The Yellow Sign

Indie director Aaron Vanek has previously done several short H.P. Lovecraft adaptations, including "The Outsider" and "Return to Innsmouth". "The Yellow Sign" is his longest film to date (47m), and probably his most finely-polished work. It is not yet in general release, but he's working on fixing that. Meanwhile, you might get lucky enough to catch a showing at a horror convention or film festival, especially if you're on the West Coast.

This film is inspired by the Robert W. Chambers story of the same title. Like H.P. Lovecraft, Chambers is a difficult author to adapt to film. "The Yellow Sign" is one of a set of loosely connected stories about sensitive individuals discovering an obscure play, "The King in Yellow", then becoming obsessed with the story's intrusion into their own lives. The emphasis is less on plot and characterization than on creating a eerie, disturbing atmosphere. Vanek, with colleague John Tynes of Pagan Publishing fame, have taken the sketchy plot of Chambers' story and built a more complete screenplay around it, while still capturing the proper weird, disconnected, dream-like fantasy feel.

The main character, Tess, is a struggling gallery owner who dreams about an artist and his work, then learns that he is a real man. She tries to persuade this recluse to exhibit at her gallery, but he only acquiesces after she agrees to pose for him. They chat as Aubrey works, and his statements challenge Tess's very identity and sense of reality. Interspersed with all these events are strange glimpses into Tess's dreams that, like Aubrey and his work, hint at dark secrets behind her comfortable, boring life.

There is a sort of mystical journey at the heart of this story, but the revelations it promises are not reassuring. "Have you seen the Yellow Sign?" If you have, you will not be the same ever again...

Vanek has done an excellent job with difficult source material. He is showing steady improvement in his craft and vision over his previous work, and I look forward to seeing his future weird tales.

The Yellow Sign, another of Aaron Vanek's creepy shorts, deserves the acclaim it has won from various film festivals. Without using gratuitous nudity or gore, Vanek has crafted a film that remains disturbing long after the final credits have rolled. All of the actors are excellent, especially Dale Snowberger as the charismatic, Mephistophelean artist. Snowberger is both menacing and sexy and delivers his complex dialogue in a sonorous baritone that makes one shiver. David Reynolds, a fine and underrated actor, is truly ominous as the Watchman. The DVD also comes with several other shorter films that are weird and fascinating - well worth the investment!

Aaron Vanek took up the poison chalice for this film project because "The Yellow Sign" is an adaptation of themes within the collection of loosely connected short stories that make up "The King in Yellow" by Robert W. Chambers. This book is rightly famous and, indeed, revered within the 'Weird tales' genre because it is genuinely disturbing and hints at horrors beyond what is written therein. It is profoundly Lovecraftian in feel and works at the level of dread, suspense and terror that can only be attained where the nature and origin of fear is hidden, covert, implied. The problem with attempting to translate a Lovecraftian tale into film is simple; you can have as many special effects as you like, but show the monster and you lose all the tension and dread built up by the imagination of the reader/viewer. It is not therefore surprising that the vast majority of the Lovecraft tales 'adapted' for films to date have failed miserably to do justice to the original stories. That being said, "the Yellow Sign" is a worthy exception to the general rule. This is a genuinely disturbing and downright creepy film, a very rare commodity indeed. Just like the book, there are elements missing and the lack of coherence leaves your imagination to fill in the gaps. I seriously considered giving this a full 10 out of 10 but for the fact that a 'director's cut' is shortly to be released! Recommended without reservation.

I saw a poorer-quality version of this at a World Horror Convention, so I was excited to see how the remastered DVD was. Vanek's direction was sound, evoking a foreboding atmosphere and growing uncertainty as to the dividing line between reality and the world of Carcosa and dreams. The dialog did not seem forced or unlikely (though perhaps I would have liked to have seen that the gallery needed a successful show, rather than having a throwaway line to that effect). But equal credit must go to the actors and to Jason Voss' evocative paintings. Dale Snowberger could easily have overplayed Aubrey Scott, but he was sinister without being hammy.

Aaron Vanek's terrific adaptation of "The King in Yellow" is a bone-chilling story about a woman caught between two worlds and her relationship to a mad artist. This is sure to please any fan of Lovecraft, especially those enamored of Robert Chambers' work. Vanek successfully captures the atmosphere of Chambers' work like never before. He is in no small way assisted by Tynes' clever script, which superbly translates to the screen all the elements of what makes Chambers so great on the page. (Lovecraft fans who might not be familiar with Vaneks' other films might be familiar with the sublime Pagan Publishing, which Tynes founded.) The best performance was by Shawna Waldron as Tess. She was charming, even mesmerizing, although all the performances were terrifyingly good. The film was shot on HD and is of surprisingly high quality -- no small feat and certainly a feather in Vanek's cap for working so deftly in the medium.

I can't wait to see what Vanek scares up next!