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LOVECRAFT: FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN

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"LOVECRAFT: FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN" (2009)

Writer Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890-1937) said: "The oldest and strongest emotion of mankindf is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown."

Just released for home theater, this terrific documentary won the 2008 San Diego Comic Con "Best Documentary" award. H. P. Lovecraft is generally recognized as the father of modern horror fiction. His unique blend of horror, fantasy and science fiction remains popular today and is a great influence on modern horror writers and movie-makers.

This film that is an overdue tribute and of Lovecraft's old world mindset and strange, xenophobic, mostly reclusive life. Film directors John Carpenter ("Halloween") and Guillermo Del Toro ("Hellboy") contribute thoughtful insights into Lovecraft's moody style and original subject matter. And the influence on pop culture and movies in particular.

Popular horror writers Neil Gaimen, Ramsey Campbell and Peter Straub offer informed and enthusiastic comments about Lovecraft's world and influience on them. The documentary is made with great care and is a pleasure to experience.

It sets the bar very high for similar works on other deserving writers. Great graphics and music set the eerie tone that no doubt would please Lovecraft himself. There's extensive bonus material for the interviews as well as a gallery of Lovecraft inspired art and sculpture. (Not rated, widescreen, 90 minutes)

Howard Phillips Lovecraft (August 20, 1890 - March 15, 1937) is now recognized as one of the most innovative and influential writers in the horror/fantasy/science-fiction genre. He also is well known for his highly eccentric personality and somewhat sad life. Both his parents died in a mental institution, and Lovecraft himself was a deeply troubled individual who was unable to enjoy intimate relationships, could not hold a job and suffered from constant raging emotions of fear and anger toward racial and ethnic groups different than his own. Despite these liabilities, Lovecraft was undeniably brilliant, not only because of his intelligence (largely home-schooled, he was reading at the age of 3), but because of his ability for original creative thought, the real mark of genius. Lovecraft's literary inventions include "the Cthulhu Mythos," a fictional history of the cosmos in which pre-human gods and creatures survive and threaten to overrun the modern human world, and *The Necronomicon,* an imaginary magical grimoire so compelling that substantial numbers of people believe it actually exists.

Awarded Best Documentary at the 2008 Comic-Con International Independent Film Festival, *Lovecraft: Fear of the Unknown* chronologically relates Lovecraft's life from early childhood to his own death from intestinal cancer in 1937, when he was only 46 years old. The 90-minute film also discusses the evolving aspects of Lovecraft's writing, his core themes, the appeal and impact of his stories, and finally, Lovecraft's lasting influence and popularity.

The production boasts a high degree of craft and attention to detail. The filmmakers were faced with an amplified dilemma: it's hard enough to present non-fiction about a writer in a visual medium. It's even more difficult when the writer belongs to the modern era, but there is a severe dearth of available photographs, film, and other graphic material to use. Woodward interviews ten professionals whose knowledge of Lovecraft and his work is impressive. A large proportion of the total film consists of interview clips edited by topic. But a visual documentary will lose audience interest rapidly if it relies too much on "talking heads" or static images. *Lovecraft: Fear of the Unknown* solves this dilemma neatly, combining interview sequences, still photographs and B-roll footage with a large assortment of artwork by nine amazingly gifted artists inspired by Lovecraft's writing.

The audio layer takes an additional interesting slant. An uncredited actor reads quotes from Lovecraft's letters, but his voice work is filtered and mixed with noise to simulate an old gramophone recording, as though we were actually hearing a record made in Lovecraft's time. It's the audio equivalent of sepia-toning and distressing a photograph to make it look old, and creates a very effective mood. Lovecraft, who saw himself as a refugee from the eighteenth century, would surely have been amused by this time-tricking technique.

Anyone with an interest in Lovecraft's work, or the history of the horror/fantasy/science-fiction genre in general will be fascinated by *Lovecraft: Fear of the Unknown.* I watched it over and over, just because it's too content-rich to absorb on one viewing. It's worth twice the price.

I have been eagerly anticipating this DVD release for some time now. I approached it as a fan already familiar with the details of Lovecraft's life and having read all of his stories, and many of those in the Cthulhu mythos.

I was not disappointed. This documentary fulfilled all my expectations. It was like spending a few hours with authors whose work I love, and film makers whose mvoies I admire, and all of them love HPL as much as me! I could only wish it was an actual meeting in some cozy pub.

