I’m sure it’s the question on everyone’s lips: what is the notorious schlock film production company, The Asylum, planning to offer up in 2010?
To start with there’s the just released Princess of Mars (US-2009; dir. Mark Atkins), based on the first of the Edgar Rice Burroughs Barsoom series of books and starring Antonio Sabato, Jr. and Tracy Lords (official website). This one is well ahead of its big budget rival, which is still in production from Disney Studios.
And you know about the upcoming Sherlock Holmes (US-2010; dir. Rachel Goldenberg), right? No, not the Robert Downey Jr blockbuster, but the one with a much lower budget that features steam-driven killer robots, giant monsters and a huge mechanical dragon (which you can check out in action here). Minimal classic sleuthing perhaps, and cheap CGI, but it’ll be fun, I’m sure. An article I read recently on Wired said that it “stars no one you’d recognize”. I guess that means the writer hasn’t been watching Torchwood (which is rather un-wired of them) — especially as that UK Doctor Who spin-off’s most recent series, Torchwood: Children of Earth, is a brilliant piece of scifi TV. One of Torchwood‘s main stars is Gareth David-Lloyd (the guy on the right in the pic below), who plays Dr Watson in the Asylum pic.
OK, so Princess and Sherlock are Asylum films we’ve had on our somewhat masochistic “to-view” list for a while. But what comes after them?
You may or may not know that the Asylum’s biggest success of 2009 was Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus (US-2009; dir. Ace Hannah), which Undead Backbrain introduced to the world (at great expense, of course). For a start we were the first to release the classic shot of the giant shark eating the Golden Gate Bridge — a picture that then went viral on the web and made the Backbrain’s visitor stats skyrocket:
On top of that, Undead Backbrain’s YouTube site was the first to upload the trailer — and as a result was awarded Number 2 status on YouTube’s Most Watched list for a month or so. Recently Yahoo released their Top 10 Most Watched Film Trailers for 2009 — and among the big blockbusters was the trailer for Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus, which made Number 8. Put up on Undead Backbrain on 11 May, the trailer is now, on the first day of the New Year, sitting on 2,101,408 views. Quite an achievement!
Oh, perhaps I should mention that Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus also achieved the rather dubious distinction of being named Entertainment Weekly’s Worst DVD of 2009. Ridiculous, of course. It may not be technically up there with the blockbusters, but in the low-budget range it was at least amusing (saved in part by a tongue-in-cheek attitude) and certainly nowhere near the worse thing I saw on DVD in the past year. Do the people who compile these lists actually watch anything beyond the obvious?
If you’re interested, at the time of the film’s release Undead Backbrain interviewedMega Shark‘s director, who spoke frankly about the process of making such an ambitious SFX film without a discernible SFX budget.
Anyway, given that they gained such levels of “any-publicity-is-good-publicity” success by way of a giant monster film, what sort of giant beastie will the Asylum be tackling next? Well, Kaiju Search-Robot Avery has caught a hint or two from Asylum sources and here’s the goss.
Yes, it’s Mega Piranha! (note: the above image does not actually come from the film…. I created it, so don’t blame The Asylum.) At the moment, there’s no available details, but we’re working on it. In the final film the Mega Piranha is likely to be smaller than the one in the image above, but hopefully it will be bigger than the ones on these old posters for Joe Dante’s Piranha from 1978 (note: the actual piranha in that movie were more-or-less normal size, if inordinately vicious).
Another upcoming Asylum title of interest is 7 Voyages of Sinbad, presumably using cheap CGI to remake Ray Harryhausen’s famous stop-motion monster classic, Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, the way the upcoming blockbuster Clash of the Titans uses expensive CGI to remake that particular Harryhausen films’ giant critters. There’s got to be giant monster or two in that, right?
In the previous post in this series, I made reference to the role of sleep and the Dreamland it gives access to in the stories of H.P. Lovecraft. Central to those is the so-called “Dream Cycle”, which consists of “The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath” (1926-27), “The Silver Key” (1926) and “Through the Gates of the Silver Key” (1932-33). These stories all feature Randolph Carter, who first appeared in “The Statement of Randolph Carter”. (Several versions of it can be viewed on Undead Backbrain’s last Weekend Fright Flick.)
