HP Lovecraft Collection, Volume 1: Cool Air (1 Viewer)

[Julie K]

We HP Lovecraft fans have to put up with a lot of bad or unfaithful movie adaptations of his work. And despite Guillermo del Toro's intention of making a large budget faithful adaptation of At the Mountains of Madness, I have my doubts.

However, last October I came across the HP Lovecraft Film Festival in Portland, Oregon. It was comprised of low-budget indie films make by folks with a whole lot of passion for Lovecraft's works. Sometimes more passion that talent, but still they meant well...

In any case, the guy who has been putting on these festivals has now released the first DVD in the HP Lovecraft Collection. The primary short film of Volume 1 is an adaptation of Cool Air which I think should please most Lovecraft fans wanting a faithful and period version of the story (let's not mention that horrid segment in the film Necronomicon...).

The disc also contains the short films Nyarlathotep, The Hound, The Hapless Antiquarian, and An Imperfect Solution. Nyarlathotep and The Hound use narration from the stories of those names. An Imperfect Solution is from one of the Herbert West stories. The Hapless Antiquarian is a funny little piece about an antiquarian trying to get rid of a nasty book. All are in B&W or sepia (well, An Imperfect Solution is a strange not-quite-desaturated color that I'm not sure was intended.) I enjoyed them all.

There's also a feature with the cast and crew of Cool Air, an interview with Lovecraft scholor ST Joshi describing the stories that have been adapted on this disc as well as a discussion of Lovecraft's increasing popularity. Two "festival openers" are included and if you've never been to the HP Lovecraft Film Festival, then you should know they are meant to be humorous short films that kick off the festival. A couple of easter eggs are included - the best is a commerical for a set of Re-animator action figures....

www.lurkerfilms.com

I have no affiliation, blah blah, but just thought to pass on info on some less well known Lovecraft adaptations.

 

[richardWI]

Thanks for the tip!
so are Lovecraft's stories public domain yet? Stuart Gordon says they are. I assume the product you describe supports his claim?

 

[MarkBourne]

The H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival is one of the things I love about quirky Portland. My wife and I never miss it. The fellow behind the festival has put out a couple of VHS's of assorted entries, so it's good to know that at least one DVD is also on the stands. Here's hoping for more soon.

The HPLFest's URL:

http://www.hplfilmfestival.com/home.htm

 

[Joshua_W]

I'm not sure. Lovecraft is a somewhat complicated situation, with his shared universe.

I think (and I'm not sure about this, so ask a lawyer first) that maybe the stories themselves are still under copyright, but derivitive works are allowable. A lot of stories and other works borrow freely from Lovecraft's mythos.

I remember about ten or more years ago, Poppy Z. Brite had written a short story, "His Mouth Will Taste of Wormwood," which was basically a re-telling of "The Hound," without any attribution or other indication that the story was used with permission. I only mention this because "The Hound" is one of the stories adapted in this volume.