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Tentaclii

~ News and scholarship on H.P. Lovecraft (1890–1937)

Tentaclii

Category Archives: Films & trailers

Documentary: The Rise and Fall of Penn Station

13 Saturday Jun 2020

Posted by asdjfdlkf in Films & trailers, Historical context

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Back in summer 2011, I blogged here about the architecture of H.P. Lovecraft’s entrance into New York City. This being the Pennsylvania Station…

When Mr. H.P. Lovecraft stepped down onto the platform of the Pennsylvania Station, on his first ever visit to New York in April 1922, he was surrounded by the neo-gothic imagination in the very architecture of the place.

I now see that a 60-minute PBS documentary film appeared a few years later, American Experience: The Rise and Fall of Penn Station, being added to what appears to have become a cottage-industry of books about the station. The documentary seems very well reviewed by critics and buyers alike, and is now on Amazon Prime at $3. Though only in America. In the UK we have to get Prime and then buy a monthly subscription to PBS.

“The Elder Pharos”

11 Thursday Jun 2020

Posted by asdjfdlkf in Films & trailers, Lovecraftian arts

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The Lone Animator is back to blogging, with a fine ‘making of’ blog post.

This one is about his new adaptation of Lovecraft’s “The Elder Pharos”, part of the Fungi From Yuggoth cycle. The animation was released on YouTube a few weeks before the virus hit.

“Deluge” movie fully restored – now streaming

19 Sunday Apr 2020

Posted by asdjfdlkf in Films & trailers, Historical context

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Further to my recently look at S. Fowler Wright and his biography and influence on Lovecraft, I’m pleased to see a post today lauding the restored 1933 movie of Fowler Wright’s science-fiction disaster classic Deluge (1927). It’s now available to stream…

Once a lost film and for decades only available in an Italian language print with English subtitles, it was recently restored from a newly-discovered 35mm nitrate negative with the English language soundtrack by Serge Bromberg’s Paris-based Lobster Films. Kino Repertory picked up the film for a limited theatrical re-release in the U.S. and now Kino Lorber Studio Classics presents the stateside disc debut of the Lobster restoration. It looks very good for its age, especially considering the original elements suffered partial decomposition. Digital tools have restored much of the image and the sharpness and the soundtrack is even more impressive, with a clarity not often heard in orphaned films of this vintage and a dynamic range to the musical score. The Blu-ray and DVD Kino Lorber release also features new audio commentary by film historian Richard Harland Smith and a bonus feature: the 1934 B-movie Back Page, a newspaper drama starring Peggy Shannon.

Apparently the movie’s distributor went bankrupt shortly after it was released in 1933, and then the movie was abruptly pulled from cinemas and cannibalised — the spectacular and costly special-effects scenes were extracted and crafted into new “Destruction of New York!” shorts that could generate long-term profits for creditors. This catastrophe scuppered any hope of a Hollywood script-writing career for S. Fowler Wright, and he returned to England.

Did Lovecraft see it? Well, after a long hiatus Lovecraft had returned to movie-going circa the winter of 1932-33, as the quality of movies rapidly improved. He was later wowed by the historical time-travel drama Berkeley Square in 1933 for instance. It’s thus quite possible that the prospect of seeing the ‘pest zone’ of New York entirely destroyed and swept away would have enticed him to a 1933 viewing of Deluge (the movie’s makers had swopped out the English Cotswolds for New York).

Though the Barlow letters suggest that Lovecraft was often tardy in such things, waiting until the very end of a film’s local run before visiting the cinema. Presumably there was less of a noisy distracting crowd in the cinema during the last few days of screening, and that was the way he liked it. Perhaps the tickets were also cheaper at such times. Such tardiness may well have meant he missed Deluge, it being abruptly pulled from release before he could see it. I know of no evidence that he managed to catch the movie before it was pulled.

He somewhat sporadically continued to attend cinema shows, for instance adoring the 18th century British Empire romance-adventure Clive of India (1935) showing the founding of the British Empire in India. This he held up to Barlow, alongside Berkeley Square, as a movie that had given him a ‘real kick’. In such continued cinema-going it’s not impossible he may have, at some point in 1934-36, seen and enjoyed one of the “Destruction of New York!” shorts that Deluge became.

The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne

21 Tuesday Jan 2020

Posted by asdjfdlkf in Films & trailers, Odd scratchings

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I’m pleased to discover The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne, a 22-hour series which was the flagship series for HD TV, back in 1998-2000 when HD was a new thing. They cast well, spent $2m an episode, had lots of VFX, and superb and inventive scripts. Judging by the first few episodes it seems it paid off, and is a welcome reminder of the days when TV stories were stories, not an excuse for a string of political lectures.