When Randolph Carter was thirty he lost the key of the gate of dreams. Prior to that time he had made up for the prosiness of life by nightly excursions to strange and ancient cities beyond space, and lovely, unbelievable garden lands across ethereal seas; but as middle age hardened upon him he felt these liberties slipping away little by little, until at last he was cut off altogether. (From “The Silver Key” by H.P. Lovecraft, At the Mountains of Madness and Other Novels, Arkham House edition, 1964)
Due in 2010 is a short film based on “The Silver Key” (1926), in which Carter finds his way back into the Dreamlands via a chthonian cave and a silver key:
… for in its cryptical arabesques there may stand symbolised all the aims and mysteries of a blindly impersonal cosmos.
The Silver Key [US-2010; short; dir. Gary Fierro)
Clip:
Another sleep-related short Lovecraft film, this one just released, is based on the story “Beyond the Wall of Sleep” (see A Lovecraftian Invasion 2: The Sleeping Deep). Shot in what the creators describe as “a neo-noir style and with nods to B movie chillers, Twilight Zone and Universal Horror”, it takes a “fresh look into the inventive mind of one of the masters of horror”. Apparently it even features Lloyd Kaufman, head of notorious B-film horror studio Troma Films.
Beyond the Wall of Sleep (US-2009; short [34 min]; dir. Nathan Fisher)
Synopsis:
When a new patient arrives at the asylum Dr. Kaufman must attempt to find the source of his violent madness. Joe Slater has suffered his entire life from strange fits upon awakening, ranting and screaming to the heavens. When Joe murders a neighbor in the throes of one of his attacks he comes under the care of the one man who may be able to discover what lies beyond the wall of sleep… (hplfilmfestival.com)
Trailer:
An official selection of the 2009 H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival, Beyond the Wall of Sleep stars Greg Cannon, Jason Finley, Lloyd Kaufman, Gia Bathory, and Stacey Dixon, with original music by Doctor Gonzo, Cuttlefish, Joecephus and the George Jonestown Massacre. The script was adapted from the H. P. Lovecraft story by Nathan Fisher.
Major Dream Sequence, featuring Lloyd Kaufman and a very Cthulhan mask:
Here’s an earlier version, feature-length this time.
I have often wondered if the majority of mankind ever pause to reflect upon the occasionally titanic significance of dreams, and of the obscure world to which they belong. Whilst the greater number of our nocturnal visions are perhaps no more than faint and fantastic reflections of our waking experiences—Freud to the contrary with his puerile symbolism—there are still a certain remainder whose immundane and ethereal character permit of no ordinary interpretation, and whose vaguely exciting and disquieting effect suggests possible minute glimpses into a sphere of mental existence no less important than physical life, yet separated from that life by an all but impassable barrier.
From my experience I cannot doubt but that man, when lost to terrestrial consciousness, is indeed sojourning in another and uncorporeal life of far different nature from the life we know, and of which only the slightest and most indistinct memories linger after waking. From those blurred and fragmentary memories we may infer much, yet prove little. We may guess that in dreams life, matter, and vitality, as the earth knows such things, are not necessarily constant; and that time and space do not exist as our waking selves comprehend them. Sometimes I believe that this less material life is our truer life, and that our vain presence on the terraqueous globe is itself the secondary or merely virtual phenomenon. (from “Beyond the Wall of Sleep” by H.P. Lovecraft, 1919 — online source)
Sleep, and the dream world it gives entry to, plays a significant role in many of Lovecraft’s stories. “Beyond the Wall of Sleep” is one example; “The Dreams in the Witch House” (1932), recently filmed by Stuart Gordon in the first season of the Masters of Horror TV series, is another. The connected stories “The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath” (1926-27), “The Silver Key” (1926) and “Through the Gates of the Silver Key” (1932-33) — or the Dream Cycle as they are often referred to — create a sort of sub-mythology within Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos, positing the existence of the Dreamlands — an alternate dimension that can only be accessed via dreams. The Dreamlands are inhabited by a variety of strange creatures and ruled over from the city of Kadath by the Great Ones — or Other Gods — and Nyarlathotep (the “Crawling Chaos”), who is their protector (pictured below by Patrick McEvoy).
