Showing posts with label LOVECRAFT. Show all posts
Showing posts with label LOVECRAFT. Show all posts

Monday, June 17, 2019

TOP SCIENCE FICTION MOVIES



TOP SCIENCE FICTION MOVIES - This is a subjective collection of best films: with dystopian, invasion, militaristic and mind-bending themes. As always originality is key, and appreciation for breaking new ground, which was taken into consideration when writing this listicle. Each of these flicks takes its place in the cannon of films which have propelled the form forward, in a genre where technology and innovation is key.

Metropolis (1927)
Wealthy citizens of Metropolis reign in luxury, while subterranean workers toil underground, operating machines which power the city.


The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
An alien emerges from a flying saucer and implores humans to join him in peace, or pursue their present course and face obliteration.


2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
A scientist investigates a buried artifact on the moon. He hears a high-pitched radio signal when sunlight hits the obelisk.


Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
To his wife’s dismay, an electrical maintenance worker becomes obsessed by subliminal messages about/ begins to make models of/ a unique-looking mountain known as Devils Tower.


Star Wars (1977)
In the midst of a civil war, an apprentice discovers a hologram hidden inside an android/ recorded by a princess, with instructions to destroy a colossal space station.


Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
Upon discovering underdeveloped bodies in giant seed pods, townspeople conclude they are being replaced while sleeping, and an extraterrestrial life form is responsible.


Alien (1979)
A commercial spacecraft receives a distress signal, crash lands on an alien moon, finds a derelict ship and enters it, to discover a chamber containing hundreds of large egg-like objects.


Blade Runner (1982)
A former police officer tracks down and retires bioengineered replicants who are on Earth illegally, in a polluted future world devoid of animals.


The Thing (1982)
On an Antartican outpost, recovered data leads a group of researchers to an alien spacecraft, which has been buried in the glacier for 100,000 years.


The Terminator (1984)
A cyborg assassin and resistance soldier time travel backward, to save the future mother/ leader of the resistance, against a mechanized army with plans to wipe out the human race.


Starship Troopers (1997)
A hostile species is discovered while colonizing new planets, and after the insectoids kill millions with a bomb, an invasion force is sent to battle them. 


The Matrix (1999)
A programmer is offered the choice of a blue pill, to return him to his former life, or a red pill, which will reveal the truth about the Matrix.


Minority Report (2002)
Prescient beings previsualize crimes when they receive visions of the future. But sometimes, one of them has alternative visions, known as minority reports.


Children of Men (2006)
When a husband is contacted by his estranged wife, he is called upon to protect the one and only woman capable of pregnancy, since a plague wiped out human fertility.


Inception (2010)
Extractors use experimental technology to infiltrate the subconscious, to gleen information through a shared dream world.


Gravity (2013)
An astronaut takes her first spacewalk and is bombarded by space debris, which sets off a chain reaction of events as she attempts to save her own life.


Interstellar (2014)
Unknown beings positioned a wormhole near Saturn. This left a path open to twelve potentially habitable worlds, located near a black hole.


Ex Machina (2014)
When a programmer wins a prize, he visits the isolated home of his company’s CEO. He forms a relationship with a human-looking female robot, who is locked up in a separate compartment.


Arrival (2016)
As twelve spacecraft surround the Earth, a linguist is called upon to communicate with two seven-limbed aliens, researching their complicated circular symbols.  

Sunday, January 7, 2018

HP LOVECRAFT

HP LOVECRAFT - HP (Howard Phillips) Lovecraft was born to a lunatic father and fragile mother in Providence RI where many of his tales are set. His grandfather, a successful businessman, died. Resulting in the family losing their prestigious home. Meanwhile Lovecraft himself had a nervous breakdown but was also cursed with poor physical health. Both circumstances led to his failure to obtain a high school diploma, leaving Brown no longer an option. He toyed with amateur journalism and published his first short story, The Alchemist, in 1916. His mother became institutionalized, confined to the same mental hospital as his father, HPL was desperate.  Lovecraft married and shortly thereafter his wife lost her business. He lived in Brooklyn NY but was robbed and returned to Providence. Lacking conventional skills, his job prospects diminished, and he struggled to make it as a working writer. The period from 1919 to 1920, Lovecraft's Dream Cycle, inspired such works as The White Ship, The Cats of Ulthar, Nyarlathotep and The Nameless City. The first story in the Cthulhu Mythos. He placed short stories in pulps, like Weird Tales almost exclusively, in the Twenties and Thirties. He declined Weird Tales’s offer of an editor position. He was fully capable of writing commercially viable stories (The Dunwich Horror) which the Weird Tales editor wanted but pursued work he couldn’t sell for profit. He left some unsubmitted (The Shadow Over Innsmouth), didn’t respond to a novel query simply because his notes weren’t typed up into submission format (The Case of Charles Dexter Ward) and other bungled efforts. Long separated, he agreed to divorce with his wife, but when he said he signed the decree, he actually had not. His inheritance dwindled until he was nearly broke so he wouldn’t eat to continue sending letters. Cancer and chronic pain plagued him until his death in 1937, killed by poverty at the very young age of 46. His work is rooted in the themes of science, the occult, decayed antiques, gothic architecture, churches and graveyards, Anglophilia, gods and monsters. His posthumous collections became best sellers but his writing was virtually unknown in his lifetime.

