/x/ - Paranormal

>>48516

A lot of hacks shove in jumpscares, blood and gore in an attempt to distract from a lackluster story, poorly written characters and filmmaking skills – similarly a lot of big studio films use CGI and celebs to hide the flaws in their films; blind the audience with special effects and hope they won’t notice it is shite.

Just like the short story is the ideal and perfect medium of literary horror, so is the short film the ideal and perfect medium of horror films. It is impossible to achieve the same tension and climax in a feature length film. The only, somewhat, recent horror film I would recommend is ‘The Vvitch’.

I wish more filmmakers would focus more on the story, characters and atmosphere, rather than the special effects, which always end up being less effective than what the audience can imagine by sounds and short glimpses, and the character’s reactions.

‘At the same time don’t let us be mild and drab. Malevolence and terror, the glare of evil faces, ‘the stony grin of unearthly malice’, pursuing forms in darkness, and ‘long-drawn, distant screams’, are all in place, and so is a modicum of blood, shed with deliberation and carefully husbanded…’

— M. R. James in ‘Some Remarks on Ghost Stories’: http://archive.vn/KIz7x

Some guy has posted this picture on Twitter, saying 'name one thing in this photo' and people are going insane looking at it, even comparing their state of mind to what it feels like to be having a stroke or be suffering from dementia.

>>48445

Mysterious 5 on Youtube uses mysteriousuniverse as a source to make videos.

Anyone got issue 33 of Lovecraft Studies from 1995? The Mega folder in this thread does contain several issues (9-21).

>>52835

There is an article in it by Will Murray on Foxfield, as well as a reproduction of the map of the town HPL drew printed on the back cover of that issue. That article was also published in Dissecting Cthulhu: Essays on the Cthulhu Mythos: http://www.hplovecraft.com/study/litcrit/dc.aspx

Here is the entry in An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia:

<Foxfield.

<Fictitious town in Massachusetts invented by HPL, although never cited in any story. A “Plan of Foxfield—for possible fictional use” in HPL’s handwriting survives in AHT; it indicates that Foxfield is east of Aylesbury and Dunwich and northwest of Arkham.

<See Will Murray, “Where Was Foxfield?” LSNo. 33 (Fall 1995): 18–23 (the back cover prints a reconstruction of HPL’s map).

The only matches are a few blogposts mentioning the article in LS & Dissecting Cthulhu: http://web.archive.org/web/20190515194039/https://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2012/03/derleth-and-mythos.html

>>52881

I am more saddened by the omission of Caltiki, the Immortal Monster and The Last Wave tbh.

Also, I watched the 2013 adaptation of Cool Air the other night, and I am still baffled how this got a DVD release. It is nothing more than an amateur film you’d expect you see on a short film festival dedicated to HPL, but padded out ad nauseam. The protagonist narrates 80% of the story, and it would have been better to get a proper narrator and release it as an audiobook.

This film also has the dubious honour of having the longest end credits sequence in recorded history. The total running time is 1 hour, 17 mins and 48 secs, but the amount of padding is ridiculous! The film opens with a 6(!) minute opening credits sequence which also contains several quotes and text going into the background of the story. Then, after six agonising minutes the film finally begins proper. The film then ends at the 1 hour 9 minute mark, so the viewer can now look forward to 7 minutes and 38 seconds of end credits. Never before have I seen end credits move this slowly. I am absolutely certain this was done to pad out the film’s running time so that it could be released as a feature film.

The acting was as bad as you might expect from an amateur short film project like this, the CGI special effects are bad, but not too overexposed I guess.

>>39038

'Dog Soldiers – after special forces go MIA in British forest, regular grunts are sent in with an undercover advisor to retrieve assets – assets which ate the last teams, an may even be in their mists – Best practical effect werewolves in film, ever.

The Element of Crime – sepia-noir in, say, the exclusion zone of a pre-Blae Runner post-apocalyptic future Europe ravage by an unnamed cataclysm. Identity crisis in a detective over-committed to method acting his serial killer prey.

