Personal Horror & The HP Lovecraft Film Festival
Personal horror is sliding into your car in the parking lot of a grocery store halfway between home and where you're supposed to be going and finding that your key doesn't fit into the ignition. I checked the car. Yup, mine. I checked the keys. Yup, mine. It baffled me for a good minute or so as to why my key refused to go into the ignition. So I called g00n, because it often happens that I will have a technical problem, I'll call him over, he'll look at the machine, and it'll just start working again. Well, even g00n had problems with it, but gave it a temporary fix with a shot of WD40. So it looks like another thing to add to the list of Things Gone Wrong With The Grumblymobile. *Want SmartCar now!*
Another personal horror is taking six hours to get to Portland from Seattle due to a horrible car wreck that we didn't even get to see. I'm told that it was a fatality accident involving a semi that closed down I-5. Considering the weather conditions, I'm not surprised. It's like people around here forget how to drive when it starts raining again. We toughed it out, stopping only once to get caffeine and investigate the peculiar odor of the Exit 88 Arco station's rest room facilities.
Finally getting to the Film Festival, we managed to see the last climactic scenes of Hellboy on 35mm and the following Q&A with Mike Mignola. I was really pleased with the latter as I'd thought that the Q&A was before the movie and we'd missed it. It was interesting to listen to (I rarely actually ask questions) and I was sad to learn that there will be no more Amazing Screw On Head episodes. After that, we settled into our seats to watch The Dunwich Horror (2008, directed by Leigh Scott), which was pretty good as far as low-budget films go, up until the point when they showed the monster. Damnit, why do they always have to show the monster? When the whole theater laughs at the monster, you know it's bad. And what's with the tentacles? My mind's-eye version of Yog-Sothoth doesn't have tentacles. Anyway, the most well-done scene was the dream sequence, and not just because I have a thing for dreams. I think that scene conveyed more fear and tension than the monster scenes.
Saturday, we broke our fast with of_the_woods's mother, chatting about various things--she's a really neat woman. She also offered to pick up my vicodin prescription from the pharmacy for me. (Of course, now that I have vicodin, my hip has calmed down quite a bit.) Then we went to Powell's and drooled looked at lots of books. I traded in about a grocery bag and a half of books for three brand new books with some credit left over. Back at the Festival, we opted to see one full-length film followed by the series of short films. We were a little early, so we ducked into the S. T. Joshi Q&A, which was a lot better than I expected (I always have the cringing expectation that the questions will be full of "so, who would win in a fight..." and the speaker's answers will be insufferably arrogant). Joshi seemed to be an easy-going guy who answered everyone's questions the best he could, and the questions seemed to be relevant, so the whole panel was rather good. Our full length feature was Dark Paradox (2007, directed by Brian Clement) and filmed/set in Victoria BC. Although the premise was interesting, the execution left a lot to be desired. I couldn't empathize with the protagonist because he seemed perpetually confused or dopey. The main antagonist was suitably creepy, but, y'know, guys in dark suits and dark glasses who smile too much are always creepy. There were several intentional laugh moments through the film, though if they were there to relieve the tension of the story, they weren't needed. Overall, it had potential, but fell very short mostly because the emotional range of the actors seemed very limited--terror didn't seem that urgent and concern didn't seem than sincere. Oh, and time travel. I hate time travel.
The shorts ranged from amusing to phenomenal. Cannibal Flesh Riot was an excellent example of how to present a low budget film and the dialog was very, very good. Eel Girl, directed by Paul Campion and with special effects by Weta Workshop, was visually very cool and a good example of Bad Things That Can Happen In Under 5 Minutes. The Collector was a clue-filled short that left me very satisfied with how it ended. Legend of the Seven Bloody Torturers was fabulously tongue-in-cheek as was The Casting Call of Cthulhu. The pick of the crop was definitely AM 1200. The build was slow and steady as a result of mundane things (being tailgated by a cop, falling asleep at the wheel) so that by the time strangeness began to occur, the audience was already very tense. This is one of the few movies that showed The Monster and was very, very effective. I wouldn't hesitate to say that it was one of the best Lovecraftian monsters I've ever seen.
Another personal horror is taking six hours to get to Portland from Seattle due to a horrible car wreck that we didn't even get to see. I'm told that it was a fatality accident involving a semi that closed down I-5. Considering the weather conditions, I'm not surprised. It's like people around here forget how to drive when it starts raining again. We toughed it out, stopping only once to get caffeine and investigate the peculiar odor of the Exit 88 Arco station's rest room facilities.
Finally getting to the Film Festival, we managed to see the last climactic scenes of Hellboy on 35mm and the following Q&A with Mike Mignola. I was really pleased with the latter as I'd thought that the Q&A was before the movie and we'd missed it. It was interesting to listen to (I rarely actually ask questions) and I was sad to learn that there will be no more Amazing Screw On Head episodes. After that, we settled into our seats to watch The Dunwich Horror (2008, directed by Leigh Scott), which was pretty good as far as low-budget films go, up until the point when they showed the monster. Damnit, why do they always have to show the monster? When the whole theater laughs at the monster, you know it's bad. And what's with the tentacles? My mind's-eye version of Yog-Sothoth doesn't have tentacles. Anyway, the most well-done scene was the dream sequence, and not just because I have a thing for dreams. I think that scene conveyed more fear and tension than the monster scenes.
Saturday, we broke our fast with of_the_woods's mother, chatting about various things--she's a really neat woman. She also offered to pick up my vicodin prescription from the pharmacy for me. (Of course, now that I have vicodin, my hip has calmed down quite a bit.) Then we went to Powell's and drooled looked at lots of books. I traded in about a grocery bag and a half of books for three brand new books with some credit left over. Back at the Festival, we opted to see one full-length film followed by the series of short films. We were a little early, so we ducked into the S. T. Joshi Q&A, which was a lot better than I expected (I always have the cringing expectation that the questions will be full of "so, who would win in a fight..." and the speaker's answers will be insufferably arrogant). Joshi seemed to be an easy-going guy who answered everyone's questions the best he could, and the questions seemed to be relevant, so the whole panel was rather good. Our full length feature was Dark Paradox (2007, directed by Brian Clement) and filmed/set in Victoria BC. Although the premise was interesting, the execution left a lot to be desired. I couldn't empathize with the protagonist because he seemed perpetually confused or dopey. The main antagonist was suitably creepy, but, y'know, guys in dark suits and dark glasses who smile too much are always creepy. There were several intentional laugh moments through the film, though if they were there to relieve the tension of the story, they weren't needed. Overall, it had potential, but fell very short mostly because the emotional range of the actors seemed very limited--terror didn't seem that urgent and concern didn't seem than sincere. Oh, and time travel. I hate time travel.
The shorts ranged from amusing to phenomenal. Cannibal Flesh Riot was an excellent example of how to present a low budget film and the dialog was very, very good. Eel Girl, directed by Paul Campion and with special effects by Weta Workshop, was visually very cool and a good example of Bad Things That Can Happen In Under 5 Minutes. The Collector was a clue-filled short that left me very satisfied with how it ended. Legend of the Seven Bloody Torturers was fabulously tongue-in-cheek as was The Casting Call of Cthulhu. The pick of the crop was definitely AM 1200. The build was slow and steady as a result of mundane things (being tailgated by a cop, falling asleep at the wheel) so that by the time strangeness began to occur, the audience was already very tense. This is one of the few movies that showed The Monster and was very, very effective. I wouldn't hesitate to say that it was one of the best Lovecraftian monsters I've ever seen.