Tag: H.P. Lovecraft

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Color Out of Space Review

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Important Note: I’m linking this article to a blog post where Richard Stanley was accused of domestic abuse here. Obviously, this kind of behavior is horrific, and Stanley shouldn’t be working as a director. This note was added to this article on 03/24/21, but the rest of the article has been left untouched.

I got the chance to see Richard Stanley’s 2019 adaptation of The Colour Out of Space (Yes, Lovecraft intentionally spelled color that way for his story) on Wednesday (January 22nd). It was a ton of fun seeing the film with fellow Lovecraft fans, and afterward, my friends and I even did a little movie discussion at an H.P. Lovecraft inspired bar near us, J.B. Lovedrafts. We even saw a special version of the film that included a Q &A with some of the cast and the director.

Since more people seem to watch videos over reading reviews these days, I thought this was a good opportunity to try my hand at a YouTube review. The experience was fun, but I have a lot to learn about presenting a spoken review in front of a camera. I forgot to mention two cool observations, and I didn’t feel I was always as coherent as possible, but I think I still got most of my points across. I also forgot to ask for people who saw the film that hadn’t read the original story to let me know how they felt the film was because I am interested in a non-Lovecraft fan’s perspective.

SPOILER WARNING FOR EVERYTHING BELOW!

If you’re interested, here are the two points I didn’t touch on in the spoiler section that I wanted to. I really liked how the color seemed to affect the members of the family differently. Cage’s character is haunted by a horrible smell, and I loved that particularly because I thought it was probably a reference to the Dunwich Horror, where there’s a line that goes, “as a foulness, ye shall know them,” referring to identifying evil, ancient entities. Also, as my friend Tom pointed out, Lavenia’s character spends most of the film trying to leave the Gardner farm, and at the end of the movie, the color may have granted her wish and teleported her to another world.

 

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The Fisherman

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The FishermanYesterday, I finished my third book of the new year. I enjoyed John Langan’s short story collection, The Wide Carnivorous Sky and Other Monstrous Geographies, so much that I wasted almost no time reeling in his most recently published novel, The Fisherman. After consuming the work in under a week, I can safely say that it includes everything I enjoyed in his short fiction while adding new layers of horrifying goodness.

The narrative follows Abe, an extremely likable widower, as he recounts the haunting experiences and myths surrounding the mysterious Dutchman’s Creek. Here I must pause to deliver an amusing anecdote. While listening to The Fisherman via audible, en route to Philadelphia with my wife, I couldn’t help adding my own soundtrack of “Dun Dun DUN” to the story as Abe recounted the first time he heard about Dutchman’s Creek from his friend, Dan. Immediately after I finished my theme, the narration stated, “If this had been a movie, I guess this would’ve been the moment ominous music boomed on the soundtrack.” My wife and I had quite a laugh, but I think that perfectly illustrates how well Langan knows his own story.

While Abe is the primary protagonist, most of the story is relayed by a different character. He is a cook who bears a striking similarity to H.P. Lovecraft. Besides both people being named Howard, the cook is also described as having a lantern jaw, being a writer, and coming from Providence. Putting all those things together paints a very particular picture, and I loved it. Howard relays the spooky story about Dutchman’s Creek’s origin that he was told by a minister, who heard the story from one of his parishioners in a nursing home. Much like a real fishing story, this one comes via several degrees of separation from the teller. As for the origins of Dutchman’s Creek, you’ll have to read The Fisherman yourself to get all the horrifying details, but I can’t help telling you that the antagonist of the novel is a kind of supernatural Ahab set on capturing a sea creature that would put Moby-Dick to shame.

During the novel, there were at least two references to some of Langan’s short fiction that I loved. The first was a kind of magical right of passage that two characters must make to a city patrolled by bird-like figures who should be familiar to those who read Outside the House, Watching for the Crows in The Mammoth Book of Cthulhu. The second was when Abe passes by the headless statue of a pregnant woman, which readers of Mother of Stone, the closing tale in The Wide Carnivorous Sky and Other Monstrous Geographies should recognize. These connections deepened my reading experience and made me hoot with amusement when I came across them.