I think this film would serve admirably to acquaint someone unfamiliar with Lovecraft's somewhat peculiar life, and also unfamiliar with his works, with why HPL occupies such a special place in American horror fiction. If you already an assiduous Lovecraftian there will be nothing new here, but you will see some wonderful period photographs and some lovely images of Providence. I think the Frank Woodward did a great job of covering all the important aspects of HPL's life and world view, including his childhood, his teen breakdown/depression, his marriage and why it failed, his racism, his identification with the concept of an English gentleman, his poverty and publication history, and his relationships with other authors. Some might quibble over a detail or two, or might want the emphasis changed a bit, but I think it was a both fair and complete presentation of the man. Clearly this was a labor of love.

What were the highlights for me? Well, everything. Particularly I loved seeing my favorite authors and directors speaking, showing how familiar they are with HPL, how they are so insightful about his influence on them, his limitations and his place in 20th and 21st century horror fiction. I loved every minute Robert Price was on screen. ST Joshi came across as both well educated and jovial, if you can believe it! Neil Gaiman hit the nail on the head when he said the HPL's Cthulhu mythos story was something you read, added to and passed on to the next person. Caitlyn Kiernan has an imposing screen presence. Ramsay Campbell's bits were another highlight. John Carpenter and Guillermo del Toro both came across as erudite and quite a lot of fun, and both pointed out how so much horror today echoes of HPL even if the viewer/reader isn't aware of it. I liked how when they were describing HPL's best known tales they used Lovecraftian art from many sources, including original covers, and interviewed multiple commentators about each piece.

Production qualities are high, the running time is too brief for me and I was left wanting more. I can't recommend this film highly enough.

Never read much Lovecraft myself, but I loved this documentary. I obtained the Blu-Ray from Netflix, and I enjoyed it so much I am now purchasing the product from Amazon. If you would like to know who inspired John Carpenter, Guillermo Del Toro, Neil Gaiman, and Caitlin R. Kiernan, not to mention James Hetfield and Steve Harris (Iron Maiden) you aught to watch this documentary carefully.

Lovecraft was the first guy to write horror from a modern scientific perspective. Most horror written prior to Lovecraft, begins and ends with the notion that there is a benevolent God who ensures the final survival and triumph of good over evil, even if there is a cost to that conflict. Lovecraft does not write from that perspective. Lovecraft writes from the perspective of a cold, materialist, scientific universe that does not care about humanity or human conceptions of good and evil. Humanity is not at the center of any grand plan, and we are one of the least significant and least powerful species in the trillion year history of the great universe. His big theme is that humanity is blissfully ignorant about the forces and beasties roaming around the world and the universe. If we knew the truth, we would either be driven mad by the knowledge, or we would commit suicide.

Most horror is written from this perspective today. King Kong, The Creature of the Black Lagoon, Ridley Scott's Alien, John Carpenter's the Thing, In the Mouth of Madness, Hellboy, Steven King's The Mist, and all of the Lovecraft movies have been done according to this perspective. Guillermo Del Toro admits that he has been trying to put together investors to do a grand implementation of At the Mountains of Madness.

You'll love this documentary if you like any of these things.

Will keep this short - because you need to be adding this film to Your Cart and not reading a review.

Fear of the Unknown is a mesmerizing piece of work that succeeds on many levels. Ostensibly this is a film about the somewhat disturbing existence of the man who arguably fathered modern horror. The viewing experience is further heightened by listening to the erudite thoughts of such brilliant creators as Peter Straub, Ramsey Campbell, et al. The interview segments with Caitlin Kiernen alone are worth the price of the movie.

And finally - the music score dangled on the edge of brilliant thoughout, becoming an understated character in its own right. Haunting, disorienting, beautiful. Bravo to Mars of Deadhouse Music.

Oh, and be sure to look for the easter egg to catch a deliriously whacky little short film by Mars. Where is the easter egg? Just remember: H.P. Lovecraft is watching you.

Well crafted and paced documentary for both the avid H.P. fan and the new one. There's even a nicely done sense of eerie-ness to the film, adding to that welcome mat of dread any good H.P. media should have. Well done and very worth the price. This film is a keeper for any fan of Lovecraft.

When I heard that "Lovecraft Fear of the Unknown" was coming out I thought it would be just another rubber stamp fluff piece on the man considered to be the father of the horror genre. To my surprise it is not. It is an in depth study of the man and the time line of his works. The writer has included facts hitherto unknown to the mass public. The magnificent sound and color brought out the wonder of the documentary even more. The music created a mood. I learned so much that the ninety minutes went by in an instant.

The interviewer has asked questions of todays great writers of horror in a way that has solicited comprehensible responses. They look as if they are relaxed and discussing family in their living room.
I was not a Lovecraft enthusiast before I watched this film but I am now. It converted me not only to Lovecraft but the interviewees as well. I now own a reference piece to keep for a lifetime.

