Whistle and I'll Come to You on BBC Television

Passing somewhat under the radar (at least for many American fans of the weird) this Christmas is BBC television's latest M.R. James adaptation, Whistle and I'll Come to You. The program is closely inspired by James spectral tale with nearly the same name, "Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad!" (easily and cheaply accessed today in Penguin's collection, Count Magnus and Other Ghost Stories). Here's the synopsis from its web page:

A chilling new single drama, Whistle and I'll Come to You is the thoroughly modern re-working of the evocative Edwardian ghost story Oh, Whistle and I'll come to You, My Lad by MR James, adapted for BBC Two by Neil Cross. Cross's adaptation delves into themes of ageing, hubris and the supernatural, with a horrifying psychological twist in the tale.

James Parkin has just left his wife in the care of a nursing home. Pensive and emotional, he travels to their old favourite destination for rambling, an off-season British seaside town. There he encounters an apparition on a desolate beach, which begins to haunt him - with terrifying consequences.

Unfortunately, Jamesian film adaptations are fairly difficult to come by outside the UK. Sinister Cinema's A Warning to the Curious is a rare exception, as are a few other projects currently in the works for DVD release. Film may offer a new path to familiarizing newcomers with James' ghost stories, particularly in international markets. Hopefully, this latest BBC picture will see seasonal reappearances, and then make the leap to DVD and digital formats for download.

-Grim Blogger

Whistle and I'll Come to You on BBC Television

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H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Overtakes South Park

It's official: H.P. Lovecraft is well into mainstream territory, or at least overtaking the most popular animated shows with force. Close on the heels of a Scooby Doo appearance, South Park has now aired a multi-part story arc with Great Cthulhu released by an oil drilling mishap. Clearly inspired by the recent British Petroleum fiasco, South Park blends Lovecraftian imagery with sardonic political commentary. Knowledge man was never meant to know has never seemed so ominous, all joking aside. Cthulhu, Shoggoths, and a score of other exotic monstrosities with eyes, tentacles, and teeth galore are released for a cartoon rampage, drawing in familiar characters from the series to combat them.

The creep of Lovecraft's entities into two iconic TV series proves HPL's fortification in American pop culture. Denials from those who have sought to keep Lovecraft the best kept secret in literary horror will only look desperate. While Lovecraftian themes, creatures, and story lines continue to exhibit a mostly humor bent, the fact that they are increasingly prominent in the public sphere is undeniable. At this rate, Lovecraft stands to surpass Edgar Allan Poe in fluid media (television, internet, etc.). Who really sees frequent references to "The Raven" in comedies and cartoons anymore?

However, Lovecraft may well share a symbolic trajectory with Poe. While his predecessor is forever bound to the image of a dour black bird, Lovecraft's name seems inescapably linked with Cthulhu, and the elder horror is always his chief representative in these popular appearances. It should be noted that South Park shows off other nightmares that arrive on Cthulhu's coat tails: Shoggoths, Mi-Go, and star-headed beasts resembling Elder Things. This may offer a glint of hope that Cthulhu won't be the only element to conjure Lovecraft's name for millions of non-weird fiction readers.

Unfortunately, the present widespread outburst of Lovecraftiana draws primarily on only two stories he wrote. "The Call of Cthulhu" and "At the Mountains of Madness" are at the vanguard of what "Lovecraftian" means for those who come to him through second hand media sources. Mentioning tales like "The Color Out of Space" or "The Music of Erich Zann" to viewrs who just saw the tentacled pseudo-god on South Park is almost certain to reap blank stares. This is an irritating challenge for Lovecraft enthusiasts steeped in a broader knowledge of weird fiction. Yet, Lovecraft's burgeoning cultural empire still offers hope to seasoned fans who fear his philosophical pessimism and more abstract works will be eclipsed by Cthulhu's Cyclopean shadow.

