BOOK REVIEW: Lurker in the Lobby: A Guide to the Cinema of H. P. Lovecraft by Andrew Migliore & John Strysik (2006 Night Shade Books)

Review by Scott Lefebvre

     Being a fan of most things Lovecraftian I have long been aware of the H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival and would be a regular attendee if only if it weren’t on the Pacific coast and myself living on the Atlantic.   I have long been trying to convince Migliore to let The Arkham Film Society host a Providence-based sister-festival, since Providence has long been associated with H. P. Lovecraft and is, indeed, his final resting place, but Migliore has been persistently resistant to my entreaties perhaps preferring to keep a good thing to himself, and who would blame him?   It’s true I could take it upon myself to start up a Providence Lovecraftian Film festival but the last thing I want to do is steal Migliore’s thunder.   Especially since I have great respect for what he has accomplished and have had the pleasure of meeting Andrew Migliore at the Rue Morgue Festival of Fear.

     But that was not where I had the occasion to procure this book.   This book is another of the many books I borrowed from the library of Josh Gravel and I extend to him my gratitude as I always have and always will.

     I had been procrastinating reading this book because flipping through it I thought that it was a collection of synopses of Lovecraftian films that I had never seen.   The error was mine and I was only depriving myself.   Where I expected another dry, factual presentation of Lovecraftian films, instead I found the book engaging and truly a pleasure to read.

     The book, addressing films addressing Lovecraftian themes is itself highly cinematic, the brief but insightful introductions serving as trailers for the feature presentation.

     The bulk of the book is an alphabetical listing of Lovecraftian film and television but even this only takes up a half of the book’s impressive 340 pages.

     The remainder is consumed by two sections.

     There is a brief artist’s gallery featuring many famous and infamous artists of our time including Mike Mignola and Bernie Wrightson presenting their takes on Lovecraftian lore.

     The remainder is a generous selection of interviews with the actors, writers, directors, and artists that created the Lovecraftian themed media covered in the body of the work.   Keeping with the cinematic theme, the interviews serve as Special Features and would be the envy of any DVDs limited fare.   The interviews are casual yet in depth and revealing of the inspirational forces which inspired these many talented creators to create the work which they created in a Lovecraftian vein.

    It is perhaps ironic that Lovecraft, who was ambivalent towards the medium of film, and by ambivalent, I mean he has historically revealed himself to have a strong love/hate relationship towards the medium, should have had such an impact on the medium after his death.

     Although not complete, as no book addressing a continually growing subject can claim to be, it is the most comprehensive work of its kind and Lovecraft enthusiasts and completists will no doubt find themselves well-rewarded for acquiring this book at the meager price of purchase.

     [Approximately $20.00 Available from Night Shade Books at: www.nightshadebooks.com]

About the Reviewer:

Scott Lefebvre can write about whatever you want him to write about.
Mostly because when he was grounded for his outlandish behavior as a hyperactive school child, the only place he was allowed to go was the public library.
His literary tastes were forged by the works of Helen Hoke, Alvin Schwartz and Stephen Gammell, Ray Bradbury, Richard Matheson, Stephen King, Clive Barker, Edgar Allan Poe, and H. P. Lovecraft.
He is the author of Spooky Creepy Long Island, and a contributing author to Forrest J. Ackerman’s Anthology of the Living Dead, Fracas: A Collection of Short Friction, The Call of Lovecraft, and Cashiers du Cinemart.
He is currently working on ten novel-length book projects which will be released in 2014.
He also publishes themed collections of interviews from his interview blog You Are Entitled To My Opinion.
His reviews have been published by a variety of in print and online media including Scars Magazine, Icons of Fright, Fatally Yours and Screams of Terror, and he has appeared in Fangoria, Rue Morgue and HorrorHound Magazine.
He is the Assistant Program Director for The Arkham Film Society and produces electronic music under the names Master Control and LOVECRAFTWORK.
He is currently working on a novel-length expansion of a short-story titled, "The End Of The World Is Nigh", a crowd-funded, crowd-sourced, post-apocalyptic, zombie epidemic project.
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