This is what Lovecraft says of Nyarlathotep:
And through this revolting graveyard of the universe the muffled, maddening beating of drums, and thin, monotonous whine of blasphemous flutes from inconceivable, unlighted chambers beyond Time; the detestable pounding and piping whereunto dance slowly, awkwardly, and absurdly the gigantic, tenebrous ultimate gods — the blind, voiceless, mindless gargoyles whose soul is Nyarlathotep. (from the story “Nyarlathotep” by H.P. Lovecraft)
A Lovecraftian film that isn’t, as far as I know, based on any particular Lovecraft story, but which takes much from the feel and mythos of his work, is The Sleeping Deep, written and directed by Jeffrey Blake Palmer.
So far the film exists only as a script and some test footage — but given that the script has won numerous awards (check the list on the poster above) and that the trailer looks fantastic, one can only hope that someone coughs up some significant backing soon. It is being produced by a company named Red Brick Films, set up by writer/director Jeff Palmer (pictured at left at the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival, where the script took the award for Best Screenplay) and San Jose cinematographer John Tulin.
The script has garnered praise in and out of Hollywood, with its mix of modern and Lovecraftian horror, described by Palmer as “a nod to Hitchcock, Stephen King and, yes, H.P. Lovecraft”, yet bearing “its own brand of chills and thrills”. Hollywood script reader Monica Partridge is quoted as saying, “The Sleeping Deep is an effects-driven dual reality horror, evocative of The Cell. This was one of my most favorite scripts from this year’s competition season.” (PRLog)
The teaser has only added to the excitement. With excellent music by Shawn P. Russell, and rather impressive SFX, it looks like a winner to me.
Palmer has commented:
The goal of this [teaser] was to show what could be achieved on limited resources, and I think we successfully produced results. But in order to respect the screenplay and do The Sleeping Deep justice… we’re gonna need a bigger boat.
Newly Released Promotional Teaser:
Not only are those ethereal eels reminiscent of many images of Nyarlathotep, but they also remind me of Stuart Gordon’s excellent version of the Lovecraft story From Beyond (US-1986), with its floating piscean monstrosities, wrenched into this world not through the gates of sleep but through the artificial over-stimulation of the pineal gland.
Here is a longer scene excerpt from The Sleeping Deep:
The central bad guy/monster of this film seems to be a character named Mazimus, who features on an alternative advertising poster for The Sleeping Deep:
Mazimus has been used promotionally in quite a spectacular fashion (see below). Clearly these guys mean business (though that poster was Photoshopped on, surely. It’d be hellishly expensive in real life. Jeff?):
Mazimus is also the focus of a possible sequel to The Sleeping Deep — The Sleeping Deep 2: Mazimus — two of which you can see in the Gallery below. The rest you can view on the film’s blog.
Mazimus may not bear the moniker of Lovecraft’s “Crawling Chaos” but he certainly displays more than a passing resemblance to Nyarlathotep nevertheless.
Actor/writer/director Jeremiah Sayys has been working on a slew of ambitious genre films. Just completing post-production for release in 2010 is his first self-directed film, a horror thriller — Of Silence (US-2010; dir. Jeremiah Sayys):
After returning home, a scuba diver/musician, Colby Van Poe, a man suffering from an inner-ear medical condition, tries to cope with his wife’s suicide. The guilt of him feeling responsible for her death causes him to slip into a familiar world of silence inhabited by strange shadows and menacing voices. His friends and family try to cheer him up, but seem to only scratch the surface. Could the shadows within the silence mean he is finally losing his mind, or is it possible that his ghoulish visions really exist?
On the writing and production side is The Legends of Nethiah: The Nameless (US-2010/2011; dir. Russ Emanuel and Tomax Aponte). Still in production, The Legends of Nethiah is a scifi thriller, in which an intergalactic warrior must fight for his life on an alien planet while under psychic bombardment from powerful opponents.
