Photos of bioluminescent New Zealand caves…

“Another photograph — evidently a time-exposure taken in deep shadow — was of the mouth of a woodland cave…” — H.P. Lovecraft, “The Whisperer in Darkness”.

A player analysis of the new videogame Bloodborne and Lovecraft. Spoilers, but if you’re a PC gamer that won’t matter — as Bloodborne is one of those Sony Playstation flagship games like Eco that’s never ever coming to Windows.

Genuine Lovecraft fans are working hard on making Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath RPG for the PC, with “an overall Zelda-like experience”.

The graphic style will be more overhead toony Torchlight than first-person Skyrim, driven by the look of the “Lovely Lovecraft” webcomic by young Italian artist Sara Bardi…

What if Lovecraft had ghost-scripted Roman Holiday (Audey Hepburn’s debut, romance in Rome)? And then it had been made by the director of An American Werewolf in London? That’s what Spring (2014) sounds like, a new movie by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead. The plot seems to be: confused 20-something American boy goes bumming around Italy, falls for hot local Italian girl, they discover a weird ancient tentacle monster and ancient secret knowledge… Sounds like a dire spoof, but it’s being very widely acclaimed as a comparatively flawless and restrained horror movie. Apparently it’s a character-led film with an “original and surprising mythology” and “stunning location photography” through the use of HD drone cameras (blurb for the Tiff festival, Canada).

Be warned, though, if you suffer from ‘cinema sea sickness’: hand-held cameras…

“The hand-held work is often distracting and does not have any clear narrative or aesthetic reason”, yet overall the movie is “without a doubt one of the most original monster features in recent years” (Sight on Sound).

Here are the various posters…

No idea when it’s due out on download and DVD, and Google didn’t immediately surface a website for the film. This sort of art house festival film can stay away from a proper release for years, sadly, while it grinds its way around the festival circuit. Although it does appear to be getting some sort of cinema release in America from 17th April. No details on that at IMDB, just the date.

The pair’s next film appears to be an art house “story about the enigma that is Aleister Crowley”, seemingly to be filmed in Scotland, UK. That old loon is not my cup of tea, but it’s bound to get them a big audience. Who knows, we may eventually see them doing a proper big Lovecraft adaptation one day.

David Crawford’s “Lovecraft’s Monsters”, a one-man theatre show of Lovecraft’s life and work, at The Maker Theater / 12 Peers Theater, Pittsburgh. Sounds rather good, with a strong focus on the biography, until the reviewer notes that… “The show’s second half is given over largely to a live retelling of “The Shadow Over Innsmouth”. The show runs until 21st March 2015. Pittsburgh Stage also has a review, “Lovecraft’s Monsters Haunt The Maker Theater”.

In 2014 there was a staging of the play in Edinburgh, UK, where it was reviewed by Counter Culture and Broadway Baby.

Unknown artist, found on a Tumblr-like site where they don’t credit or title. Google Images’s reverse look-up only finds a scan of a Chaosium rule book, in which the picture was used for the opening double-page spread, but no artist name was given. Looks like a Photoshop-ing of an old public-domain oil painting, with new elements laid on top…

Just realised I haven’t mentioned the 20th Annual H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival in Los Angeles 1st-3rd May 2015. Submission are still open, deadline 1st April 2015. Then later in the year the Festival rolls into Portland Oregon on 2nd-4th October 2015, with Charles Stross as Guest of Honor. Sadly no awesome posters yet, so here are a few from previous years…