It’s a cornucopia of cosmic horror in the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival, Oct. 4-6

Published 6:30 pm Wednesday, October 2, 2024

More than 60 independent films — short and feature length — will be part of the 29th annual H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival, Friday-Sunday, Oct. 4-6 at Hollywood Theatre.

Guest of honor is Aaron Moorhead, of filmmaking duo Benson and Moorhead (“The Endless,” “Something in the Dirt”). Moorhead, who’s known for “Synchronic” and “Loki,” will appear Saturday, Oct. 5 for a keynote speech and screening with Q&A of his 2012 film “Resolution,” and Sunday Oct. 6 for a screening with Q&A of his 2017 film “The Endless.”

Many filmmakers will attend screenings and participate in question-and-answer sessions. There’ll also be live performances, author readings, panel discussions and more.

It’s for lovers of weird tales and cosmic horror, and movies include adaptations of stories by Lovecraft and contemporaries and original stories “that couldn’t exist without the influence of cosmic horror,” publicity says.

The feature films:

“The Letter,” a lush, Lovecraftian horror, set in 1930s Dunwich. The story: In 1922, Johnathan Ackley is sent on a quest to find his estranged uncle’s missing daughter only to discover a twisted web of bizarre characters that are being plagued by an indescribable evil.

“The Daemon,” by Matt Devino and David Michael Yohe. The story: Tom’s quest for closure after his father’s suicide leads him to a mysterious lakeside cottage. Confronting his past, he faces an unknown entity that preys on grief and threatens his sanity. With his wife Kathy, her brother Mark, and trauma counselor Jess, they find themselves in a place where reality bends and fears come alive.

“Dream Eater,” a terrifying found footage film by Alex Lee Williams, Jay Drakulic, and Mallory Drumm. The story: A filmmaker documents her boyfriend’s violent parasomnia during their holiday at a remote cabin in the woods. As his sleepwalking gets worse, she believes that the cause might be something far more sinister.

Nils Alatalo’s “Voidcaller,” a stark and chilling cosmic horror film from Sweden. The story: Anna wakes up with a mysterious gap in her memory. With the help of a dangerous psychedelic, she starts to uncover memories of something sinister on a cosmic scale.

“Strange Harvest: Occult Murder in the Inland Empire,” a faux true-crime documentary by Stuart Ortiz. The story: A true-crime horror documentary about two detectives pursuit of an infamous serial killer named Mr. Shiny, who terrorized Southern California for almost two decades.

Sci-fi cosmic horror thriller “Things Will Be Different” by Michael Felker (produced by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead). The story: When estranged siblings, Joseph and Sidney, rendezvous at a local diner after a close-call robbery, they hightail it to an abandoned farmhouse that transports them to a different time in order to escape the local cops. But when they try to return to their present after the coast is clear, an unknown metaphysical force cuts them off and maroons them on the land unless they do exactly what they’re told. What comes from this not only bends the forces of spacetime but also bends Joe and Sid’s familial bonds beyond the point of trust and forgiveness.

“The Complex Forms,” with creature effects, by Italian director Fabio D’Orta. The story: There is a villa where desperate people have the opportunity to revive their fortunes by selling their bodies to mysterious entities in exchange for money. When the centuries-old creatures emerge from the deep woods, a series of sinister events prompt three guests to attempt a desperate escape.

“Time Travers & The Time Travelers Paradox,” starring Samuel Dunning and Felicia Day, written and directed by Stimson Snead. The story: A scientist creates a time machine and kills their younger self. So now a man who should not — cannot — exist, somehow does. And the man who has created it, is Tim Travers. A reclusive mad scientist whose stated mission in life is to stand alone with God at the end of time, and tell the bastard off. In the course of his adventure, Tim Travers will take on the mercenary gang whose stolen plutonium powers his machine, challenge an Alex Jones-esque podcaster to a battle of wits, create a black hole, meet the one woman alive crazier than him, clone himself, destroy the universe, Make a new one, and maybe — just maybe — learn to love himself at last.

In addition, there’ll be a special closing night presentation of “The Dunwich Horror” by Daniel Haller and starring Dean Stockwell, Sandra Dee, Ed Begley, Sam Jaffe and Talia Shire. The story: Roger Corman’s trippy take on the tale of the Whately family, now as it was meant to be with spine-chilling live score from Cassadine (with Nate Carson of Witch Mountain) and bizarro shadow-cast performance by Club Pangaea, while Sandra Dee’s body double gyrates and Dean Stockwell chants from The Necronomicon.

For full festival listings: hplfilmfestival.com/hplfilmfestival-portland-or/films.