Short Films Block: Return of the Lurkers in The Lobby
The Shunned House
Robert Whipple accompanies his uncle, amateur ghost hunter Eli Whipple, as they investigate the uneasy history of the house on Benefit Street in Maelstrom Productions’ adaptation of Lovecraft’s short story.
Nyarlathotep (Restored)
I am the last. I will tell the audient void. A classic adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's short story, "Nyarlathotep", now restored to HD quality and shown on the big screen for the first time!
It's the Great Cthulhu Chuck and Dexter
Chuck & Dexter go to the most sincere beach to wait for the Great Cthulhu to rise and give them presents.
From Beyond (1997)
This adaptation of the H.P. Lovecraft story "From Beyond" was directed by the festival founder, Andrew Migliore, and premiered at the 1997 festival.
The Last Incantation (black & white edit)
Malygris, an ancient necromancer, has learned all that there is to learn having mastered all occult lore, all forbidden knowledge, and having dominion over the spirits of earth and sea and air... and the living and the dead. But his knowledge of the dark arts is no longer enough to assuage the black ennui of his days. With cryptic guidance from his daemon familiar, Malygris seeks to summon his long-lost love, Nylissa, from beyond the grave where he still has one lesson to learn... from the last incantation.
The Music of Erich Zann (restored)
This story revolves around a student of metaphysics, Charles Dexter Ward who befriends Erich Zann an aging violinist who lives on the floor above him. Restored from the original 16mm print.
Andrew Migliore is the founder and original director of the annual H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival & CthulhuCon. Andrew is also the co-author of Lurker in the Lobby: The Guide to the Cinema of H. P. Lovecraft published by Night Shade Books and was founder and producer at Lurker Films where he launched The H. P. Lovecraft Collection, The Weird Tale Collection, and The Edgar Allan Poe Collection on DVD. See his past Founder articles at the Daily Lurker https://medium.com/daily-lurker
OG Lurker, Filmmaker, Screenwriter
John Strysik was a director and writer on the horror television series TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE and MONSTERS. He also directed episodes of ABC Television’s reboot of LAND OF THE LOST. Besides television work, Strysik has written and directed independent features and award winning short film adaptations of stories by H.P. Lovecraft and Franz Kafka. He’s written magazine articles, a fantasy novel called A HALLOW HEART, and co-wrote LURKER IN THE LOBBY - A Guide to the Cinema of H.P. Lovecraft.
He penned the screenplay for the feature film STUCK, directed by Stuart Gordon and starring Mena Suvari and Stephen Rea. The film won San Francisco Indiefest’s Staff Prize and the Silver Raven at Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film.
A mini series he co-wrote has recently been optioned and he's hard at work on a couple of plays about very nasty people.
OG Lurker, Filmmaker, HPLFF San Pedro (2010-2016)
Aaron Vanek’s student film The Outsider was the first movie to play at the first H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival®. Subsequent movies screening at the HPLFF include My Necronomicon, Return to Innsmouth, The Yellow Sign, and Call of Tutu. He was awarded the “Howie” in 2001 for contributions to Lovecraft Cinema, and he founded and co-hosted the HPLFF in San Pedro (Los Angeles) from 2010-2016. Upcoming projects include contributions to the Dreamlands RPG by Jason Bradley Thompson, and a crowdfund to remaster and re-release a compilation of his weird tale movies. See also: AaronVanek.com and SpectacularDisasterFactory.com
OG Lurker, Filmmaker
Christian Matzke is an author, prop builder and filmmaker from Maine (just south of the Chesuncook Shoggoth Pit). He founded the website Propping Up the Mythos in the mid-Nineties after a high fever compelled him to sculpt his first Cthulhu statue.
"Nyarlathotep" was his first short film, and has been followed by ten more in the years since. Christian is married to special FX artist Sarah Matzke, and together they are raising two young cultists in their 18th century haunted house near the ocean. Christian is hard at work writing the Necronomicon through his site patreon.com/Proppingupthemythos
Eric is co-owner of Maelstrom Productions. He has produced/directed/edited several shorts and features including the award-winning films H.P. Lovecraft's Strange Aeons: The Thing on the Doorstep and the short “The Shunned House”. He has worked with Crypticon Seattle, The Seattle International Film Festival, TheFilmSchool, and Strange Aeons Magazine.
K.L. Young is an award-winning filmmaker, podcaster, and publisher. He is the author of The Secret Language of Spiders. He lives in a pop-culture museum in Washington State.
Tim Uren is a theater artist and board game writer who has worked on a number of Lovecraftian projects. As an actor, he and Joseph Scrimshaw portrayed hapless cultists Chuck and Dexter in the short films “Cthulhu for President” and “It’s the Great Cthulhu Chuck & Dexter.” Killing Joke Films joined with Uren for a filmed adaptation of “The Curse of Yig” in 2011. His theater company, Ghoulish Delights, specializes in bringing tales of terror to the stage including “The Rats in the Walls” as well as “Trust and Obey” (based on Lovecraft’s “The Temple” and Stephen King-Hall’s “Diary of a U-Boat Commander”). He is one of the co-hosts of the Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society podcast, a discussion of the classic horror shows from the golden age of radio. Tim provided design and writing expansions to the Arkham Horror board game and writes for the Eldritch Horror board game and its expansions. Most recently, he has been writing for the Mythos Tales game from 8th Summit Games.