Just get it. If you're reading this, then you must be interested in Lovecraft and this is the best documentary you'll find about him and his work. Also - just for fun - my favorite HP Lovecraft short story is 'The Temple' and here's a link. Enjoy! [...]

I'll admit this DVD is a bit pricey but so are most of the new releases including the really bad ones. "Fear of the Unknown" is an absorbing & very thorough look at the legendary writer whose influence is as far reaching as the cosmos he wrote about. Featuring various writers, directors, & historians; this chronicles H.P. Lovecraft's upbringing, fears, turmoil's, success', & eccentricity. Considering the subject matter, this documentaries eerie tone works perfectly with the spoken passages taken from Lovecraft's stories & correspondence to other fellow writers. I also really love seeing all the various illustrations that have taken a stab at interpreting all the macabre & fantastic imagery from his numerous stories. After seeing several & flawed cinematic attempts at Lovecraft's work, this has been the best coverage I've seen thus far, & we're lucky to have it. I think everyone should see this film.

Sometimes, when I chance upon a product that has nothing but 4 and 5 star reviews, my skeptical reflex kicks in and I avoid it until some other set of circumstances makes viewing / reading / listening unavoidable. In this case, I'm glad that said skeptical defense mechanism temporarily malfunctioned, because this well-assembled documentary is a perfect bit of rainy day "edu-tainment." It's accessible to neophytes without being a waste of time for devotees of the subject at hand. By alternating between 'talking head' interviews and images of the intense visual art that has embodied Lovecraft's mental world, it gives us a very informed portrait of a literary legend. No traditional "who, what, when, where, why" questions that I could think of went unanswered, and for those who won't have the time to read through Lovecraft's juggernaut of correspondence (ST Joshi is planning to release some 25 volumes of the stuff!!!), this will get you as close to his internal world as you need to be. Unlike similar documentaries on deceased figures who we have no film footage of, this one doesn't waste its time on corny dramatizations of key life events, and in fact the narrator who plays the voice of Lovecraft does it with more gusto than some of the people hired to do voice-overs for audio versions of his books (others have noticed how such people often confuse a "New England" accent with, well, a "British English" accent.)

One of the most refreshing things about this documentary is that it steers away from 'hagiography' territory- HPL is presented in a very 'warts-and-all' fashion, with his erstwhile admirers making no excuses for quirks of his personality (e.g. his racial paranoia) or of his writing itself. As regards the latter, there's a quite funny breakdown of over-used Lovecraftian lingo (if you're a reader, you already know of his propensity to take a word like "furtive" and pepper every other paragraph with it), and some tacit admissions that his overly baroque style may have held him back from greater gains. Through all of this, we somehow come out with more respect for Lovecraft rather than less.

There are a couple things I would have liked to see more of. It seems like the cast of interviewees is largely drawn from fellow writers (ST Joshi, Robert Price, Caitlin Kiernan etc.)- and, while they are clearly the ones most qualified to talk about Lovecraft, I would have welcomed some more input from interviewees in other lines of work. For example, Lovecraft is becoming a point of interest among cultural critics / philosophers (e.g. Graham Harman), and one can't overlook his influence on popular music either. Scads of bands and composers from the peripheries of contemporary music (not just extreme metal)have integrated the man's themes into their work, and I think would also have something interesting to say about how certain of his works - which I might call "atmospheric" or even "ambient" horror - lend themselves perfectly to the creation of unique soundscapes. This is maybe a personal bias relating to my background, though, and the non-inclusion of people like this is not going to be too off-putting for the majority of viewers.

I also would have liked to see more discussion of the bona fide cult that has developed around Lovecraft's Chthulu Mythos: the interviewees here allude to other fantasy sagas (Lord Of The Rings, etc.) which audiences convince themselves have really occurred, although the special twist here is that a group of 'chaos magicians' and would-be sorcerors seriously believes Lovecraft was an unwitting channel for inter-dimensional communication, and uses his "trnasmitted" knowledge as the basis for an actual form of deity worship. I know Joshi and Price in particular are card-carrying atheists, and they miss a chance here to contradict a quite silly subculture that has falsely claimed all kinds of correspondences between Lovecraftian / Necronomicon lore and other modes of hermetic knowledge. This would have been the perfect forum to ask why, exactly, anyone more mentally sound than Eric Cartman would want to summon up a power that at BEST is completely indifferent to them, and at worst wants to "banish them to a dark oblivion" as in the cute South Park "Chthulu" episode.

So, minor gripes aside, I doubt this documentary will fail to entertain or illuminate anyone besides those who go into it with a militant dislike of all things horror or fantasy. This will energize people who are already fans, and will give casual dabblers in Lovecraft (or the various creative genres he helped to spawn) an impetus to take their studies into even deeper, darker territory.