THE H.P. LOVECRAFT COLLECTION Volume 4 PICKMAN’S MODEL

Lovecrafts importance to the development of horror as a storytelling genre seems obvious now but that wasn’t widely understood to be the case until long after cinema had seen many adaptations of his work. To this day Lovecraft scholarship can still be considered to be in its infancy if one compares his influence with the amount of quality critique and adaptation referencing it. So if the idea of an entire disc of adaptations of a single Lovecraft story seems a bit much don’t fear. Lovecraft has proved an almost inexhaustible field of narrative to mine and Pickman’s Model is easily one of Lovecrafts best and most cinematic stories.

The story concerns Pickman an artist whose supernatural subject matter has led him to create such disturbing artwork that some question his sanity. A collector fascinated by Pickman discovers the true and truly horrible nature of Pickman’s inspiration. Up until now the best known and best overall adaptation of the story was by the TV series Night Gallery in the seventies. But here we have no less than 3 adaptations of the story and one of them is even feature length.

The feature film Chilean Gothic is truly remarkable offering not only a distinct modern take on the story but one suited to the strong production values it utilizes. This is Lovecraftian dread at its most palpable and the filmmakers even pull off the difficult trick of finding some artwork that is genuinely chilling to stand in for Pickmans. More importantly this is simply the best adaptation of the tale I’ve ever seen. Director Ricardo Harrington will likely be heard from in the future.

The Italian short film, titled after the story, does suffer from weak acting but every other aspect of the storytelling is there. One could almost have seen this being more effective as a black and white silent film. But the camerawork rises well above the film’s other limitations. By contrast the black and white short film by Texan Cathy Welch plays not unlike a sixties B pic taking advantage of its budgetary constraints rather than trying to surmount them. It would be easy to see this as the second half of a drive in double bill. The camerawork is less impressive here but the film maintains a solidly hypnotic tone. The primary weakness is the dialogue particularly that of Pickman himself which invites a mannered delivery not suited to the style of photography. Two other shorts not related to Pickman are the German, Between the Stars (excellent) and the okay CGI animated In The Vault.

The DVD also contains (as if it needed any) substantial special features including a brief but very informative interview with noted horror author Ramsey Campbell and scholar Robert M. Price. Lastly the eight page booklet contains scholarly essays and appreciations from a variety of authorities and Lovecraft filmmakers. Rarely do I feel rewarded for every single feature on a DVD. This is certainly the best of the Lurker series