Wednesday, September 24, 2014

History, Horror and H.P. Lovecraft: Checking in with the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society!


One of the perennial festival favorites of the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival in Los Angeles is the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, who've been the madbeings behind the first Call of Cthulhu movie, adaptations of "The Shadow Over Innsmouth," "The Whisperer in Darkness," and more. We got a chance to ask them a few questions before they arrived:


So what's the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society been up to for the last 12 months?

It was a very Witchy year for us at HPLHS. We produced the music video for "No Turning Back," one of the songs from "Dreams in the Witch House," the Lovecraftian Rock Opera from our friend and colleague Mike Dalager and his very talented international team of musicians and performers. Our fantastic cinematographer David Robertson took time out of his busy TV schedule to shoot the video here at HPLHS headquarters in February, with some elaborate miniatures built with the assistance of Fred Manchento and Jason Voss shot in March, and Dave edited the video as well. We were delighted to bring the video to the HPL Film Festival in Portland. We're screening the video in San Pedro, and the miniature house will be on exhibit in the lobby.

We also released two episodes of Dark Adventure Radio Theatre, "Herbert West -- Reanimator" and "The Dreams in the Witch House." It was very interesting to give "Witch House" two very different adaptations, each telling the story in its own way.

And we were happy to contribute the foreword to a new book that's just out from Writer's Digest Books, Writing Monsters: How to Craft Believably Terrifying Creatures to Enhance your Horror, Fantasy and Science Fiction by Philip Athans.

What can we look forward to at the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival this year from the HPLHS?

We have another new episode of Dark Adventure nearly ready for release: "Imprisoned with the Pharaohs." And we're also working hard on a new addition to our series of monographs from Miskatonic University Press. It's about the curious sea shanties of Innsmouth, Mass., and in addition to a fascinating and scholarly booklet on the subject, it will come with a recording of 14 actual Innsmouth sea songs as performed by the Miskatonic Men's Chorus. Also look for more Dark Adventure, new prop replica items, and maybe another book project!



What were some of the popular items you had from last year? Did the attendees surprise you with what they liked?

We've attended the festival in San Pedro every year. We love the crowds that come to the Warner Grand, and they enjoyed the CD and collector vinyl editions of the rock opera "Dreams in the Witch House." Mike brought Alaine Kashian, who stars as Keziah Mason, and other members of his team. I can't say we were surprised they were popular, however, because they're great!



Next year will mark ten years since the release of your classic, Call of Cthulhu. Will we see any special celebrations or re-releases in 2015?

We're talking about doing something along those lines, but haven't nailed down the details of any such plan. It's amazing to think that it's been ten years, I'll tell you that much.



Visit the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society at: http://www.cthulhulives.org/

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