But today Undead Backbrain brings you news of Sayys’ second directing job, DeadLands Cry — a monster movie still in the planning stages, being made under the production umbrella of Sayys’ own company WorldsLastHero Productions. In it a young father, Tristan, and his fifteen-year-old daughter, Sydney, move to a new town to start a new life, only to find themselves suddenly trapped inside a schoolhouse with six others, struggling to survive an attack by a vicious twenty-foot-tall, thirty-foot-long monster.
Sounds typical of the genre? Well, not according to Sayys. Elsewhere he has commented on the film’s less typical attributes:
I’m extremely excited about DeadLands Cry. It’s a straight-up monster movie, but not your typical monster movie. We have all seen the basic premise of ‘a group of innocent victims trapped and slaughtered by a creature or beast’ many times in horror films, and yes, DeadLands Cry does have that element, but it also has deeper, emotional elements in it that few, if not any, monster movies have.
The monster is a metaphor and metaphysical to what the story is really about. The drama incorporated into the story is like no other in a monster movie. It breathes new life into the horror genre and captivates you with it before the blood and gore start flying. The story also has a strong action component and a unique backstory, as well as a universal message that will resonate long after the viewing experience. (Shocktillyoudrop)
Keen to known more, our intrepid Search-Robot, Avery Battles, secured himself an interview with Jeremiah Sayys (pictured below discussing Of Silence with Suzanne Ford).
Undead Backbrain: What type of monster will be in DeadLands Cry?
Jeremiah Sayys: It’s a mutated monster, but more along the lines of having evolved from the mutation and its living conditions than anything else. It exists as a local legend, a myth, in the [fictional] town of Friendville, a story passed on generation after generation, often used to frighten children into obeying curfew and avoiding the old abandoned school.
UB: What is the estimated budget?
JS: It will be up in the eight digits.
UB: When do you expect to start production?
JS: We are still in the financing stages, and as of now we don’t have an exact start date. It just depends on how long it takes to get the money together. But I’m confident it won’t take us too long to find the money. The script really stands out and it’s being received very well. That is HUGE.
UB: Any estimated release or completion date?
JS: We are anticipating that it will be released in 2012.
UB: Any cast set for the film yet?
JS: We’re in talks with Raquel Castro right now to play the role of Sydney, the fifteen year old daughter. You and most other people will know her from Jersey Girl. As for Tristan, Sydney’s father, I will be playing that role. And Hanieh Jodat will play the role of Marcy Wade, a math school teacher. Hanieh is an up-and-comer like myself. She’s a tremendous actress. She was the lead in the short film Rabia and has won several film festival awards for her role in that film. I encourage you to check out Rabia. But once the New Year rolls around we will start trying to attach more talent to the film.
UB: Who will be handling FX?
JS: We are in talks with a few special effects companies, in particular KNB Effects.
UB: Are you aiming for a theatrical, television/cable or a direct-to-DVD release for the film?
JS: Theatrical all the way, my friend.
UB: Why the name “Deadlands Cry”? What significance does it have to the film?
JS: Because the townspeople in Friendville, a fictional town where the school is located, believe they can hear strange and creepy cries coming from the school and the surrounding area every now and then. And because the majority of the townspeople never think about taking one step into the area. So for those two reasons, they’ve nicknamed the area DeadLands Cry.
UB: Can you give us a little background history about yourself and your films?
JS: Well, I started out as an actor and eventually transitioned into filmmaking. As I studied acting I fell in love with directing and studied those skills alongside acting. After a year of training I began going to auditions. I went to audition after audition and finally decided the only way I was going to make it in this industry was to give my ownself a chance. So I formed my own production company and spent three years educating myself in the filmmaking process and the business of it all before I wrote, directed, produced and starred in my first feature film, Of Silence.
Then a couple of months later I produced and starred in the family sci-fi film, The Legends of Nethiah. Both of these films are expected to be released next year. Of Silence was my directorial debut. It’s a psychological thriller about an ailing scuba diver facing extremely tough times, who begins to experience otherworldly incidents. It’s a challenging film for the audience, a real mindbender and very metaphorical in its storytelling. It doesn’t give you answers. You have to answer every question yourself. It was a fun story to tell and a challenging shoot. I had so much fun playing the main character, Colby. I was able to go to many depths with him and show my acting abilities. All of the other actors — Masiela Lusha, Muse Watson, Ashlee Gillespie, Matthew Lawrence, Suzzanne Ford, Najarra Townsend and Paul Cuneo — were so great to work with as an actor and director. I was very fortunate to have such a wonderful cast. I have big hopes for Of Silence.
