Thursday, September 12, 2013

The H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival screenplay finalists announced


The H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival-LA screenplay finalists have been announced!

IRON DOGS by Neil Chase

THE LAST DAY by Daniel Abts

NO HARBOR by Matt Mintz

THE TRENCH by Zac Sutherland

MYTHOS by Scott Lowry

The winner will be announced at the festival on Saturday night. Congratulations to all of the finalists, and a big thanks to everyone who entered!

Submissions were asked to either adapt the works of H.P. Lovecraft or an author that was part of his literary circle (Robert Bloch, Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton-Smith), his inspirations (Edgar Allan Poe, Lord Dunsany, Robert W. Chambers, Arthur Machen, M.R. James, etc.), or, in the case of original works, should involve the ideas Cosmic Horror or the conventions of the Weird tale.

This is a horror film festival, but the horror almost never comes from vampires, werewolves, zombies, or serial killers. The horror does, however, often come from outer space or from beneath the sea or ice, where it was buried on Earth millions of years before the dawn of humankind. It also often comes from reading ancient books (like the Necronomicon), which open portals to other dimensions where horrible creatures lurk, and whose truths open up vistas of sanity-shattering horrors that exist beyond time and space.

About H.P. Lovecraft:

Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890-1937), a master writer of horror and fantasy short stories, possessed that memorable and marvelous power to move his readers and to evoke a lingering mood of cosmic dread.

Lovecraft began writing magazine articles when he was sixteen. Poor health kept him from attending college and most of his relatively short life was centered in Providence, Rhode Island, where he was born.

Recognition as a writer came to Lovecraft only after his death, his most famous short story being "Call of Cthulhu" the foundation for the Cthulhu Mythos. During the 1920's and 1930's, he published in specialized periodicals such as Weird Tales and Amazing Stories or did ghost-writing for the now forgotten pulp magazine writers of his day.

Lovecraft cared little for fame or fortune and his adult life was spent in near poverty. He often said that his stories were written out of a deeply felt need. No other writer can match Lovecraft's unique vision of terror or the obsessive qualities of his frail heroes though he has influenced most modern horror authors. The best of his stories are able to tap true archetypes of horror that now echo in contemporary works, which may explain the ever-growing worldwide Lovecraft following.

Lovecraft's creations seem to bridge that vast gulf which separates the conscious mind from its dream-shrouded center; he links each of us with a mythological possibility that chills us to the bone.

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