HPLFF Returns to Providence August 22-24th
RE-ANIMATOR COMES TO PROVIDENCE FOR ITS 40TH ANNIVERSARY IN CELEBRATION OF LOVECRAFT’S BIRTHDAY
PROVIDENCE, RI - Featuring Dennis Paoli, screenwriter and frequent collaborator of director Stuart Gordon, this special one-night only 40th Anniversary screening of H. P. Lovecraft’s Re-Animator kicks off the 3-day H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival® at RISD Auditorium, August 22-24th.
Special Guest Dennis Paoli, who also wrote From Beyond, Castle Freak, and the recent Suitable Flesh, will be in attendance all weekend, and will host a Q&A following the screening of the film that introduced Lovecraft to countless fans, and made Stuart Gordon, Jeffrey Combs, and Barbara Crampton icons of independent horror. Dennis will also participate in panel discussions held at the Arcade Providence on Saturday and Sunday mornings, hosted by the Lovecraft Arts & Sciences Council.
This year’s festival, in partnership with the Lovecraft Arts & Sciences Council, features more than 30 short and feature films, including Tribe, a new cosmic horror feature from Dan Asma (producer of Fall), Beyond the Drumlins, the second cosmic horror feature written and directed by Dan Bowhers (Blue Hour: the Disappearance of Nick Brandreth), and The Dæmon, a chilling cosmic horror thriller co-directed by Matt Devino and David Michael Yohe.
This year’s lineup of short films is highly international, and includes excellent literary adaptations like “A King in Yellow” inspired by Robert W. Chambers. Canadian films “Carter” and “The Outsider”, and Italian animated film “Dagon” are adapted from Lovecraft’s stories. A cornucopia of Lovecraft-inspired cosmic horror, Weird tale, and uncanny supernatural films from Austria, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain, France, the UK, and the US round out the program, giving audiences four blocks of short films, plus the infamous Shorts of Madness!
The weekend includes Q&As with visiting filmmakers, author readings and panels hosted by the Lovecraft Arts & Sciences Council at the Arcade Providence, plus mixers and after parties.
Single Day and Full Festival passes are available now on Eventbrite (Advance discount pricing until Aug 16)
For the latest updates, schedule, and full film listing, please visit the official festival website at https://hplff.com/pvd
The H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival was founded in 1995 by Andrew Migliore to promote the work of Lovecraft-inspired independent filmmakers from around the world. Since 2011, current directors Gwen and Brian Callahan have continued the madness making this the 30th year of the only festival that understands, with events in Providence, RI and Portland, OR.
SUITABLE FLESH premiering at the H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival
SUITABLE FLESH directed by Joe Lynch, adapted by Dennis Paoli (screenwriter of RE-ANIMATOR and FROM BEYOND) from Lovecraft’s story “The Thing on The Doorstep”, starring Barbara Crampton and Heather Graham, will be making it’s Providence, RI premiere at the H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival at the Columbus Theatre, August 18-20 (GET TICKETS HERE), and its Pacific Northwest premiere at the H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival in Portland, OR on October 6-8, AND playing the new HPLFF in Mobile, AL on November 3-5! How’s that for a series of premieres for this NEW CLASSIC!
This film feels like an old-school Stuart Gordon film, due in large part to the screenplay by Dennis Paoli, but has a beautiful neo-noir atmosphere courtesy of director Joe Lynch and cinematographer David Matthews. Lovingly shepherded by producer Barbara Crampton (who starred in several of Stuart Gordon’s Lovecraft films), this is a love letter to Lovecraft fans who long for the kind of sexy horror most of us cut our teeth on. It takes Lovecraft’s story, flips the script so that Upton and Derby are women, and ratchets up the potential of the tale to erotic, sinister, and frankly insane heights.
In the film, successful psychiatrist Elizabeth Derby (Heather Graham) has brutally murdered her young patient Asa Waite (Judah Lewis). Locked up in a psych ward, she recounts to her friend Dr. Daniella Upton (Barbara Crampton) an insane, obsessive tale of erotic attraction, out-of-body experiences, ancient curses, grisly deaths and unspeakable evil. The things Elizabeth has felt, seen and done have destroyed her marriage, ruined her reputation, left bodies in her wake, and led her to a ‘kill or be killed’ desperation. If Daniella doesn’t believe her now, more deaths will follow, and Elizabeth will be forever lost. But who would believe such a mind-bending story? And worse, if it is all true, who will be left to tell it?
