a product of the 1950s, the miniatures, the mini-blobs and above the pyrotechnics are pretty risible and, for many less tolerant viewers, undermine the enjoyment of the movie.

The film is further hindered by a weak denouement that has the air force merely drop fire bombs onto the invaders, quickly solving the problem, rather than having Tucker and the people inside the observatory devise their own method of dealing with the invaders. A more imaginative piece of writing would possibly have allowed Janet Munro's character find a way for her to use her ESP abilities against the creatures' mind-control abilities.

Several of those involved in The Trollenberg Terror, had interesting careers following their work here.
Robert S. Baker and Monty moved into filmed episodic television in the early 1960s and had major success both domestically and internationally with titles like The Saint, Gideon's Way and The Baron. The partnership dissolved at the end of the decade and Berman continued working in television with titles like The Champions, Department S and Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) to his credit. Baker, meanwhile made the occasional movie (for cinema and TV) and profitably exploited the rights to Leslie Charterist's The Saint well into the 1990s.

As Jay Fairbank, Jennifer Jayne had some screenwriting credits, including two Freddie Francis vehicles, the horror anthology Tales That Witness Madness (73), which she also appears in, and Son of Dracula (74).
Assistant Director later went on to helm episodic TV as well as the occasional "quota quickie" like Calculated Risk (63).
Under the name Ronald Liles, production supervisor Ronald C. Lisles produced John Gilling's The Night Caller (65) and helped script Terence Fisher's Night of the Big Heat (67).

Actor Andrew Faulds eventually became an outspoken Labour MP between 1966 and 1997 (for two different constituencies), whose main area of concern was the Palestinian issue.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

-Iain McLachlan
http://www.geocities.com/bigfatpav2000/
Special thanks to Iain McLachlan.for allowing me to use this review.