At some point, statistics come into play. If even 1% of South Park viewers end up reading a story collection or two, then thousands more are exposed to Lovecraft, almost all of whom wouldn't have encountered him at all in a different context. This poses a potential, but far from guaranteed, influx of people who might find weird fiction's mysterious call for the first time. For some, the first time certainly won't be the last. There's little to fear in Lovecraft's cultural boost, and much to gain, like a more robust genre that can only enrich all weird aficionados.

-Grim Blogger

H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Overtakes South Park

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Scooby-Doo! and the Shrieking Madness with H.P. Hatecraft

In another signal of H.P. Lovecraft's surge into mainstream culture, the latest Scooby-Doo incarnation recently aired a Lovecraftian episode. "The Shrieking Madness" appeared on Cartoon Network as part of Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, and centers around a villain named H.P. Hatecraft. Besides the hilariously named Hatecraft, we're shown a cartoon Harlan Ellison, Mythos names, Cthulhu symbolism galore, and scenery extracted right from Lovecraft's fiction.

The makers of this episode have certainly done their homework. Unlike the usual Lovecraftian adaptation that throws in a few garbled, multi-syllabic names and tentacled monsters, there are inside jokes that dig into HPL's legacy. Perhaps the funniest moment is when the cartoon Harlan Ellison berates Lovecraft as "a literary fraud," echoing the weird writer's vicious assessment at the hands of critics like Edmund Wilson.

Several clips from the episode are embedded below, and it can be watched in full as well. Altogether, this is a strong indicator of Lovecraft's rising visibility. It may also turn on a new generation of readers in another decade or so, when children seeing this today pick up a Lovecraft book as adolescents and experience that "A-ha!" moment, connecting a parody seen in childhood to a severe literary presence.





-Grim Blogger

Scooby-Doo! and the Shrieking Madness with H.P. Hatecraft

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Hypnogoria on the Christmas Ghost Story

The fascinating Hypnogoria blog has done an exhaustive overview on the traditional Christmas ghost story and its media adaptations, especially on television. Particular attention is rendered to the haunting and wintry works of two weird fiction masters: M.R. James and Sheridan Le Fanu. "Ghost Stories for Christmas" is a veritable exhumation of the weird's public face, seasonally appropriate even as this year's prime holidays are being buried.


It is almost equally as thought provoking when considering what the article doesn't say. The migration of the purely spectral weird onto television is the main place it continues to flourish, securing James and other artists a sort of immortality. This comes well after the classic ghost story peaked under James, then blurred into stranger territory, New Weird motifs, and psychological horror with Robert Aickman and his successors. Today, Reggie Oliver is one of the sole literary exceptions who continues to produce tales resembling the classic ghostly model.

In any case, Hypnogoria's post is a stimulating catalog that touches on weird literature and its expansion into new mediums. A real gem amid the rich and growing community of online scholarship on the outre.

-Grim Blogger

Hypnogoria on the Christmas Ghost Story

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Lovecraft on Film from TVTropes.org

A posting at TVtropes.org has collected quite a lengthy list of Lovecraftian inspired films and television shows. Unlike some older websites which aren't the easiest to navigate, this list provides a nicely summarized glimpse at Lovecraftian film. It also includes all of the biggest ones to feature direct H.P. Lovecraft story adaptations or at least inspiration; past, present, and future. Completists will be better served by this book from Andrew Migliore, The Lurker in the Lobby: The Guide to Lovecraftian Cinema, produced by major figures involved with the annual H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival. For the initiate into weird cinema or those who just want an easily accessible inventory of the major screen adaptions, you could do a lot worse than starting with TVtropes.org.

-Grim Blogger

Lovecraft on Film from TVTropes.org

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Stephen Colbert: Cthulhu is "Cthool"

As if to underscore the growing popularity of H.P. Lovecraft's creations in mainstream culture, political comedian Stephen Colbert mentioned several of the author's deities on "The Colbert Report" earlier this week. During a segment about a cataclysmic struggle between gods (also embedded below), Colbert threw in allusions to both Dagon and Cthulhu. This is a significant showing of popular strength for HPL as he continues his march out of literature, buoyed by online popularity, and into other types of mass media. Some Lovecraftians will scoff or even recoil in horror at the form Lovecraft's cultural popularization is taking. Undeniably, Lovecraftian names, places, and themes are extending their tentacles along mostly humorous rather than horror inducing paths. Though the full trend (if indeed there is one) remains unclear right now, it's a strange and unwieldy path for a writer who sought and previously succeed in making his creations feared.