Alright, I better stop rambling about how much I liked this novel, or we’ll be here forever. In summary, The Fisherman is a great read. It has a protagonist you love (imagine if Pet Sematary was told from the perspective of the kindly neighbor instead of the doctor), a classic Weird narrative (with enough spooky fish to please a resident of Innsmouth), loads of intricately detailed references (to other horror works, Moby-Dick, and more), emotional resonance (anyone who’s ever lost someone will find themselves connecting with the novel’s portrayal of grief), and lastly, it will keep you turning pages toward its appropriately disconcerting ending. I can’t recommend this novel enough if, like me, you’re a horror reader who leans toward the Weird.

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NoSleep Live 2019 Halloween Tour

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NoSleep Live Stage Set Up

At my day job, I occasionally need to compile reports that take a fair amount of time but not as much brainpower. When I got Spotify a few years back, I started using this time to listen to podcasts. I’d always liked the idea of podcasts, but I’d never had time or a good way to listen to them. After working my way through most of H.P. Lovecraft’s work in audio form, I was searching for more horror to fill my time. That’s when I discovered the NoSleep Podcast. Originally, this podcast told horror stories pulled from Reddit’s NoSleep Forum, but the podcast evolved into creating original horror stories over time. I listened to every episode available, about seven seasons worth at that point, and then started listening to new episodes every week.

In 2018, I drove two hours east to Philadelphia to see the NoSleep Podcast’s Escape the Black Farm live tour. The experience was fantastic, except for the random person who clipped my mirror and sped off as I was driving home, so much for the so-called “city of brotherly love.” Naturally, I had to see the 2019 NoSleep Live Halloween tour too. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately considering my mirror fiasco, the show wasn’t stopping in Philadelphia, but, thanks to my central location, I was able to drive three hours south to the Miracle Theater, in Washington D.C.

The venue was a historic locale, a cozy one-screen theater that hosted vaudeville acts in the days before movies. I arrived early and got a great seat near the front. You can probably find me, my wife, and my aunt if you zoom in on the third row of the NoSleep Podcast’s Instagram picture from the event. We all had a great time, and the neat place only added to the event’s ambiance.

This show contained four “spine-tingling” stories that were all spooky in unique ways. The first was about a hilariously entertaining dinner party gone wrong. The voice actors, David Cummings, Jessica McEvoy, David Ault, and Nichole Goodnight, did a fabulous job throughout the night, but I was extremely impressed with how well they worked together and bounced off each other in the opening tale. The second story concerned a potentially paranormal fog. Finally, there was the classic tale of a daughter attempting to resurrect her dead dad. Each story was masterfully scored by music maestro Brandon Boone.

If you haven’t listened to the NoSleep Podcast yet, you need to give them a listen during this Halloween season. There are a countless number of great horror stories to enjoy that span all the different horror subgenres. I can’t recommend the podcast enough, and I especially encourage trying to see the show live, if the tour is coming to a town near you. They put on a great performance, and they are all extremely friendly. Due to my long drive home, I wasn’t able to do the meet and greet after in D.C., but I enjoyed meeting several NoSleep actors in Philadelphia last year. I thanked them for being a great source of horror and taking submissions. I’m hopeful that one day down the line, I will hear one of my stories brought to life by NoSleep. I just wrote an audio script about a lost John Carpenter film that I plan to submit to the NoSleep Podcast in the future, and I am currently thinking about working on a horror story set in space for a future Christmas episode. If any other horror writers are interested in sending them a story, be sure to check out their submissions page.

Until My Next Post,

Stay Froggy,

Jeremiah

P.S. Here’s me and my wife doing scared faces after the show.

Scared Faces