As for The Legends of Nethiah, it was a fun film to be a part of. I play Tully and Nethiah in the film. It’s about a young boy whose parents are going through a bitter divorce, and he’s given hope and courage through the powerful stories embellished by his grandfather. The stories give the boy the inner strength and resolve to confront the inevitable challenges that lie ahead. It’s based on of a short story I wrote and a character I created. I have already written three scripts based on the Nethiah character. Hopefully Legends will take off next year and be a big hit so that we can produce one of the follow-up scripts I have already written. I have always seen Legends as a franchise and hopefully we can get a chance to make another Nethiah film, one that is the true vision of the Nethiah character.
UB: Why a giant monster movie now?
JS: I’ve always been a big fan of horror movies, especially monster movies. I remember when I was eleven years old, I was at the house of one of my cousins. We stayed up one night and watched Predator and Alien. I was scared to death, but at the same time I loved it. He was a lot older than I was and could watch those movies. Once my mom found out we watched them, I got into big trouble. Anyway, those two films became my number one and number two favorite films — and still are. I was fascinated with monster movies from then on.
UB: What films are you using for inspiration for DeadLands Cry, or what creatures from other movies are being used as an inspiration for its main creature?
JS: As far as films, Alien is a big inspiration. I would also have to say the TheRelic is an inspiration as well. I thought they could have done a lot more with The Relic, but it’s still a good monster movie in my opinion. As far as monsters go, I don’t think it’s a good idea to compare the monster in DeadLands Cry to any other monster that’s already on film, because it could take away the originality and uniqueness of DeadLands Cry’s monster.
UB: What of the film’s other characters? Are there any other film performances that are being used as inspiration for these parts? Or were they written after/inspired by any others?
JS: When you write characters after other characters in other films then that makes your characters unoriginal. I do everything in my power to be as original as I can with my stories and characters. The characters in DeadLands Cry are original creations.
UB: What made you want to write this story?
JS: I wanted to write the kind of monster movie that I wanted to see. A different kind of monster movie. One that has deep meaning to it, with something more than just some monster killing innocent victims. I wanted to create a certain kind of world in the beginning and slowly have that world change to a completely different world as the story went along. I wanted it to be like life. Everyone lives day after day, never expecting bad things to happen, but then one day as you are living your life something bad happens unexpectedly and you have to get out of it. Everybody has had a situation like that. My approach with the story was to question how I could make something different of it, what I could do to breath new life in the horror genre that can make this story unique and stand out. I always wanted to tell a story about a father raising his daughter on his own from a young age. So I thought: why not use that concept and incorporate it into a monster movie? Have the sacrifice, struggle, fight and protection against the monster be a metaphor for what the father went through while raising his daughter. The father and daughter relationship is humble, emotional and very sweet. All of the characters are strong, real and engaging. Just thinking about them and the whole story makes me so excited.
UB: Will the monster’s design be something we’re familiar with or something altogether different/original?
JS: The monster is very original. Its design, movements and expressions will make it a very different type of monster from anything that has ever been seen before on screen.
UB: You say that the monster is a metaphor and metaphysical to what the story is really about. Can you expand on this?
JS: It deals with kids being conceived by an accident. Some are raised by a parent or parents who love and cherish them, others are raised by a parent or parents who hate and despise them or just don’t care for them. Some kids in those situations grow up and turn out to be good people. Others turn out the opposite, which could eventually turn them into monsters. In DeadLands Cry’s case, the monster is mentally a monster at first then later on becomes a monster physically.
UB: What FX technique will be used to bring the creature to life on the screen or should I say what preferred FX technique: CGI, practical, animatronics, etc….?