H.P. Lovecraft once musingly said, "The world is indeed comic, but the joke is on mankind." These days, however, outside a relatively small cadre of weird enthusiasts who appreciate the frightening and otherworldly nature of Lovecraft's fiction in literature, the joke may be on HPL himself as his work becomes a snowballing punchline in the eyes of media moguls and the masses.

-Grim Blogger

Stephen Colbert: Cthulhu is "Cthool"

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M.R. James' "Number 13" Film Online

A short film based on M.R. James' "Number 13," originally printed in his 1904 collection Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, is available for viewing on Youtube in five parts. It is a classic and elegant piece of spectral fiction exemplifying the typical Jamesian elements of style and mature storytelling. Fortunately, this television adaption of the short story, which originally appeared in Britain on their channel BBC 4, does James' piece great justice.

Though lesser known today in weird fiction and wider literature, M.R. James is considered an enduring master of the ghost story. Clark Ashton Smith and H.P. Lovecraft were among his admirers, and the latter praised James' stylistic innovations and antiquarian settings in his scholarly piece, "Supernatural Horror in Literature." Ramsey Campbell, a well known contemporary author of British horror and Cthulhu Mythos fiction, is also a great admirer of M.R. James.

See the full BBC adaption through Dr. Markway's Channel on Youtube, or through the five parts below. Each one is about ten minutes, and the full picture runs about an hour in length:

• Part I
• Part II
• Part III
• Part IV
• Part V

-Grim Blogger

M.R. James' "Number 13" Film Online

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An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge Remix

Ambrose Bierce, the extraordinary writer of weird fiction mixed with Civil War themes in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, once wrote a short tale called "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge." It proved so perfect for film that it was done three times, and probably many more in lesser known amateur circles. Eventually, the roughly twenty five minute French film was re-done as an episode of "The Twilight Zone" in 1964. This episode is fondly remembered today for both its strangeness and aesthetic beauty.

The film also remained nearly silent in its conversion to the "Twilight Zone." Perhaps because of this quality, someone took the initiative to remix it with music. Thus, we have what might qualify as a musical, third remake of this original French rendering of Bierce's tale. Jethro Tull's long piece, "Thick as a Brick," is a disturbingly fitting song when overlaid with the action of the film.

I couldn't resist sharing this one.

-Grim Blogger

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge Remix

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Night Gallery's "Miss Lovecraft Sent Me"

Someone was good enough to put up this short piece from the classic television show of the weird and macabre, Night Gallery. Running for three seasons from 1970-1973, Night Gallery was another product of legendary weird host and producer Rod Serling, and sought to build on the earlier success of the Twilight Zone. While it did not accomplish this, it left behind a number of quality episodes much in the vein of its predecessor, but often with a darker twist. On several occasions, Night Gallery also produced a number of short "vignette" pieces that played at the end of each episode, like the Youtube sampling below called "Miss Lovecraft Sent Me."

In this case, the similarities with the Lovecraftian in this short cut end with the name and a few ominous tomes. However, it is a great example of the kind of humor Serling injected into his work. It's worth noting Night Gallery did produce a few genuinely Lovecraftian episodes. An adaptation of Lovecraft's tale, "Pickman's Model," and a Lovecraft-based story called "Professor Peabody's Last Lecture" are among the best. Currently, Night Gallery re-runs on NBC's horror channel, Chiller, and has witnessed a slow release of episodes onto DVD the last couple years.

-Grim Blogger

Night Gallery's "Miss Lovecraft Sent Me"

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