The low budget H. P. Lovecraft adaptations or Lovecraftian films are often the best. Probably because the creators of such films love the work of the master of weird fiction and know how to strike the right chord. Don't get me wrong, there are also a lot of bad low budget movies out there obviously. Just being passionate about something does not automaticly gives one the skills of a good storyteller, director or cinematographer. But when all these stars are right, a great little Lovecraft film can just be the result.
Famous examples of this are Sam Raimi's Evil Dead, Stuart Gordon's Re-animator and Mario Baino's Dark Waters. But there are more very notable, lesser known examples like The H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society's adaptations, Nathan Shelton's Shadow Bound, Ward Crockett's Night Things and David Schmidt's House of the Black Wings, just to name a few. All very much worth watching if you're an enthusiast of the weird and cosmic horror tale. The Festival is yet another one of these gems.
This wonderful little modernized adaptation of H. P. Lovecraft's short story from 1925, cleverly blends in The Shadow over Innsmouth and even some Call of Cthulhu. Now this is low budget and that shows but the admirable thing is that there are so many good things about this that more than make up for it.
The story is told very well and flows perfectly. The atmosphere really grabs the Lovecraft vibe and dread can be felt in just the right places. And that's quite an accomplishment as the film takes place mainly in daylight. The main actor does a great job and puts down a very likable and easy to empathize with, protagonist. I dug the special effects which are all practical and contribute to a nice 80's feel. We even get some awesome stop-motion.
All in all The Festival is an obvious labour of love and it shows. It was released on DVD at some point but seems out of print now. Very much worth tracking down and also worthy of a rerelease if you ask me. With all the wonderful smaller labels out there these days this would be a great one to pick up.