But who knew there was such a thing, in steampunk? I’d never heard of the show before, despite it being loved by a hardcore of (rather quiet) fans. Part of the reason for that is that the show has never been released on DVD. Comments in old Starlog magazines suggest there was a very poorly promoted HD showing, and one gets the impression that most sci-fi fans had no clue it was even running. Then it was badly converted to film (too dark and muddy), for showing on the American TV channels. At that point the channels could not handle HD, and the result looked disappointing to many. Thus it appears that the old VHS TV captures are all the fans have in 2020. Not ideal, with the sumptuous costumes being an especially regrettable loss — they get smudged into down into a dark haze. But it’s quite watchable, especially so if you can use real-time playback filters to slightly boost sharpness, saturation, contrast etc. A very fractious set of investors apparently prevent any new HD release in the 2020s, with the HD masters presumably crumbling away in a vault somewhere.

Starlog #287 (2001) has the best extended magazine article on the series and what it was trying to do.

2020 movies – the pick

30 Monday Dec 2019

Posted by asdjfdlkf in Films & trailers, Odd scratchings

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What do we have coming up in terms of cinema movies in 2020? In order of appearance through the year, my interest is tweaked by…

Underwater. Sci-fi underwater horror. Appears to be an Alien/Abyss re-tread, but it might be more inventive than that.

The Color out of Space. Major modern adaptation of the H.P. Lovecraft story.

Come Away. British fantasy drama apparently combining Alice in Wonderland with Peter Pan. Has a big-name British cast, although past experience suggests that’s not always a guarantee of success with such things. They can tend to be rather more ‘worthy’ than entertaining, and the child-actor casting can often go badly wrong (e.g. Nesbit’s Five Children and It in the 2004 movie version).

The Call of the Wild. Jack London’s doggy wilderness epic, seemingly done straight. A lot will depend on how convincing the CG is, as there’s going to be a heck of a lot of fur.

The Invisible Man. The title grabs me, but the movie turns out to be a “very loose” and modernised semi-adaptation ‘domestic abuse horror’ movie of the famous ‘early Wells’ science-fiction tale.

Onward. Teen heavy-metal urban-fantasy animation from Pixar.

The New Mutants. Another and apparently the “final” X-Men franchise movie. It can’t be worse than the last, can it? But we may be surprised.

Antlers. A ‘scary deer’ horror? Another 2020 movie, Antebellum, is apparently a ‘scary butterflies’ horror. I’m sensing a trend here. I wonder if the Welsh Film Fund would be interested in my old screenplay Sheep: the blood-baaaath?

Green Knight. Based on the famous Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

Artemis Fowl. Disney movie version of the books about a “12 year old master criminal” who does things like make supercomputers with stolen fairy technology. Apparently hugely popular among those born after 1990, and most likely to be appreciated by the under-14s and nostalgic 20-somethings. [Update: released, but apparently an utterly awful disaster]

BIOS. Unknown Tom Hanks sci-fi thriller, probably involving computer hackers and AI.

Morbius, the Living Vampire. A movie outing for one of Marvel’s supernatural/superhero characters. Likely to be middling summer fare, akin to the first Ghost Rider movie. I’d guess it may feed into a bigger spring 2022 Doctor Strange movie, which is said to have a strong Lovecraftian slant?

Monster Hunter. Apparently loosely based on a videogame. Probably just a mindless summer action romp.

The King’s Man. A Kingsman prequel movie. Looks like a very interesting start to the Autumn/Fall, and a welcome alternative to James Bond now that the November 2020 Bond appears to have gone the same way as Doctor Who.

The Witches. The Roald Dahl book, apparently given a “dark” adaptation for the “young adult” crowd — but the Guillermo del Toro screenplay promises quality for Halloween.

The Eternals. The first in Marvel’s hoped-for new mega-verse of movies, and based on the fondly-remembered space-gods comics series by Jack Kirby. It’ll be interesting to see how much they Kirby-ize the look of the movie, if at all, re: the possibility of blending film with the kind of toon-tech that brought us the recent Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

Dune. Another try at filming the famous science-fiction epic. Apparently this will only cover the first half of the first book, so presumably they anticipate a six or seven movie series if successful. Said to be visually ambitious in scale but twisting the story into politically-correct shapes. While you’re waiting, try the audiobooks.

The Croods 2. The first was a great bit of pure animated-comedy entertainment set in an amusing Stone Age, if rather forgettable after a few weeks. But I’d be up for more of that, provided they don’t pack it with eco-preaching.

Uncharted. A December movie and a spin-off from the videogame series, which features many ‘Lost City’ type settings in jungles and deserts. The December timing suggests quality. A lot will depend on how well they can mix machine-guns with mystery. I’d imagine that adding a slight Lovecraftian twist would suit the settings, and what are said to be ‘supernatural relics’, widening up the appeal of the movie version beyond the Indiana Jones crowd?

The Tomorrow War. Alien invasion meets time-travel, via military sci-fi. Again, the December slot inspires hope for some quality.


There’s no sign of the second ‘Young Tolkien’ bio-pic in the 2020 lists. Two were said to be filming, but only one has been released. There’s also no sign of the mooted adaptation of the early H.G. Wells horror The Island of Doctor Moreau.