JS: The Monster and all of the blood and gore will be created through practical FX, because I want the Monster and the blood and gore to look real to the audience. The Monster will be completely built from head to toe. It will be animatronic. I’m staying away from visual effects as much as I possibly can. The only visual effects we will use is for touch-ups or to enhance the special effects. Visual effects, if not done right and perfect, look fake, cartoonish and laughable and can take an audience out of a movie. For a horror film, especially a monster movie, the audience pays attention to the effects. Audiences are very smart, they aren’t ignorant about these things. They will roll their eyes, laugh and be taken out of the movie completely if they can tell the Monster and blood and gore are CGI. The majority of horror fans hate CGI. So using real, practical effects is always the best and smartest way to go, because it will never take an audience out of the movie. What they see will look physically present, hence making the Monster and blood and gore seem real.
While we’re in the thick of a Lovecraftian Invasion, it seems a good time to show some reasonably recent short films based on H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Statement of Randolph Carter” (1919) — plus an older bonus.
I repeat to you, gentlemen, that your inquisition is fruitless. Detain me here forever if you will; confine or execute me if you must have a victim to propitiate the illusion that you call justice; but I can say no more than I have said already. Everything that I can remember, I have told with perfect candour. Nothing has been distorted or concealed, and if anything remains vague, it is only because of the dark cloud which has come over my mind—that cloud and the nebulous nature of the horrors which brought it to me. (From “The Statement of Randolph Carter” in At the Mountains of Madness and other Novels, Arkham House edition, 1964, p. 299)
The Statement of Randolph Carter (US-2008; short [15:42 min]; dir. John Kazuo Morehead)
Synopsis:
Academic, Randolph Carter is questioned by the police when his friend and mentor Harley Warren turns up missing.
The Statement of Randolph Carter (US-2007; short [5:30 min]; dir. Lance Hendrickson):
Bonus: Pickman’s Model
Below, in three parts, is a version of Lovecraft’s story “Pickman’s Model” filmed for Rod Serling’s TV series Night Gallery (Season 2, Episode 11, first aired 1 December 1971 and directed by Jeff Corey).
You know, it takes profound art and profound insight into Nature to turn out stuff like Pickman’s … only a real artist knows the actual anatomy of the terrible and the physiology of fear … Pickman had it as no man had ever had it before or—I hope to heaven—ever will again. (from “Pickman’s Model” in The Dunwich Horror and Others, Arkham House edition, 1963, p. 13)
It’s about time that Hollywood really began to exploit the legacy of Weird Tales alumni and creator of Conan the Barbarian, Robert E. Howard, who wrote much more than just the Conan stories. With a new Conan film on the way, it seems that one of Howard’s other “heroes” is about to hit the big screen:
Solomon Kane (US-2010; dir. Michael J. Bassett)
Synopsis:
The first part in a trilogy series, Solomon Kane is an epic adventure adapted from the classic pulp stories by Robert E. Howard, creator of “Conan the Barbarian.” Solomon Kane (James Purefoy) is a 16th Century Puritan soldier who learns that his brutal and cruel actions have damned him. Determined to redeem himself, Kane swears to live a life of peace and goodness but is forced to fight once more when a dark power threatens the land. (DreadCentral)
Few filmmakers have been successful in translating New England horror writer H.P. Lovecraft’s dense, adjective-driven tales of Elder Gods, Old Ones and the Horrors That Lurk Just the Other Side of Reality into effective cinema. Despite interesting earlier forays such as The Dunwich Horror (US-1970; dir. Daniel Haller), Boris Karloff’s Die, Monster, Die! (US-1965; dir. Daniel Haller — a version of “The Color Out of Space”), and Roger Corman’s Poe-styled translation of “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward”, The Haunted Palace (US-1963; dir. Roger Corman), it wasn’t until Stuart Gordon came on the scene that the movies began to feel even slightly Lovecraftian in their styling, despite the fact that examples such as Re-Animator (1985, based on “Herbert West, Re-Animator”), From Beyond (1986), Castle Freak (1995, based on “The Outsider”), Dagon (2001) and most recently H.P. Lovecraft’s Dreams in the Witch-House (2005) from the Masters of Horror TV series are somewhat more visceral and bloody than Lovecraft’s stories, at least on a surface level.
Given Lovecraft’s prominence in the horror field, the difficulties inherent in translating his tales to the screen have meant that films based on his work have not been as common as one might have expected — and that one of the most successfully Lovecraftian films ever was not even based on his work: namely John Carpenter’s vastly under-appreciated In the Mouth of Madness (1994).
