
The latest compilation of films shown at the HP Lovecraft Film Festival in its early days, before they began to release the annual “Best of” DVDs starting with 2014. This set is especially interesting since each film is preceded by a short introduction with some background info on the filmmakers and the Festival itself by Brian Callahan.
Also interesting is that all but one of these short film are either an adaptation of a Lovecraft story or a prequel. In the later Festival selections, the ratio changes and the original films with Lovecraftian-tones outnumber the adaptations.
The Outsider (1994)
This was the very first film ever shown at the Film Festival, based on Lovecraft’s short story of a person who believes he lives alone in a gloomy old castle, until one night when he scales the ruined tower to its very top… and discovers that his existence is not at all what he thought it was. Like many films in this collection, it has a simple soundtrack with music and a voiceover narration, but no dialog.

The one noteworthy change in this adaptation is that the narrator has a lady-love named Anastasia. He adores her, but she seems rather bored by him and his occult interests. No surprise that she has another lover.