https://chadschimke.blogspot.com/2015/02/dunwich-horror-review.html

https://chadschimke.blogspot.in/2017/06/lovecraft-bloch-comics-trio.html








Sunday, November 19, 2017

HORROR FICTION

HORROR FICTION – There are 2 main horror fiction sub genres, with further delineations and specificity. Classic slasher, serial killer and gore--undiluted by any paranormal or fantasy element--features a psychopath/s on a murderous killing spree. These always take place in a conventional world but flexibility happens at times with alternate timelines/ histories. Supernatural horror covers everything else: a creature, supernatural entity, monster, ghost, etc. These stories take place in a conventional world with the monster inserted. Or in an imagined world built from pure fantasy. Either variety (slasher or supernatural) can be told from the point of view of the killer/ monster, the victim or both. Obviously, some stories blend both elements. As part of speculative fiction (supernatural, fantasy, superhero, science fiction, horror, etc.), supernatural horror features worlds with fantasy or futuristic elements. Classic slasher is closely related to crime and thrillers, but the focus is on the act of terror itself, not the crime and investigation elements.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley 1818
A scientist develops a technique to impart life into a non-living humanoid, pieced together from collected parts.


The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde 1890
A hedonist wishes his image would age instead of himself. He experiments with every vice, influenced by a morally poisonous French novel. 


Dracula by Bram Stoker 1897
When a solicitor visits a Transylvanian castle, he soon realizes he’s the Count’s prisoner.


The Call of Cthulhu by H. P. Lovecraft 1928
A writer working on a manuscript discovers a cult that worships the Great Old Ones and awaits the return of a monstrous being.


The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson 1959
A paranormal investigator rents Hill House for a summer, inviting guests who have had past paranormal encounters.


The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty 1971
Two priests attempt to exorcise a demon from the 12 year old daughter of a famous actress.


Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice 1976
A vampire tells a reporter about an encounter, whereby another vampire turned him into his immortal companion.


Pet Sematary by Stephen King 1983
When a doctor and his family moves into a new house, his elderly neighbor warns him about the highway that runs past them.



American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis 1991
An investment banker narrates his midnight murders in Manhattan during the late 80s. 


Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill 2007
An aging collector of the macabre gets more than he bargained for when he buys a heart-shaped box. 








Wednesday, June 14, 2017

LOVECRAFT BLOCH COMICS TRIO

LOVECRAFT BLOCH COMICS TRIO – This post reviews weird short stories interpreted by Marvel Comic’s Journey Into Mystery series. HP Lovecraft was published in Weird Tales but never really made it as a working writer. He’s lauded today amongst the likes of Poe, Wells, Bradbury and Tolkien in the annals of American literature. Fan fiction abounds on the interwebs where his public domain works are freely available. The Haunter of the Dark is in the oeuvre of the Old Ones mythos he created. His protégé Robert Bloch, author of Psycho, wrote companion pieces to Haunter including The Shambler from the Stars and The Shadow From the Steeple. Bloch appears as Robert Blake in Haunter and Lovecraft dedicated the story to him. Bloch wrote Shambler as the prequel to Haunter and later wrote Shadow as the final installment. Here’s a recap of all three. A desperate author asks his friend to translate a magic spell and summons the Shambler, leaving behind a charred body. Later, the evil lure of the steeple draws in a lurker who discovers a jewel in an open box. And in the end, the spirit inhabiting the jewel learns to inhabit the body of a human host. Bloch was heavily influenced early on by Lovecraft. But he went on to write widely for pulp magazines, a series of radio dramas, 30 novels, short story collections, comic book adaptations, film and television scripts. Do you love vintage tales supernatural horror, like I do? Then you’re going to love these comics!


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Monday, February 9, 2015

DUNWICH HORROR SHORT STORY REVIEW

DUNWICH HORROR SHORT STORY REVIEW - HP Lovecraft’s ‘The Dunwich Horror’ first appeared in Weird Tales in 1929. It was made into a B movie in 1970 and a TV movie in 2009. Stephen King’s ‘The Dark Tower’ series is said by some to have drawn inspiration from this source. The story is central to the Cthulhu Mythos and one of Lovecraft’s few, wherein the hero defeats the forces of evil. 










Wednesday, January 14, 2015

THE DUNWICH HORROR

From the Golden Age of Radio, enjoy this radio play, based on The Dunwich Horror by HP Lovecraft. Enjoy!

The Dunwich Horror by HP Lovecraft.mp3