Barbara Crampton as Dr. Upton comforts Heather Graham’s Elizabeth Derby in the psych ward.
Get Tickets to the Providence event, August 18-20th.
H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival returns to Providence, RI
The H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival returns to Lovecraft's hometown of Providence, RI for it's 3rd Bi-ennial event! Scheduled for 2020, this event could not happen in person due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so a one-night streaming event was held instead. However, high vaccination rates and loosening restrictions on indoor activities have allowed the festival to return with Weird and Uncanny force to the historic and beautiful Columbus Theatre on H. P. Lovecraft's birthday weekend, August 20-22, 2021! Three days of short and feature length films include adaptations of the works of Lovecraft, his forebears like Edgar Allan Poe, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Robert W. Chambers, and original Cosmic Horror stories by a diverse selection of international filmmakers. Features include a special 35th Anniversary screening of FROM BEYOND, in honor of the late great Stuart Gordon, our friend and friend of the festival.
The festival takes place Friday August 20th 7-11pm, Saturday August 21st Noon-4pm and 7-11pm, and Sunday August 22nd 1-5pm. For the safety of our patrons, the Columbus Theatre will be requiring all attendees to show proof of COVID-19 Vaccination, and attendees will be asked to wear masks in all areas of the theater, except when actively eating or drinking in their seats.
Tickets are on sale now at the Columbus Theatre web site, with more film announcements and full schedule coming in the next few days. Get tickets here.
NecronomiCon Film Schedule announced
The NecronomiCon Providence film schedule and core programming schedules have been announced! Check out the great cosmic horror films they're showing, and pay special attention the H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival® short film presentations. Each of the three short film block will have its main screening at the swanky RISD Metcalf auditorium (where last year's HPLFF Providence took place) in Chace Center at 20 N. Main St., featuring excellent projection and sound, plus live Q&A sessions with visiting filmmakers. If you can't make those, there will also be auxiliary screenings at the AS220 Black Box theater downtown at 95 Empire St., so that you don't miss a minute of these amazing films!
We'll also be presenting a 1-night-only "Lovecraft After Dark" block, an adults-only Midnight movie presentation of R-rated short films to titillate and horrify (Midnight, Fri Aug 23rd at AS220 Black Box theater).
Also, check out the full NecronomiCon film schedule, as well as their core programming schedule, then buy tickets to this amazing Lovecraftian event that brings together the best of the Weird in Lovecraft's hometown. We'll see you there!
Can Evrenol's HOUSEWIFE opens the H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival in Providence!
This Friday, Can Evrenol's highly anticipated Lovecraftian feature film, HOUSEWIFE shows opening night of the H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival® in Providence, RI, taking place on College Hill at the beautiful Metcalf Auditorium at RISD Chace Center (20 N Main St, Providence). We're very pleased to bring this amazing film to Lovecraft's hometown. Can Evrenol is the director of BASKIN (2015) which garnered many extreme reviews, and was called one of the bloodiest and one of the weirdest horror films of that year. Reviewers noted its slightly Lovecraftian overtones, but won't be able to miss the influence of the Ol' Gent from Providence in this one... it has everything he would've loved (and a few things he would've hated!): nightmares becoming real, a generational family curse, strange books of forbidden secrets, artists under the sway of cosmic power, a modern day cult, tentacles, and a little blood, nudity, and sex (that's the stuff Howie wasn't too fond of, but you'll love). Don't miss it on opening night!
Also on Friday is a full short film block of amazing new Lovecraftian shorts, followed by two blocks of shorts on Saturday, and the feature films THEY REMAIN, directed by local filmmaker Philip Gelatt (Europa Report), and COLD SKIN, directed by Xavier Gens and featuring a survival story on a desolate island beset by monstrous fish people. Sunday will showcase two more blocks of short films, bringing the total of Lovecraftian short films to 24, from countries as diverse as the US and Canada to the Czech Republic and Spain, with 10 countries represented overall in the madness! The festival will end Sunday afternoon with NECRONOMICON: THE BOOK OF HELL from Argentinian director Marcelo Shapces, which follows the chaos in the wake of the discovery of the fifth copy of the Necronomicon in the bowels of the University of Buenos Aires (as cited by Lovecraft himself, in his "History of the Necronomicon"). Fans of the Cthulhu Mythos should not miss this film, or indeed, the whole festival. Single day tickets and 3-day passes are still available on Eventbrite, and will be available at the door (if they remain).
