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Posted on August 11, 2018

Providence: The Shadow over Lovecraft

Guest Post

How two theatre makers brought the worlds of HP Lovecraft to life in their play Providence: The Shadow over Lovecraft, now playing at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe until August 25, 2018.

“You know…” Dominic Allen looks up from his phone at me and narrows his eyes, “You kind of look like him.”

We’re sitting in the outdoor bar of one of the larger venues during last year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe. It’s August in Scotland and the weather is doing its best to imitate a warm sunny day. We’re discussing the works and mythos of one of our favourite horror authors but it wasn’t until this moment that we sought to learn a bit about his actual life by reading up about him on Wikipedia. I gingerly take the phone from his hands and stare at a thin face, not unattractive but with a rather large forehead, he’s dressed smartly in a suit and tie and I can’t help but find some resemblance between our large, somewhat intense, eyes.

“His chin is bigger than mine.” I say as I hand the phone back.

“Yeah but you’re both tall, blonde… I’m just saying.” Dominic, my friend of over 10 years, is getting that creative glint in his eye that occurs when he’s about to suggest something huge:

“We should make a show.”

A chance to work with one of the most talented and hilarious people I know, playing the man who practically INVENTED the modern horror genre… How could I say no?

Posted on August 6, 2018

Mohawk and Downrange: Two Films for Our Time

Guest Post

Thus far, 2018, like its predecessor, has been a good year at the box office for horror. Small-budget films like A Quiet Place and Hereditary have been all the buzz, breaking into the mainstream. Two lesser-known recent films, Mohawk (2017) and Downrange (2017), are also deserving of attention. They recently became available on streaming services and speak to our present moment, especially in the context of immigration/the “other” and gun violence.

Directed by Ted Geoghegan and set during the War of 1812, Mohawk takes place in the American wilderness as Americans track down a British officer, Joshua Pinsmail (Eamon Farren), who befriends a tribe of Mohawk Indians and encourages them to join the British against the Americans. The Mohawks want to remain neutral but are forced to choose sides when members of the tribe are slaughtered.

Posted on August 4, 2018

Fallen Kingdom and Empathy for Dinosaurs

Guest Post

Nothing will ever be Jurassic Park. In an interview for Fallen Kingdom, executive producer Steven Spielberg recalls his experience directing the franchise-opener explaining, “the moment that brought this home for me as a filmmaker was when the T. Rex started to attack two modern Ford Explorers, and you saw the modern world and you saw the prehistoric world meeting up 65 million years later. To me, that’s when I really felt we had captured lightning in a bottle.” That sensation, what Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) evokes when she asks Owen Grady (Chris Pratt), “Do you remember the first time you saw a dinosaur…it’s like, a miracle. You read about them in books. You see the bones in museums. But you don’t really believe it,” cannot be replicated.

Fortunately, that is not what Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) is attempting to do. Rather, the film evokes the memory of those emotions, via visual callbacks and recurring characters, both human and non, to drive J. A. Bayona’s purpose—empathy. The director insists, “It’s not about people rescuing people anymore; it’s about people rescuing dinosaurs. The whole movie’s about empathy. An empathy toward the dinosaurs.” This objective is simple, and Fallen Kingdom excels at simplicity—in jump scares, with Blue, demonstrating the dangers of commodifying life. However, the questions the film raises are inherently complex, and, though fun, Fallen Kingdom sometimes finds itself lost in its own complexity.

Posted on August 1, 2018

Scared Sacred – Exclusive New Poster Art

books

Scared Sacred: Idolatry, Religion and Worship in the Horror Film is due for release early in 2019 from House of Leaves Publishing and is edited by Rebecca Booth (author of the forthcoming The Devil Rides Out [Devil’s Advocates]), Erin Thompson (owner and editor of The Backseat Driver Reviews), and RF Todd (Managing Director of House of Leaves).

Exploring the complex relationship between religious and supernatural themes within horror cinema, particularly in response to a mainstream reclaiming of these subjects in recent years, the book collects writings from academics, critics, and historians. Each chapter is a theological thread that touches on a range of subjects, from atheism to martyrdom to zoolatry. Limited editions of the book will be available for pre-order via a crowdfunding campaign commencing in September 2018.

Posted on July 31, 2018

Castle Rock, the Stephen King Revival, and the Persistence of Secrets

Guest Post

With the premiere of “Castle Rock” on Hulu there comes another entry into the ever-expanding universe of Stephen King adaptations. Given that he has written just under 100 novels and too many short stories and novellas to count, it shouldn’t be surprising that his work provides a ton of material for directors and creators. “Castle Rock,” with its three-episode release, works like “Stranger Things.” It’s not a faithful adaptation of the Castle Rock novels–Cujo (1981), The Dead Zone (1979), The Dark Half (1989, and Needful Things (1991). Instead, it relies on the feelings associated with the world of Stephen King.

Having read the majority of those near 100 novels, I can tell you that the Stephen King universe is tangible. If you’ve read enough King, you can open any of his novels and feel at home. The success of “Castle Rock” comes from a meticulous attention to detail in creating that world in a visual medium. Moreover, the series, much like a King novel, builds its characters at a slow pace. There are very few characters in King’s world that can be typecast. They all are built with the care of an artisan designing a one-of-a-kind piece. “Castle Rock” plays out like a novel, and the slowly burning horror of the show is inherent in its attention to detail.