Strange Flesh: The Use Of Lovecraftian Archetypes In Queer Fiction: The Glittering World (2015)

Authors Note: This is Part 6 of an ongoing series. Click here for Part 1  Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 and Part 5

The Glittering World is a 2015 novel by author and award-winning playwright Robert Levy. It tells the story of Michael “Blue” Whitley, his best friend Elisa, her husband – Jason and Blue’s romantic admirer, a young twenty-year-old named Gabriel, or Gabe.

Traveling to Blue’s estranged childhood home town and ex-commune of Starling Cove in Canada, the gang intend to sell the house of Blue’s even more estranged grandmother, which was left for him in her will. Upon arriving however, Blue finds himself strangely drawn to the mysterious forest surrounding the township and begins to hear voices calling from the trees, beckoning him to come home.

How ‘Lights Out’ Should Have Ended And The Problems With Hollywood Horror

Yesterday afternoon, my partner and I found ourselves with nothing to do on a dreary, rainy day and figured it was time to visit the local movie theater with our new flatmates and check out a movie we’ve been seeing lots of folks talking about recently: Lights Out.

Lights Out is a horror film directed by David F. Sandberg, best known for no-budget horror films under the alias of “ponysmasher”. It tells the story of a blonde punk archetype named Rebecca and her half-brother Martin as they deal with a clinically depressed Mother who seems to be conversing with an imaginary friend named Dianna, an imaginary friend with glowing white eyes, who hates the light…

Strange Flesh: The Use Of Lovecraftian Archetypes In Queer Fiction: Providence (2015-Present)

Authors Note: This is Part 5 of an ongoing series. Click here for Part 1  Part 2 Part 3 and Part 4

Providence is a 12-part graphic novel series by the author of such noted works as “The Watchmen” and “V for Vendetta” – Allan Moore. Providence is the follow-up prequel to Moore’s 2010 graphic novel “Neonomicon” and is set approximately 88 years prior. Because the series began late 2015, is still going and covers a lot of ground, this article will simplify the plot for time’s sake and focus on two important aspects and their relation to Lovecraftian tropes and the Queer perspective.

Strange Flesh: The Use of Lovecraftian Archetypes In Queer Fiction – Mysterium Tremendum (2010)

Authors Note: This is Part 4 of an ongoing series. Click here for Part 1  Part 2 and Part 3

“The entire tradition of cosmic horror fiction can be regarded as a heroic but doomed attempt… …to communicate the uncommunicatable, by suggesting – in the absence of any possibility of explicit description – the sheer enormity of the revelation that would be vouchsafed to us, were we ever granted permission to see and conceive of the world as it really is, rather than as it appears to our senses: deflated, diminished and domesticated. It is for this reason that “the cosmic horror”, conceived as an entity is by far the most elusive of all the icons of horror fiction, almost definable by its indescribability. Its presence can be felt, but only the merest glimpses can ever be caught of its form. Its description and definition can be tentatively approached in various ways – one may observe that it is daemonic rather than demonic, and that it is more akin to the alien than the traditionally supernatural – but can never be completed or clarified.” (Stableford, 2007, p. 71)

Lovecraft On Screen – Cthulhu in The Context Of Film And TV

Recently word got out through the entertainment website Bleeding Cool that Legendary Entertainment, the media company behind such films as Batman Begins will be developing through their off-shoot Legendary TV, an anthology series based around my favourite horror writer – H.P. Lovecrafts’ Cthulhu Mythos.

Bleeding Cool reports that the series will include characters, locations and plot-lines from sixteen of Lovecraft’s most well-known stories such as The Call of Cthulhu, The Shadow over Innsmouth and the Dunwich Horror.

On top of this exciting news, Lorenzo di Bonaventura (one of the producers for 2007s’ Transformers) is attached to the project, alongside Dan McDermott and Mathew Francis Wilson. Lovecraft’s estate is even approving the first season!

Strange Flesh: The Use Of Lovecraftian Archetypes In Queer Fiction – The Shadow Over Innsmouth (1931)

Authors Note: This is Part 3 of an ongoing series. Click here for Part 1 and Part 2.

Perhaps his most famous work next to “The Call of Cthulhu” “The Shadow over Innsmouth” is the only one of Lovecraft’s stories to be published as a standalone book in his life time. Written in 1931 it follows a student narrator who is traveling around New England on an antiquarian and genealogical tour. Intending to pass through “ancient Newburyport to Arkham” to visit the place his mother’s family was derived from, he learns of the mysterious and disliked seaport of Innsmouth, a place that seemingly does not exist on any of the maps and is subject to all kinds of horrific rumours:

Is Netflix’s Stranger Things A Revival In Weird Fiction?

Once again I’m late to the party, my partner and I sat down last night to watch the Netflix original Stranger Things. The Spielberg and Carpenter inspired show has exploded out of nowhere in the last couple of weeks and has been almost universally acclaimed for its combination of nostalgic 80’s Hollywood and thrilling horror straight out of a Stephen King novel from the same era. The trailer, which you can see below promises many unusual twists and turns, while at the same time dealing with classic movie archetypes we all know and love – The Geeks, The Weirdo, The Troubled Sheriff – they’re all there and ready to go.

The God Of War Dad – What Sony’s Reveal Can Teach Us About Character Arcs

At this year’s E3, fans were treated to the surprising return of everyone’s favorite hot-tempered God of War – Kratos, usurper of the throne of Olympus. This time around however, not only is Kratos sporting a different look, he seems to have grown up a bit.

In the ten-minute Gameplay trailer from E3, we watch an older, more grizzled Kratos track through the snowy undergrowth of a Norwegian forest alongside a young boy. A child, whom turns out to be none other than Kratos’ son, learning how to hunt under the guidance of a master. Of course, being a God of war game, it isn’t long before the duo encounters a monster which they have to fight against for their very lives.

The Chilling Power Of Ambiguity In Supernatural Horror

We all love a good horror story. There’s something very primal about congregating around the storyteller, and feeling the hair on the back of your neck prickle as of something supernatural has brushed past you in the dark. Being scared is an interesting phenomenon, on the one hand, it pumps you full of adrenaline and makes you feel alive, but too much of a good thing and it can turn you off for good.

The reason why the supernatural works so well for a scary story is due to it being something other than what we know to be true. It is fear of the unknown, and some of the best kinds of supernatural tales leave you wondering if what you’ve encountered is even real, or if it is just in your head. This ambiguity creates a level of realism in the audience, because if we can’t tell whether the ghosts and demons that scare us are external or inside or head, then is there really any difference between the two?

And that’s the crux of all horror and supernatural literature. The Ghosts, the monsters, the demons – they’re all the internal parts of ourselves reflected back at us to see in all their bloodthirsty, shameful glory.

The Minimalist Storytelling Of Bloodborne And Dark Souls III And Why it Works

I hammer on a lot about storytelling in games. About how I am dissatisfied with the current way most games immerse the player into their tales, and how I believe we are heading towards a proverbial renaissance in which video games will one day be considered “on the level” along side other great pieces of literature in Film, TV and Prose writing.

As much as current interactive narrative annoys me, there are a few stand outs that I have come across over the last few years that give me hope we are heading in the right direction.

Because I don’t want to be a negative Nancy and get down on what the industry gets wrong, I thought it would be cool to take some time out for a few minutes to look at two games that I reckon get stuff right in regards to narrative.

I want to discuss in this article what exactly they succeed in and why, as well as suggesting how these certain techniques can advance our writing abilities in the industry.

The two games I want to look at here are DARK SOULS III and BLOODBORNE.