Horse Head – A lower budget French Cure for Wellness that does certain things much better than the latter. Sins of the mother, visited upon an prodigal daughter.

Solaris – the sentient planet bit

They Live! – nightmare goggles meme's inception

Videodrome – 80's analogue deep web, elite deviance underground, gang-stalking

Eyes Wide Shut – when Cruise walks into the cafe, he is frame by Egyptian Ram of Mendes horns (very specific motif); the Finnegan's Wake of occult steganography in film.

Blackcoat's Daughter – a curse film

Killing of a Sacred Deer – an even more monstrous curse film

>>39047

>The Black Rainbow had interesting visuals but I felt it lacked substance

Took it as a black project (Paperclip Nazis) mind control 'tone poem', so to speak. The tract housing at the end reminded me of Twin Peaks S3 on recent rewatches, an the Arborea Institute and time (1983) makes it a great ~mixtape prequel to the mad government MKLUTRA scientist(s) Stranger Things. Carruth's Upstream Colour gives the same impression more satisfactorily from a narrative standpoint (similar min control/entrainment/unethical tests), with the music being the real thematic glue over large dialogue barren swathes of us observing the characters, like proctors to the experiment almost.

>>39916

>A beast they wrought, in semi-human figure,

pic related

Came across this interesting entry on superstition and belief in witchcraft in Rhode Island in ‘Notes & Queries’ 7th S. VII. June 1, ’89: https://archive.org/details/s7notesqueries07londuoft/page/426

<Sᴜᴘᴇʀꜱᴛɪᴏɴ ɪɴ Rʜᴏᴅᴇ Iꜱʟᴀɴᴅ. — There is apparently a large survival of folk-lore in some of the New England states. A correspondent, writing from Gloucester, Rhode Island, to the New York Tribune, April 7, gives this interesting account of a district where the belief in witches and wizards still flourishes: —

<“This wild, wooded, and rock-ribbed region, less than a day’s journey from Gen. Putnam’s historic wolf den, in North-Eastern Connecticut, is full of superstition. It is one of the queerest of localities. In the centre of Gloucester lies Ponagansett Lake, and all about the shores of this lake are the dwellings of a hale and hearty people, who make this country, far from the busy haunts of men, a veritable wonderland of legend and reminiscence. The old men delight in telling ghost stories, and the young people like to listen. Gloucester lies on the crooked old Indian trail which ran between Connecticut and the Providence Plantations.

<“For generations back the Gloucester farmers have believed in wizardry. They will do much of their work only during the full of the moon. Otherwise they would expect to die or to have very bad luck. Planting must not be done until the signs of the zodiac are propitious, and gardens must never be ploughed on Fridays. Even a tooth must not be pulled unless the stars are right; if it is, it will come hard and cause great suffering.

<“Pork, if killed during the small of the moon, will shrink to nothing in cooking, while that butchered at the full of the moon will continue with and firm. To ensure luck in the mangement of domestic animals the sign of the zodiac must be in the leg. The wishbones of all fowls are preserved on sticks. Some families keep hundreds on hand all the time. When the zodiacal sign is in the head, then the Gloucester people believe one can do the most at catching pickerel and can hook the biggest fish. Hence the almanac hung by the kitchen fireplace in all Gloucester houses is a thing the settlers could not live without. Its study, if one would reap good harvests, ‘catch’ good clamming tides, and avoid misfortune, is imperative.

<“These people also believe that if you take up a black snake and bit it your teeth will never decay; that if the nails are pared on Friday toothache will be prevented, and that a child born in the heat of the day can see into the future, and will be exempt from influences of witchcraft. A ship that has such a one on board they say will never sink.

<“Perhaps the most curious belief still haunting these hearthstones of interior Rhode Island is that relating to the character of the little fish in Ponagansett reservoir. This pond is the source of the Pawtuxet river, which flows easterly into Narragansett Bay, and years before the building of the dam across the outlet of the lake, herring from the salt sea used to swim up the stream to the shoal waters of the lake to spawn. The old settlers who have lived about the lake all their lives aver that the shiners which now glisten in its crystal waters are naught else but the degenerate descendants of the herring race, and show the same characteristics. One of ‘the Bowen boys’ at the lake frequently says that ‘my father used to say there was no shiners before any d—d dams was built to fence out the herrin’s.’”

