Oh, the horror

by Josh Stilts

Everyone has fears, maybe that of the creepy, crawly insects and beasts, or of high places, the darkness, water, clowns and dolls, public speaking or even death.

H.P. Lovecraft, author of many tales of fright, once said the oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear and the oldest and strongest kid of fear is that of the unknown. Following the 1927 flood of Vermont, Lovecraft visited the area as an invited guest of local poet Vrest Orton. During his tour, Lovecraft toured Guilford, Brattleboro, Dummerston, Bellows Falls and Townshend.

Witnessing the flood ravaged towns of southeastern Vermont served as inspiration for one of his many short stories, "Whisperer in Darkness," which has now been made into a full-length feature film. Created by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, "Whisperer in Darkness," their second film based on Lovecraft's work, will be shown at the Hotel Coolidge in White River Junction, on Oct. 20. The film premiere is being used to help fund the recovery of the Main Street Museum that was badly damaged by the flooding caused by Tropical Stron Irene in August.

Stephen Bissette, a award-winning comic book artist of Swamp Thing and professor at the Center for Cartoon Studies, asked the film's producers if it was possible to show the movie as a way to raise money. Knowing what the state had been through, the producers immediately said yes.

Producers Sean Branney, Andrew Leman and the film's cast and crew spent nearly a week in southeastern Vermont and southwestern New Hampshire shooting the film in August 2009, roughly two years before Irene wrecked havoc. Branney said it took two more years, following the scenes shot in New England, creating and shooting special effects, before the film was finished. A significant portion of the film was shot in five days in locations along the Ball Mountain Brook and West River in Windham County, Branney wrote via e-mail.

Jamaica State Park and the Bellows Falls train station, which was also used in the 1999 film, "The Cider House Rules," served as prominent landscapes in their film and later miniatures and sets of the New England areas were constructed for post-production shots. Both of the short story and movie focus on the claims of Vermonters' sightings of pink, winged, crab-like creatures floating in some of the swollen rivers.

One of the characters, Henry W. Akeley, of Townshend, writes a letter to the Brattleboro Reformer, detailing what he's heard and seen. "I have certain evidence that monstrous things do indeed live in the woods on the high hills which nobody visits. It is true - terribly true - that there are non-human creatures watching us all the time; with spies among us gathering information," Akeley writes. The story begins several weeks after Akeley writes his letter to Albert N. Wilmarth, a professor at Miskatonic University in Arkham, Mass. As Lovecraft lead readers, the film's creators lead viewers into the depths of the unknown. "... Akeley's disappearance establishes nothing. People found nothing amiss in his house despite the bullet-markts on the outside and inside. It was just as though he had walked out casually for a ramble in the hills and failed to return."

The film's producers said their love the strange and the fear of the unknown came out at an early age. Branney said he became interested in Lovecraft while in high school after one of his "weirdest" friends gave him an anthology of his work. Reading "The Rats in the Walls" Branney quickly became immersed in Lovecraft's writing, which led to countless hours of playing THe Call of Cthulhu, a role playing game."Things snowballed over ensuing years to where we run a full-service Lovecraftian entertainment production company," he said. Leman said it was a "fantastically gun game and it set all of our imaginations on fire."

"Being theater nerds, we quickly developed our own, more elaborated version of the game which involved acting the stories out live, rather than just sitting around a table rolling dice," Leman said. Through college and graduate school, Leman and Branney remained closed friends and continued to develop and play the game they called Cthulu Lives."The games became so elaborate that each one was kind of like producing a small independent film," Lemen said."Our efforts grew and grew from there."

On Friday, Branney was in Warsaw, Poland, for a screening of the film and said he was astonished at where his admiration of Lovecraft has taken him.

Prior to the filming, Branney sent out a message through his production company's website, letting people who wanted to be in the film know where and when they were shooting."We had folks from all over New England joining us for two days of shooting there," Branney said. "We had one group as train passengers at the train station in Bellows Falls and we had a second group who were guests attending a reception which was at Mt. Holyoke College in Hadley, Mass."

Leman said there isn't a firm date for when the film will be available on DVD but they're hoping to have it for sale before the end of the year. "We're still working on finalizing the behind-the-scenes features and other bonus content," he said.

There will be two showings of the film at the Hotel Coolidge," Bissette said. Tickets for the 8p.m. showing are $25 and $15 for the 10p.m. showing, which will both be introduced by folklorist Joseph A. Citro. Prior the film there will be a private lecture by Citro, who will chronicle Lovecraft's visit to Vermont.

There will also be appetizers and a silent auction which includes admission and priority seating to the first showing. Ticket prices are $100 with all of the proceeds going to benefit the rebuilding effort of the museum.

The Hotel Coolidge is also offering a room package for $69.

For ticket and event information call 802-295-3318 or 802-295-6370.