"HP Lovecraft" Book Review

"HP Lovecraft : The Mysterious Man Behind the Darkness" by Charlotte Montague

This is a wonderful book about Lovecraft, the man,the writer and his influences beyond his death.

Fully illustrated with photos of him, his family & friends, cover photos and the like.

Montague goes into detail about Lovecraft's childhood & his adult life in such a way that it doesn't bore the reader to death with trivial details and is really brisk, fun reading. A full-on biography is not what you get here but it does delve deeply enough for the reader to understand why Lovecraft was the way he was.

Again, almost every page has illustrations from everything from family photos to cover art from "Weird Tales" and "Astounding Stories" & beyond!

Surprisingly, there is only a half page on page 101 (out of 192 pages) that deals with Lovecraft's racism. At a time of "cancel culture", I am glad that the author kept this aspect of Lovecraft from becoming the main focus. He was what he was, his work is what it is. 

Montague looks at many of Lovecraft's influential works & his "circle of friends". 

The book itself is a full color, glossy affair that is gorgeous to behold. A well crafted book all-around, I'd say.

I fully enjoyed this book & it will remain in my collection.

For Lovecraft fans, I highly recommend it.

"Tales from the Darkside" TV Series

"Tales from the Darkside" is an anthology TV series created by the one & only George A. Romero that ran for five seasons between 1983-1988.

Introduction

"Man lives in the sunlit world of what he believes to be reality.

But...there is, unseen by most, an underworld, a place that is just as real, but not as brightly lit...a dark side."

Whenever I heard those words, I knew it was time for "Darkside" & I'd run down the hallway to watch it with my father! (I was 13 when it first aired & I graduated High School during it's last season.)

Premise:

Each episode ran about 22 minutes without commercials. Each episode had different themes such as horror, science fiction or fantasy. 

Contributing writers for the stories had amongst their ranks such giants as Harlem Ellison, Robert Bloch & Stephen King.

The stories range in tone as well, from pure horror to dark humor.

2016 DVD Complete Series

I picked up the CBS/Paramount 12 disc box set that contains all episodes plus two unreleased ones.

What I don't understand is that some of the episodes are edited from their original broadcast AND the music has been changed! Only since the VHS releases in the 80's are unedited in some way. I mean, why? Some sort of licensing issues or something? I don't know & I can't seem to find an answer to that question.

Special Features

1 - Audio commentary by Executive Producer George Romero.

2 - "On Air with George Romero" Featurette.

3 - Bonus episodes: "Akbar's Daughter" and "Attic Suite"

4:3 aspect ratio, Mono Sound, Running Time: 32 hours, 37 minutes.

"Darkside" is a great addition to any horror hounds library. Especially if you love practical effects!

"Underwater" (2020)

This must be the year of Lovecraft! Alongside of Richard Stanley's "Color Out of Space", this has to be the next best "Lovecraftian" film!

It's not based directly on any Lovecraft story but it is a Lovecraft inspired story!

Hell, even the Deep Ones and Cthulhu himself are in the film!

An adventure set on the bottom of the Marianas Trench, a drilling operation has pissed off the big C himself!

A well made, effect laden film with enough splatter & scares for anyone!

A really great film. 

"Mandy" (2017)

Here's another Nic Cage flick but it's not the usual gig!

"Mandy" is a psychedelic horror film with cults, demons & an over the top finale that blows your mind.

This is one crazy but entertaining movie!

"The Color Out of Space"

Director Richard Stanley has created a masterpiece adaptation of HP Lovecraft's short story!

Not since 1985's Stuart Gordon adaptation of "Herbert West- Re-Animator" has there been such a great Lovecraft movie.

Nic Cage was the perfect choice to lead this film.

The film captures the cosmic horror and bending of space & time with perfection.

Body horror, madness & indescribable creatures are up front & center throughout.

Any Lovecraft fan needs to see this film.

I guarantee you'll be entertained! 

"The Death of Star Trek"

Being a 45 plus year Trek Fan, I've seen the ups and downs of the franchise over that time.

The beginning of the end, in my opinion, was when CBS obtained the TV rights. Oh yeah, it started off well enough with the "enhanced Original Series" DVD's & Blurays, but when they started making new Trek content is when it began to decline.

I blame Kurtzman. "Discovery"  was a canon-shattering shit storm, "Picard" was a pretentious jab at fans.

Why, oh why, must there be a SJW element to everything nowadays? Kurtzman doesn't give two shits about "Trek", he's gonna do things his way and to Hell with what the fans want! 

Fans don't like to be preached at. We want the Roddenberry vision and not a "Trek" full of unlikable characters and shock value cursing.

"Picard" is the worst about this. They turned an honorable character of virtue & truth into a anti-Federation android for God's sake!

Canon be damned! 

Trek is withering on the vine as we sit and watch.

Nerdrotic & Doomcock on YouTube are spot on in their observations of the decline of the franchise.

CBS doesn't care about what the fans truly want to see. They're pandering to the SJW & PC crowd.

"Get woke, go broke".

Just like "Doctor Who", "Star Wars" and "Batwoman"...

Don't even get me started on "Doctor Who" - I guess all white males are evil or inanely stupid.

"Batwoman" was even worse! 

Fans are leaving in droves and I don't think CBS cares. 

Ever see Trek merchandise in Wal Marts? Nope. Because nobody wants the licenses except for AMT/Round 2 Models and MEGO action figures! 

The demand for Trek merch peaked in the 90's with Playmates Toys, who released hundreds of figures, playsets, starships, props, etc.

Those days are long gone. Nobody wants products of the new Trek series, they want new products of Classic Trek or TNG!

Why? Because they were better!

Rant over.

"The Walking Dead" - Season 9

Hey, you know I'm going to say it. "I told you so!"

For quite a while now, I've been saying that TWD has been on a decline both creatively & in quality. The season 9 premier was awful, the second episode was no better. It all boils down to the lack of sympathetic characters, characters that continually act in contrast to their established personas & redundant story lines.

There were many mistakes made during it's run, the first in my opinion being the firing of Frank Darabont. He set the tone for the fantastic first season. He should have remained onboard to guide the show but instead we got that abysmal second season.

The third season was great. After that, predictability set in. It seemed that the zombie gags were the only refreshing thing each episode!

The handling of Negans character was awful. At no time did I find him believable or even threatening. The murder of Glenn, even though it was an eventuality, seemed anticlimactic & it turned off a lot of regular viewers. Killing Carl was just plain stupid. Now, with the main star leaving, I don't see it really progressing in a positive direction for the fans.

Daryl Dixon is the one character who has grown, developed but yet retained his core and is the single exception to the entire show. If there is to be a future for TWD, they need to focus on him.

This is going to sound rude but I noticed in the first two episodes that six of the main characters are in an interracial relationship. Nothing wrong with that but it seems a bit forced within the story. I mean, the writers think of everything before it gets filmed don't they? So, no one thought it as redundant to have all these people in interracial relationships? It was a conscious decision to have that many up front in the story. Every lifestyle gets a representative in Hollywood.

The story is just...without substance at this point. It's "Interpersonal Relationships 101" for the zombie apocalypse. Romero said that TWD was a soap opera. Romero was right.

I will watch TWD until it dies a slow, boring death.

For what it's worth, I watch "Z-Nation" on SyFy Channel & enjoy it! It's got a comical side that makes it actually fun to watch! They keep reinventing the zombies in new, strange ways.

Maybe if TWD wasn't such an emotionally pummeling experience in depressing hopelessness every single second of every episode, they might have made it.