I find it interesting that this article uses the phrase “the stars are right”, talks about belief in witchcraft and wizardry, and the effect of a new water reservoir. Lovecraft mentions several times the superstitious folk of backwaters New England, and this article makes it seem like the belief in witchcraft in New England was still common as late as the late 1880s.

“When the stars were right, [The Great Old Ones] could plunge from world to world through the sky; but when the stars were wrong, They could not live. But although They no longer lived, They would never really die.”

— “The Call of Cthulhu” by H. P. Lovecraft (http://archive.vn/UlKqG)

Lovecraft was a keenly interested in science, in particular astronomy & chemistry. He wrote extensively on astronomy, and even published science magazines (http://hplovecraft.com/writings/science/), so did he have exceedingly rare astronomical event in mind when he wrote “The Call of Cthulhu”? Throughout the story there are allusions to a time “when the stars are right” for the Great Old Ones to reawaken and once more reign on earth.

A (somewhat) recent scientific paper puts forth a novel new theory in response to the Fermi paradox (http://archive.vn/Kv9cz) called “the Aestivation hypothesis”:

<Maybe we are not seeing alien civilizations because they are all rationally “sleeping” in the current early cosmological era, waiting for a remote future when it is more favourable to exploit the resources of the universe.

The Aestivation hypothesis: popular outline and FAQ | Andart II: http://archive.vn/hlQIV

[1705.03394] That is not dead which can eternal lie: the aestivation hypothesis for resolving Fermi's paradox: http://archive.vn/ZIXmE

At the same time the events leading up to Cthulhu’s awakening; a collapse of society, when humanity acts as “the Great Old Ones; free and wild and beyond good and evil, with laws and morals thrown aside and all men shouting and killing and revelling in joy.” This sounds just like the age of darkness, Kali Yuga, in Hinduism, and Ragnarǫk in Norse mythology/Heathenry.

<The Yuga Cycle doctrine tells us that we are now living in the Kali Yuga; the age of darkness, when moral virtue and mental capabilities reach their lowest point in the cycle. The Indian epic The Mahabharata describes the Kali Yuga as the period when the “World Soul” is Black in hue; only one quarter of virtue remains, which slowly dwindles to zero at the end of the Kali Yuga. Men turn to wickedness; disease, lethargy, anger, natural calamities, anguish and fear of scarcity dominate. Penance, sacrifices and religious observances fall into disuse. All creatures degenerate. Change pass over all things, without exception.

The end of the Kali Yuga in 2025: Unraveling the mysteries of the Yuga Cycle - Graham Hancock Official Website: http://archive.vn/mCaY0

Are there any articles on a possible astronomical event Lovecraft could have had in mind for the time “when the stars are right”? If the stars indeed were “right” in the spring of 1925, when would the stars be “right” again?

>>39035

I have recently bought pic related containing all of lovecraft's works. the picture itself is not my own as the book itself is at home which i currently am not at. I am planning to read it soon and i am sure it will be a wild ride, can any anons tell me which stories will be the best in your opinion? I will also be planning to get the yellow king collection eventually.

>>54035

I’d recommend these stories for someone unfamiliar with Lovecraft:

* “From Beyond” – very underrated story which nicely introduces readers to the core ideas of cosmic horror

* “The Colour Out of Space” – another great start-off point; doesn’t require any prior knowledge of the overall characters/entities/places

* “The Rats in the Walls” – very good and eerie modern Gothic horror with elements of cosmic horror

* “The Call of Cthulhu” – by far his most well-known story & creation; get the feeling some consider this story to be overrated, but I find it quite good, and it is a very good introduction to his stories that deal with cosmic horror

* “The Horror at Red Hook” – IMHO one of the more underrated stories, & certainly his most derided one by normalfags, who decry it for being “racist”. It works well at introducing the idea of a worldwide, ancient cult or religion with very sinister ideas, and that even if their beliefs are erroneous, they are more than willing to act out untold atrocities because of these beliefs.