Big-budget Dunwich Horror movie in early development

10 Sunday Nov 2019

Posted by asdjfdlkf in Films & trailers

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“H.P. Lovecraft Trilogy Being Planned by the Makers of ‘Color Out of Space’”, reports the movie-making world’s media. The news arises from an interview with… “SpectreVision’s Elijah Wood and Daniel Noah” who want… “at least three of them”. They have the obvious choice of The Dunwich Horror in the “early stages” of development, for a… “Lovecraft adaptation that truly capture[s] cosmic dread without the camp”. Sounds good, but it’s also said to be likely to be set in the near-future, and will have the inevitable political “messaging” that seems inescapable these days.

Memory: The Origins of Alien

08 Sunday Sep 2019

Posted by asdjfdlkf in Films & trailers

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Murray Ewing reviews the new documentary feature-film Memory: The Origins of Alien (Alien = the original movie) and offers a thoughtful emphasis on H.P. Lovecraft’s contributions.

Lovecraft Film Festival 2019

07 Saturday Sep 2019

Posted by asdjfdlkf in Films & trailers, Lovecraftian arts

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H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival, 4th – 6th October 2019, USA. Now with guests and film-schedule announced.

Colour Out of Space – first glimpse of the movie

08 Thursday Aug 2019

Posted by asdjfdlkf in Films & trailers, Lovecraftian arts

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It looks like Nicolas Cage’s big movie of The Colour Out of Space has a 1969-ish vibe to it, rather than being set in the 1920s, judging by the car in this newly released FX shot. I guess that makes sense, as such a date would allow the film-makers to layer in several political subtexts from the period, re: hippy LSD psychedelia, Vietnam defoliants, the anti-DDT books such as Silent Spring etc. In terms of audiences, such a period would also bring it closer to the era of popular shows such as Stranger Things.

The world premiere is at the Toronto International Film Festival, which is September 2019. The London (UK) opening is in early October 2019.

News from S.T. Joshi

31 Wednesday Jul 2019

Posted by asdjfdlkf in Films & trailers, New books

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S.T. Joshi’s blog has updated.

* News of a Joshi-penned… “little detective novel featuring Lovecraft and Sonia as detectives, Honeymoon in Jail”, which sounds fun. Perhaps an opportunity there for an aspiring comics artist to do a graphic novel adaptation of this item, I’d suggest?

* There’s to be a Japanese documentary on Lovecraft, Dark Side Mystery which will screen in Japan in November. For which the Japanese makers took the trouble to jet to the USA and also to fly S.T. Joshi to the John Hay Library in Providence and interview him there carefully for several hours. It sounds promising, and one presumes it will eventually be released online with English subtitles.

* There’s also a documentary film being made with the “Canadian documentarian Qais Pasha”, which sounds like it could be on ‘Lovecraft and his places’. Update: the core of it is “Lovecraft’s visits to Quebec”.

New documentary: “Memory: Origins of Alien”

15 Saturday Jun 2019

Posted by asdjfdlkf in Films & trailers, Lovecraftian arts

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Alexandre Philippe’s new feature-length documentary, Memory: Origins of Alien (2019, 94 mins) is currently doing the rounds of film festivals and related gallery shows…

On the eve of Alien’s 40th Anniversary, Memory (the title of the script’s first draft) unearths the largely untold origin story behind Ridley Scott’s cinematic masterpiece: its roots in Greek and Egyptian mythology, underground comics, parasitology, H.P. Lovecraft, the art of Francis Bacon, and the symbiotic genius of Dan O’Bannon and H.R. Giger.

Sundance reviews say it tries to take an intellectual angle, but is a bit wobbly in terms of achieving that. Also that it’s about the original 1979 Alien, rather than the later world-building and cash-ins.

The documentary is currently on pre-order on Amazon, with a “student grant-money cow-catcher” release-date of 2nd September 2019.

Dark Phoenix burns out

07 Friday Jun 2019

Posted by asdjfdlkf in Films & trailers

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Oh no, my paper copies of the original Claremont ‘Dark Phoenix’ X-Men comics just plummeted in value! I was hoping them might go up in value, and I could sell them, durn it.

Because, while the original comics are still a pinnacle of comics-making, the new X-Men: Dark Phoenix movie is very dire indeed according to nearly all the reviews.

“Xcruciating, eXecrable and ineXcusable with its juddering mess of a storyline” — The Sun newspaper, the biggest UK tabloid.

“A Disastrous End To The X-Men Franchise” — ScreenGeek, and many other similar sentiments can be found in the U.S. reviews. “Burned out”. “Mediocre”. “A Phoned-In Conclusion to a Mutant Saga”. “X-Men Franchise Goes Down In Flames”. “Dark Phoenix is a cinematic shoulder shrug with no reason to exist.” And “biggest dud of X-Men franchise”.

What a pity. One of the greatest stories in superhero comics, trashed.

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