The Full schedule of films and events is available now on the official Web site. (click here)
Guests and first films announced for H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival Providence!
Providence, RI will host the H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival at the Metcalf Auditorium in RISD's Chace Center this August 17-19th. In addition to a selection of high quality independent feature and short films, there will be author readings held in the Arcade Providence, featuring Livia Llewellyn, Donald Sidney-Fryer, Matthew Bartlett, Christopher Burke, Fiona Maeve Geist, and Victoria Dalpe. Among the feature films slated for screening are Cold Skin, directed by Xavier Gens, starring Ray Stevenson and David Oakes, Housewife by Turkish filmmaker Can Evrenol (Baskin), and They Remain by Philip Gelatt (Europa Report). Classic restored short films will also be screened with the filmmakers in attendance! For more information, visit the Guest and Film sections on the website. Get updates in your inbox by subscribing to our announcements list!
2018 H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival® in Providence, RI finds new venue at RISD!
Last held at the Providence Public Library, the H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival® will take place August 17-19th 2018, at its new digs, smack dab in Lovecraft country, up on College Hill at the beautiful RISD Metcalf Auditorium. With fantastic projection, excellent sound, and a lovely dark auditorium, the Metcalf ups our film festival game, ensuring that you'll be immersed in the cosmic horror of our independent film selection.
We're also expanding from two days of film to three days, bringing even more Weird to the hometown of H. P. Lovecraft. Tickets are available now! Click here to get both full 3-day passes and single day tickets at Eventbrite.
H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival coming to Necronomicon Providence 2017
The organizers of the H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival in Portland, OR are making a pilgrimage to the hometown of Weird tale author H. P. Lovecraft, to show an amazing selection of independent short films, from around the world, to the attendees of NecronomiCon Providence 2017. Brian and Gwen Callahan will be showing over 3 hours of shorts, split into two blocks shown several times over the weekend, from Lovecraftian filmmakers in Finland, Peru, UK, Germany, Czech, Austria, Sweden, Denmark, as well as the US and Canada!
It all happens August 17-20th at AS220's Black Box Theater, at 95 Empire St. in Providence, RI! Screenings take place every day, but click here for films synopses and the film schedule.
What is NecronomiCon? Besides being the fabled and cursed tome featured in several H. P. Lovecraft stories, it is also now one of the largest gatherings of Lovecraft fans, scholars, authors, artists, filmmakers, and musicians, held every other year in Providence, Rhode Island, and this year August 17-20th, 2017. If you're a Lovecraft enthusiast on the East Coast of the US (or can get there!), click here for more information and to buy single day tickets or passes that get you access to all four days of macabre programming.
First wave of confirmed guests and a film premiere!
We're pleased to announce that Howard Lovecraft and The Frozen Kingdom, the new animated feature film based on the Arcana comic, and featuring the voices of Ron Perlman, Doug Bradley, Christopher Plummer, and Jane Curtin, will make its premiere at the 1st H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival in Providence, RI. Don't miss this look at the first in the series!
We've confirmed the attendance of Laird Barron (X's for Eyes) and Philip Gelatt (Europa Report), who will discuss the upcoming film adaptation of Barron's -30-, and we also welcome the great John Langan (The Fisherman) to our cosmic fold!
More news soon! In the meantime, if you're coming from out of town, discounted rooms at the Omni hotel are only available until this Friday, July 29, so reserve your room now! Discounted Early bird festival tickets are also available now (until July 31st).
Weird events for H. P. Lovecraft's Birthday
Predicted in ages gone by, the Lovecraft Arts and Science Council (organizers of the biennial NecronomiCon Providence) serve as host for the stricken minds of the H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival® – Portland organizers. The blasphemous result is 3 days of Lovecraftian film and activities, including author readings, panels, and vendors. The stars align around HPL's birthday August 19-21st in his hometown of Providence RI. Join the Facebook event for ongoing news.