* “The Shadow Over Innsmouth” – introduces some of the larger ideas, and the atmosphere is very eerie. The scenes in Innsmouth are superb. It was written after “At the Mountains of Madness”, & at one point a character mentions “shoggoths”, who first appeared in that story. That mention is less than optimal for someone just starting reading Lovecraft, or someone who hasn’t read AtMoM, but it shouldn’t prevent anyone from reading it before that story.

‘Game Of Thrones’ Duo David Benioff & D.B. Weiss Set HP Lovecraft Thriller Film At Warner Bros: http://archive.vn/BlMTq

“You may live to see man-made horrors beyond your comprehension.”

— Nikola Tesla

>>54117

Indeed! Is this just a strange coincidence? A chance encounter with a fellow connoisseur of cosmic horror кино, or are you a fellow poppy seed?

In Robert M. Price’s “Crypt of Cthulhu” №. 22 there is an article titled “John Buchan: A Possible Influence on Lovecraft” written by by Sam Moskowitz: https://archive.org/details/Crypt_of_Cthulhu_022_v03n06_Roodmas_1984/page/n13/mode/2up

John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir was a Scottish novelist, historian and politician, best known for his 1915 novel “The Thirty-Nine Steps”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Buchan

He wrote a collection of short-stories in 1902 titled “The Watcher at the Threshold”, so August Derleth must also have been familiar with Buchanan, since he wrote a posthumous 1945 “collaboration” with Lovecraft titled “The Lurker at the Threshold”. According to S. T. Joshi 1200 of the 50.000 words in the finished “collaboration” were written by Lovecraft.

The article quotes an excerpt from Lovecraft’s essay “Supernatural Horror in Literature”:

<In the novel Witch Wood John Buchan depicts with tremendous force a survival of the evil Sabbat in a lonely district of Scotland. The description of the black forest with the evil stone, and of the terrible cosmic adumbrations when the horror is finally extripated, will repay one for wading though the very gradual action and plenthora of Scottish dialect. Some of Mr. Buchan’s short stories are also very vivid in their spectral intimations; “The Green Wildebeest”, a tale of African witchcraft, “The Wind in the Portico”, with its awakening of dead Britanno-Roman horrors, and “Skule Skerry”, with its touches of sub-arctic fright, being especially remarkable.

"Supernatural Horror in Literature" by H. P. Lovecraft: http://archive.vn/tV3C4 / http://web.archive.org/web/20200718004720/https://hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/essays/shil.aspx

The Wind in the Portico: http://archive.vn/8KTgl#c04 / http://web.archive.org/web/20200629160039/http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0301381h.html#c04

Sidonius in Clubland: John Buchan’s ‘The Wind in the Portico’ – Sidonius in Antiquity and Modernity: http://archive.vn/HQVsC / http://web.archive.org/web/20200123234213/http://research.shca.ed.ac.uk/sidonius/2016/06/10/sidonius-in-clubland/

Skule Skerry: http://archive.vn/8KTgl#c09 / http://web.archive.org/web/20200629160039/http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0301381h.html#c09

Orkneyjar - The Selkie Folk of Orkney Folklore: http://archive.vn/6XwK

The Grove of Ashtaroth by John Buchan: https://web.archive.org/web/20120414141659/https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/b/buchan/john/grove_of_ashtaroth/index.html

The Grove of Ashtaroth by John Buchan: https://archive.org/details/blackwoodsmagazi187edinuoft/page/802/mode/2up

Witch Wood by John Buchan: https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.201849/page/n11/mode/2up

This is out on Netflix right now.

