Okay, everyone, we’re back! So, as you may recall, I had just finished listening to Richard Stanley describe his new film live on radio in person and narrowly avoided being taken to dinner. Not that the last thing would have been bad, but there was another person I wanted to meet, and so I set about trying to do that. I checked back with my publisher friends regarding where I could purchase a copy of Victoria Price’s biography of her father, and I was told they probably still had some copies over at the main theater. So I headed back across the street as others were dispersing to partake in the excellent food available in Portland’s Hollywood district. Well, lo and behold, who did I see sitting at a table selling her own books, but Victoria Price herself! I waited patiently while a man and his girlfriend shot their own video interview with Victoria, and then they sheepishly went their way, realizing that their fandom had been holding up the line.
Well, by this point, as you know, I was quite impressed with Ms. Price, and I stammered a bit before I found my confidence and told her how inspired I was by her keynote the night before, and how her philosophy was so consistent with mine that she could have been reading from the introduction to my novel. In the process, I told her a little bit about myself, and she listened very intently and sympathetically. Then I summoned my nerve and told her that I would be greatly honored if she would consider writing a foreword for my novel - to which she responded she would and provided me her business card so I could email it to her! I then purchased a copy of the biography of her famous father, which she autographed. Needless to say, I have A LOT of writing to do (not that I didn’t already)!!
As I walked back to my motel, I saw a reflection of myself in a store window and thought of the Kickstarter video that the directors and founder of the festival had made in which they referenced a ghost story motif in which the image of a person is spectrally imbued into a pane of glass if the person is in front of it long enough; so I took a photo, wondering whimsically if that would be what people would see in the window in front of me some years from now after I die (see top of page). I then realized I had been so emotionally high that I had forgotten to get a photo of myself with Victoria. D’oh! 🙄However, I consoled myself by thinking that it is likely that we will meet in person again, if all, or at least a little, goes well.
After a quick vegan dinner and a short rest, I headed back to the theater and got an excellent seat to attend the awards ceremony and the feature film that I had eagerly been anticipating. I was joined by Alan at this point, and also took a minute to touch base with the head of Eraserhead Press. I apologized that I didn’t submit anything to her this year, but that I would have something for her next year! I am glad that they will be selling video discs of the short films from the festival, because several of the winners were films I didn’t get to see!
I was very happy to see Victoria Price recognized with an award for her contribution to the festival, and Richard Stanley received two awards - for best picture, and for audience’s choice!
Haha! 😈 Then they showed The Color Out of Space, starring Nicolas Cage, adapted from the H.P. Lovecraft tale of the same name (although old H.P. used the British spelling, “colour”).
Promo of The Color Out of Space courtesy of the HPLFF.
The actual color that Richard Stanley chose for to depict the otherworldly “colour” was a beautiful magenta, which as he explained, was a compromise of the two visible colors closest to the outer spectrum of light that we cannot see with our limited human vision: Infrared and Ultraviolet. I won’t go into detail about the plot, as I would prefer to encourage you all to see the film when it comes to your home town, but I will say this: Madeleine Arthur, the young actress who plays Lavinia Gardner, steals the show! I read a review of the film, and the critic panned it, calling it “narrative slog with yet another campy Cage performance,” but I will humbly counter with this reasoning: the critic is arrogantly speaking without enough knowledge of the source material or the backstory behind the film to fully appreciate it. The acting is excellent, the cinematography is superb, the sound and music are spot on and riveting, and the cast is diverse. H.P. Lovecraft, a racist and a bigot, would never have cast Elliot Knight, a man of color, (a small ironic pun, eh?) as Ward Phillips, the character which was a shadow of Lovecraft himself. It is my humble opinion that The Color Out of Space is one of the best horror films I’ve ever seen. But, hey, that’s just my opinion; see it for yourself!
After the film, I joined the standing ovation as Richard Stanley came back on stage for comments and final Q&A. A lot of people asked questions I had already heard answered earlier during the radio show, and after most questions were answered, I asked him about the inspiration for the exquisite pink mantis that appeared in the film, to which he replied (I’m paraphrasing) that it was because a friend of his was working with amazing images of insects. However, one of the last things he said before we applauded for the last time was in response to how he wrote the screenplay - and he referenced the fact that he owned a plush Cthulhu. He then clarified that he felt that Lovecraft’s work has been watered down too much, saying, and I quote, “The Mythos can’t be cuddly.” It was this last poignant line that has inspired me to ramp up both the horror and sex factors in my novel, without compromising the contrast of Fear and Hate with Love before I submit it to Ms. Victoria Price to evaluate so she can write her foreword.
As I left the theater, I took a minute to view the art created in this year’s time-limited art contest, called, “Pickman’s Challenge.” This year they chose sculpture as the medium, and the theme was, and I’m not kidding, “Romantic Shoggoth,” lol!
“Some of our greatest lessons can be learned from our nightmares – if we take the time to discover their hidden mysteries, and especially when they come unwelcomed into the light. For, quite often, the things that we fear frighten us because of our ignorance of their nature, and then we choose to hate the objects of our fear because of our arrogance. The history of the human race has clearly shown, and current events continue to prove, that ignorance and arrogance are a horrifically destructive combination that brings lifetimes of suffering - both to the persons holding such flawed viewpoints and to all those with whom those people interact.” - Me, from the introduction to my current novel.
If you’ll allow me one final pun, since this is SG, I know that some of you would also enjoy some final T&A rather than Q&A, so I will be soon uploading a mini-set derived from photos from my outfit planning, a “behind the scenes” outtake prior to the festival, if you will, called “The Outfit That Should Not Be.” You’ll get to see some combos that worked and more of this sexy, lace bodystocking that I wanted to wear, but which was left out of the mix. And if you’re sad because my HPLFF blog is done and you expected a little more, don’t be! I still have the pix and vids from my trips to Multnomah Falls and Stonehenge to share!
Thanks so much for sharing this experience with me! I hope you enjoyed it, and if you know someone else on SG that might, please let them know it’s here! I’ll post a review of The Color Out of Space in the horror films group soon, too.
Much Love!!💗💗💗💗💗🤗🤗🤗💋💋💋
- Dhyani
