By WILLIAM J. WRIGHT
This month marks the nativity of the grandmaster of the weird tale, Howard Phillips Lovecraft, and in a bit of eldritch synchronicity, the year of the old gent’s 135th birthday coincides with the 40th anniversary of one of the greatest adaptations of his work to date. In celebration of both the mighty E’ch Pi El and Stuart Gordon‘s 1985 cult classic, Providence, Rhode Island’s annual H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival kicks off its three days of cadaverous cinematic cavorting with a one-night-only screening of RE-ANIMATOR at the RISD Auditorium on Friday, August 22. As a bonus, the beloved film’s screenwriter, frequent Gordon collaborator Dennis Paoli (From Beyond, Castle Freak, Suitable Flesh), will be on hand for a special Q&A following the screening. Paoli will also participate in a series of panels to be held at the Arcade Providence on Saturday and Sunday morning, hosted by the Lovecraft Arts & Sciences Council.
Along with RE-ANIMATOR, this year’s festival features more morbid shorts and fearsome features than you can shake a tentacle at, including Tribe, a new cosmic horror feature from Dan Asma (producer of Fall); Beyond the Drumlins, the second cosmic horror feature written and directed by Dan Bowhers (Blue Hour: the Disappearance of Nick Brandreth); and The Dæmon, a chilling cosmic horror thriller co-directed by Matt Devino and David Michael Yohe.
The short film lineup spotlights a host of international horror filmmaking talent. (In the programmers’ words, attendees will be treated to “A cornucopia of Lovecraft-inspired cosmic horror, weird tales and uncanny supernatural films from Austria, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain, France, the U.K. and the U.S.) Of course, it would not be the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival without a slate of literary adaptations and shorts based on the author’s work. Among them are “A King in Yellow,” inspired by Robert W. Chambers’ 1895 book; Canadian entries “Carter” and “The Outsider”; and the Italian animated film “Dagon,” adapted from Lovecraft’s stories.
Providence’s H.P. Lovecraft Festival runs August 22 through 24. Single-day and full-festival passes are available now at Eventbrite. For the latest updates, schedule and complete list of films, visit the official festival website at https://hplff.com/pvd. Iä! Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn!