In recent times, production of Lovecraft-based films has been ramping up, however. In 2005, the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society made the brilliantly conceived and executed The Call of Cthulhu (US-2005; dir. Andrew Leman), which adopts film techniques current at the time the story was written to create a strong sense of period (it’s made in the manner of a silent-era film) and evoking an effective atmosphere of dread — and it proved to be one of the most accurate renditions of a Lovecraft story ever. In 2007 Dan Gildark directed a modernised Lovecraft tale, Cthulhu, based loosely on Lovecraft’s “The Shadow Over Innsmouth”. Since 2005, the Masters of Horror TV series has featured the afore-mentioned Stuart Gordon effort Dreams in the Witch-House, as well as the pre-Lovecraftian Ambrose Bierce tale The Damned Thing (US-2006; dir. Tobe Hooper). Color From the Dark (US-2008; dir. Ivan Zuccon) is an independent feature film based on “The Color Out of Space”, which won best feature at this year’s H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival — an annual festival that is highlighting hordes of shorts and features based on the Master’s work. Meanwhile rumours of big budget Lovecraft tales are beginning to appear, from the likes of Stuart Gordon (“The Thing on the Doorstep”) and Guillermo Del Toro (“At the Mountains of Madness”) — not to mention such Lovecraftesque monster films as Altitude (due 2010, directed by Kaare Andrews).
Over the next few weeks Undead Backbrain will be taking a look at some of the directly Lovecraftian films that have just appeared or are about to. First up is a short film that features a little known Old One.
Dirt Dauber (US-2009; short [35 min]; dir. Steve Daniels)
Synopsis:
In this disturbing Lovecraftian fairytale, a man awakes naked and confused in an isolated mountainous region. He soon encounters a strange local who offers to help him. The stranger recounts local folklore that speaks of a murderous religious cult, and an insect-like fertility god that is said to dwell deep within the mountain. The two men go underground in search of the truth and soon find themselves in a stygian black temple of horror. (hplfilmfestival.com)
Dirt Dauber is a short film inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft, and was winner of the “Brown Jenkin: Best Short Film Award” at the HP Lovecraft Film Festival 2009.
The story features a mythical fertility monster referred to as a “Thing with a Thousand Young”, which leads to the assumption that we’re dealing with Lovecraft’s Old One, Shub-Niggurath. Shub-Niggurath never actually appears in any of Lovecraft’s stories, though it is referred to, principally in incantations of various kinds, as “The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young!” Hints as to its appearance, developed by writers such as Robert Bloch and Ramsey Campbell in their latter-day contributions to the “Cthulhu Mythos”, have led artists (such a Patrick McEvoy) to conceive of Shub-Niggurath as an amorphous monstrosity with tentacles, thus:
and this one, which hints at goatishness (I don’t know the name of the artist, but if anyone does, please let me know):
Neither the reference to the Black Goat (clearly in itself alluding to the medieval depiction of Satan as a monstrous goat, or perhaps to the Great God Pan), nor the description of Shub-Niggurath as an “evil cloud-like entity” (from a letter written by Lovecraft) give much to suggest a vision of the creature as a giant wasp-like monster, which is the approach taken by Deep Dauber. However, in “The Whisperer in Darkness” the voice whispering the incantation on a recording is described as offering merely “a buzzing imitation of human speech”:
It was like the drone of some loathsome, gigantic insect ponderously shaped into the articulate speech of an alien species, and I am perfectly certain that the organs producing it can have no resemblance to the vocal organs of man, or indeed to those of any of the mammalia. There were singularities in timbre, range, and overtones which placed the phenomenon wholly outside the sphere of humanity and earth-like. Its sudden advent that first time almost stunned me, and I heard the rest of the record through in a sort of abstracted daze. When the longer passage of buzzing came, there was a sharp intensification of that feeling of blasphemous infinity which had struck me during the shorter and earlier passage. At last the record ended abruptly, during an unusually clear speech of the human and Bostonian voice; but I sat stupidly staring long after the machine had automatically stopped. (from The Dunwich Horror and Others, Arkham House, 1963, pp. 227-228)
Trailer:
As i said above, filmmakers have struggled to find ways to visually replicate the unique sense of cosmic dread that Lovecraft brought to his tales. It’s not a matter of producing CGI monstrosities; in fact, Lovecraft himself used suggestion much more than direct description when dealing with the Old Ones and their grotesque minions. I get the impression that Dirt Dauber takes an indirect approach, utilising some unusual cinematic techniques. Debi Moore on Dread Central comments on the film’s unique visual stylings:
Dirt Dauber‘s visual element develops from grainy black and white super 8 to a sharper, higher contrast look and then finally to color, representing a growth cycle similar to that of an insect’s from larva to pupa to adulthood. It also utilizes a unique pop-up book style puppet element that highlights themes of childhood memory and fantastical local legends.
