By the Feeble Light of Half-dead Stars
We are all excited about this year’s H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival (HPLFF). Not only because we get to see all of you again (like a large dysfunctional family reunion) but because of all the amazing films we get to premiere including the return of Richard Stanley as a feature film director with his colourful Color Out of Space adaption of Lovecraft’s famous story.
Color shows why Stanley should do more feature films (hopefully more Lovecraft or weird tale adaptions) as his passion and his knowledge of the source material shines through… much like Lavinia’s forehead.
“It was just a colour out of space — a frightful messenger from unformed realms of infinity beyond all Nature as we know it; from realms whose mere existence stuns the brain and numbs us with the black extra-cosmic gulfs it throws open before our frenzied eyes.” ― H.P. Lovecraft, The Colour Out of Space
Lovecraft was very proud of “The Colour out of Space” calling it “my best tale” and “the only one of the lot which I take any pride in.” Richard should take pride in his adaption as well.
Speaking of adaptions, I finished a short film that I have been wanting to make for over 10 years, Clark Ashton Smith’s “The Last Incantation.” I adapted The Last Incantation always with actor Jack Donner (Cool Air) in mind… but I waited 10 years to make the film… 10 years too late. I had flown down to Burbank a year ago to meet with Jack right as he had caught pneumonia. He never fully recovered and passed away on September 21st of this year. Although actor Brian Hutton pulled out all the stops for his amazing performance in the role of Malygris (I literally cried on set), I will always regret not moving faster and having an opportunity to work with Jack one more time.
Another unique individual never to be see again is author and poet Wilum Hopfrog Pugmire who passed beyond on March 26, 2019. Wilum was a lovely person who told me that meeting his fellow Lovecraftians at the festival was what gave him the inspiration and energy to keep on writing.
“When we are Lovecraftian, we are ourselves — utterly. I have read that Lovecraft is a mask I wear, that as an author I am not myself. What wondrous idiocy. I am never more ‘myself’ than when I am Lovecraftian, for he has molded what is best within me… With Lovecraft I have looked at stars, and beyond them. I have tasted cosmic aether, a heady elixir. With Lovecraft I have crawled into the deepest pit of my skullspace, have found therein the stories and the poems whose expression with pen on paper has given me my greatest joy, my finest therapy.” — Wilum Hopfrog Pugmire, The Saprophytic Fungi
The universe is darker now with their passing.
About the Author
Andrew Migliore is author of Lurker in the Lobby: A Guide to the Cinema of H.P. Lovecraft and founder of the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival® and CthulhuCon™. During daylight hours he is VP of Engineering and Security Officer at a software startup.