>Nicholas Cage

>Nicholas Cage speaking with Trump's speech mannerisms because he's dying to return to real acting

>Hideous creature from beyond time and space known as Joely Richardson plays the wife

>Some amazing visuals

>Some really, really gross shit that would have made Lovecraft kill himself

>Characters who earn and deserve literally none of our sympathy

>Nicholas Cage

The body horror in this movie would make David Cronenberg and Clive Barker give up and open a bakery together. Also, the mysterious color is magenta, which, frankly, is disappointing. Also, additions of witchcraft bullshit that adds nothing to the story.

Captcha: Yawntp. Boring toilet paper.

>>58857

Was sorta looking forward to this, especially after seeing Cage in Mandy, where he was brilliant, but the more I read about the director, the less interest I had in the film. Then the trailer hit and I was done; not even gonna watch this one.

Sadly the director is planning a trilogy of films, and he is suffering from white guilt and TDS. On top of the absolutely awful-looking Lovecraft Country, these films will taint the good name of Lovecraft and could end up emboldening/empowering deranged leftists to hijack the Mythos even further.

Two Barbara Crampton Lovecraft films coming up though; a remake of the 1995 Castle Freak by Stuart Gordon, now with full-on Lovecraftian references, and a wholly original story, Sacrifice, which blends folk horror and Lovecraftian cosmic horror.

Anyone got Weird Realism: Lovecraft and Philosophy by Graham Harman? It is not in the Mega Lovecraft Material collection: >>47704

https://www.hplovecraft.com/study/litcrit/wrlp.aspx

Let’s talk about the Elder Sign… I much prefer the Elder Sign Lovecraft came up with rather than the clichéd and blatantly occult eye and star symbol Derleth made. Derleth’s symbol looks cheesy and so blatantly sinister and occult, rather than some ancient runic or hieroglyphic symbol that might have originated with an alien culture.

In The Shadow Over Innsmouth (1931) Allen says:

<In some places they was little stones strewed abaout – like charms – with somethin’ on ’em like what ye call a swastika naowadays. Prob’ly them was the Old Ones’ signs.

"The Shadow over Innsmouth" by H. P. Lovecraft: https://archive.vn/uIp1k / https://web.archive.org/web/20201208090745/https://hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/soi.aspx

Although it is referred to as the sign of the “Old Ones”, this must be the Elder Sign. However, in a letter to Clark Ashton Smith, dated 1930, he draws the now accepted Elder Sign.

In “The Haunter of the Dark” (November 1935) there is mention of what may be the Elder Sign as a handsign:

<On Federal Hill there were watchers as anxious as he, and rain-soaked knots of men paraded the square and alleys around the evil church with umbrella-shaded candles, electric flashlights, oil lanterns, crucifixes, and obscure charms of the many sorts common to southern Italy. They blessed each flash of lightning, and made cryptical signs of fear with their right hands when a turn in the storm caused the flashes to lessen and finally cease altogether.

"The Haunter of the Dark" by H. P. Lovecraft: https://archive.vn/XcZjD / https://web.archive.org/web/20201112020910/https://hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/hd.aspx

If I remember correctly S. T. Joshi hypothesises that this handsign was the Elder Sign in his annotated The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories.

Since life on earth was made by the Elder Things – perhaps they hardcoded the fear of this symbol into the DNA of their creations as a safety measure?

This explanation fits with Lovecraft’s materialist worldview, I think, better than what we could call “magic”, like a cross repelling a vampire for religious reasons. Science has now showed that fears and traumatic memories can be passed down through the generations, added to the genes as an evolutionary safety guard.

Fear of a smell can be passed down several generations | New Scientist: http://archive.vn/fwTIL / https://web.archive.org/web/20190414113324/https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24677-fear-of-a-smell-can-be-passed-down-several-generations/

Found the aforementioned map of Foxfield from Lovecraft Studies #33 (1995), HPL’s own hand drawn map of Arkham, and Will Murray’s map of the Miskatonic region from Lovecraft Studies #13 (Volume 5, Number 2 Fall 1986).

>>63070

Update: I found HPL’s hand drawn sketch map of Foxfield quite by chance included in the manuscript of The Dreams in the Witch-House at Brown University’s Digital Repository: https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:425235/