Reviewed at Gravedigger's Local 16

The blog at Gravedigger's Local 16 has given a favorable review to Special Order / A Case of Abuse (buy it from ARTC or Audible), and of course we're extremely grateful.

Correction of a factual error:
The physical disc release of Special Order / A Case of Abuse is not a CD-R. It's a "real" glass-mastered factory-pressed CD, as is most of our catalog. We do market some of our releases on CD-R, but they are labeled, since we're aware some older disc players don't like to play them. We frankly hope most of our listeners will purchase a download from Audible (or iTunes or Amazon), just because storing the physical media and fulfilling mail orders are almost more troublesome and time consuming than actually producing the program.

The reviewer is certainly correct that “ultimate evil implies ultimate good” doesn't exactly fit H. P. Lovecraft's literary point of view, which is that the universe is greater than humans can understand and attaches no particular importance to human life. The intended point was that one view is really no easier to believe or disbelieve than the other, and blending the two had not, to our knowledge, been tried. We were amused at the thought that some of our listeners might be more upset by the suggestion that the religious concepts might be valid than by the implications of the nightmarish Lovecraftian world. That that battle might be going on over our metaphysical heads and (generally) taking no notice of us might be the most horrifying idea of all.

Cthulhu Tuesday - The Wrong Medium

Every now and again, I do a web search for "Lovecraft news", just to see what comes up. Among the finds this time were these DVD reviews:

H. P. Lovecraft's From Beyond
Regina Leader-Post

Sporting cheap and often laughable special effects, this film presumably expected to horrify people with its alien-like creature bursting through a skull and other "scary" special effects. But even by 1986 standards, the effects are fake-looking, as are the blood and guts that are scattered liberally through the film, and it's considerably less scary than it is funny.

...Entirely forgettable, From Beyond has little to offer other than laughs at its campiness, and a reminder of how low-budget filmmaking by those with higher aspirations looked, back in the day.



H.P. Lovecraft's the Tomb
REEL ADVICE

I resolve to never again knowingly write about anything that Ulli Lommel does.

Lommel's The Tomb defies explanation. He's locked a bunch of people in that all-too-familiar warehouse set of his and let them run around in a vaguely Saw kind of atmosphere as they try to accomplish the ludicrous task of figuring out why they're there in the first place and the much more rational task of trying to get out alive.

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I'd like to recommend that you forego these gems and try an audio-drama adaptation of H. P. Lovecraft's works. The special effects in your own mind are much better than anything Hollywood can build.

Modesty forbids me from pointing out that one popular source makes its latest live production, The Colour Out of Space, available for free download.

And if that one satisfies, there's a five-part adaptation of The Shadow Over Innsmouth featuring author (and gifted actor) Harlan Ellison, also for free.

For now...