You can also read a detailed review of Dirt Dauber on Grim Reviews.
With the BBC’s new two-part series of John Wyndham’s classic 1951 scifi novel, The Day of the Triffids, to air in Britain over Christmas (28 and 29 December), three clips from the show have been released:
Clip One:
Clip Two:
Clip Three:
The Day of the Triffids stars Dougray Scott, Joely Richardson, Brian Cox, Vanessa Redgrave, Eddie Izzard and Jason Priestley, and it is written by Patrick Harbinson of ER and Law & Order fame.
With details of Luc Besson’s period thriller Les Aventures Extraordinaires d’Adèle Blanc-Sec [aka The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Dry-White] only new to the internet, a teaser trailer has appeared… and guess what? We get a glimpse of the pteradactyl!
Teaser Trailer:
If you don’t know what I’m talking about check out the main Undead Backbrain article on the subject and then take a look at some very nice pictures of the lady herself here.
Well, this one — though it features a giant turtle — seems to be the product of a completely different genre to that of the Friend of Children — a daikaiju eiga subgenre all its own. In fact it looks rather like a Gamera film made by David Lynch after a wild night at a party in honour of Mack Sennett.
Ichimotsu (Japan-2008; dir. Taku Yamamoto)
Racing, a giant turtle racing against two detectives, racing again!
As all the sites that have information on this strange kaiju eiga are in Japanese, it’s hard to put a coherent synopsis together. But it seems that it is an independent film. It takes place in 1970. The main protagonist is a policeman named Tobisawa (Kohtaro Takaoka), who may be in disgrace (I’m unsure of that) and as a result is sent to a village in Kumamoto Prefecture, where there have been reports of activists targeting a local magnate and his son. This pair have been manufacturing longevity drugs using turtles from a local pond.
Tobisawa is forced to confront an unbelievable creature, a giant (“over 17 feet long”) man-eating tortoise named Gami. Legend has it that the Kaiju Gami is hundreds of years old and will arise once again to take retribution. [“Gami” is a word coined for the film, combining the Japanese words G(K)AME（or tortoise) and KAMI (or Spirit).]
A key feature of confronting the creature seems to involve running away.
Confronting:
Running Away:
Here is a picture of the Gami puppet used in the production:
Somewhere in the mix are Tobisawa’s brother, Kamota (Kazuya Sasaki), an old man named Otojiro (Hiroyuki Kawano), who is suffering from memories of war, and his grandchild Yoshimi (Sayo Yokota) — I’m guessing that’s her in the image below.
There also seems to be a lot of lurking around in the pond reeds:
Strange gadgets, too:
Ichimotsu was filmed in black and white on 8 mm film and was directed, written, shot and edited by Taku Yamamoto. The music is by Taku Yoshida and Taku Yamamoto. It runs for 96 minutes… with “run” being a key word, as you can see from the trailer below. I think you’ll agree that the trailer displays a bizarre exuberance that makes Ichimotsu look like something we’ve never seen before.
Trailer:
Trailer 2:
I suspect that director/creator Taku Yamamoto is a weird guy. Here is his official portrait:
I’d love to see this film. It looks beautifully eccentric and exuberant with that peculiar form of Japanese weirdness that I never tire of. Currently Ichimotsu is not on DVD, though there was a Japanese DVD available a while back. It sold out. Hopefully whatever response that comes from this article will encourage the creators to do a new run.
