Oktoborror Fest 01- Humanoids from the Deep (1980) - Movie

 

Interesting movie from 1980. It's one of those monster horror that the 70's and 80's really shine. It was release in 1980 and it has some interesting costumes. 

We've got this small town that is in a turmoil due to some american indians wanting to shut down a fish factory as they believe it's destroying nature while the vast majority of inhabitants do not as it's the best source of income. We are introduce to several characters who are pro and against and stuff really is boiling over with people killing dogs of the other faction.

Meanwhile there is a monster, the one in the photo which is killing dogs and men and raping woman - not graphic.

This remind me of one of the cthulhu mythos stories where the deep ones from insmouth are attacking.

I enjoyed it. It will never win any awards but for people who enjoy lovecraftian tales this is a very good addition.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080904/

Nudity - Indeed there is. Some boobs of several characters. No sex situation. Just some breasts by Lisa Glaser, Linda Shayne , Lynn Theel

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Book Review: The Ravening Deep by Tim Pratt

The Ravening Deep by Tim Pratt
My rating: 9 of 10 stars

Pages : 336 

Year :  2202 

Genre : Lovecraftian Horror

Series : Arkham Horror

Another great entry on the Arkham Horror novels. Finally someone understands a bit more on what's the purpose of this novels. With one Major Character from the boardgames (Diana Stanley) plus Ruby Standish a thief (Ally that you could get), plus the leader of the Silver Twilight Lodge, Carl Sanford. Our Main character is none of those for the vast majority but Abel Davenport (which was not in the game to my knowledge).

So basically due to some circustances Abel is trying to awake a dead god (the Ravening Deep among other names) but after a promising start, he undestands the problem with that dead god and with the help of Diana Stanley (a acolyte for the Silver Twiligt Lodge) plus Ruby Standish they try to thwart the Ravening Deep awakening. Since they can't do it alone they enlist (although in a non linear way) Carl Sanford to stop the ritual.

First of all, I loved Carl. I want to know more about the silver twilight lodge and him. Is he a villain? a Hero? an Anti-Hero? Or just a person with enourmous ego? Either way he was by far the most interesting character. The ending between him and Ruby was amazing and made me say "WHATT?"

Diana was also an interesting atraction. She first starts in the Lodge with a goal but soon , and throughout the novel changes and comes to understand she must undermine the lodge (which makes sense because in Arkham Horror 2 Edition at least & Eldritch Horror she is already an ex-member. In Arkham Horror LCG (don't know about AH 3 Edition) she is still in the Lodge but undermining from within.

Overall, one of the best books. 9/10

My main complain was the pacing of the story. Some parts were amazing, but some with Abel were a bit boring. Mainly how the writer chose to explain to (we the readers) through Diana how he came to be against the Ravening Deep.

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Book Review: Lair of the Crystal Fang by S.A. Sidor

Lair of the Crystal Fang by S.A. Sidor
My rating: 8 of 10 stars

Pages : 363

Year : 2022

Genre : Lovecraftrian Horror

Series : Arkham Horror 

This was probably my favourite Arkham Horror novel. Why you ask?

My main gripe with this series is the lack of interest because apart from one or two characters from the boardgames most are rather new stuff that we can't connect. Here is a bit different, you've got a handful of them. You've got Charlie (the politician - here is the mayor of Arkham) helped by Mandy Thompson, in another part we've got Carolyne Fern, Wendy Adams plus 3 from previous novel by Sidor Andy, Maude & Jake). You also got Rex Murphy the unlucky reporter. This tale is as I said different... With a vast characters we jump from one chapter to the next to one party and that's the first bonus point. You've also got the point view of evil people and neutral ones.

Apart from this the story is good. They are building something in the sewers and find a crystal shard of a bygone era that is affecting them differently. You've got this two parties of "good" then a bunch of witches and the Lamprey (the evil one). They all have their interests and goals. That's the another interesting stuff.

So, what I didn't enjoy? Well, since you've got a vast cast of "named" characters you know that they can't be killed. So, there is a bit of lack of connection with the characters. Then is the Evil presence, that instead of being an evil one is Chaos God I've never heard of... Probably in the RPG or something. Then you've got the ending... IT was over in four of five pages.

Apart from this things it was undoubtly my favourite. There are still extra stories that could come from this characters. Nothing that I can consider woke came to this novel (you know my problem with previous ones) 8/10

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Book Review: Secrets in Scarlet by Anthology

Secrets in Scarlet by James Fadeley
Pages 347

Year 2022

I will start with the review but I have some problems with this books... One interesting part is that
all of these tales set in different cities, from buenos aires, to san francisco, to alaska or in turkey which remind me of eldricht horror. Instead of normal run, fights or escapades against cthulhu or any other of his fellow "siblings" here is more down to earth stuff. Like some hidden cabal or evil people doing stuff to non-evil people. Sincerely? Boring as heck. All tales have something to do with colour Red but there is a lack of connectivity between ourselves and the stories. The previous novels we would get the investigator A or B from the game. Here is just random stuff. Okay you've got a card in that deck? Now lets go tell a tale about it. Others I couldn't even find the link.

The vast majority of tales are just boring... sorry I have no word other word for it. I was really enjoying this tale called In Art, Truth by James Fadeley where we have a female curator in turkey running around trying to find something hidden in art and then ends the tale telling oh it's a important step to gender equality.. what? What about the story you were telling? The last two tales are probably the better ones from this anthology.

The problem with these tales about empowering woman is that they are not showing/telling tales of empowering woman. They are telling me THEY are empowering diminishing everything they write. Tell me a tale of a strong woman and I will decide I enjoy it. Do not tell me I have to enjoy because she is a woman. That's the all debate about Rey & Leia (the true Leia - not the sequels stuff) or even Padme. They are strong female characters. Nobody had to tell .. oh they suffered because they are woman, look here she is battling a man and wining in strength. Look there is persecution and she squatted. No. They tell me a tale and I decide.

Are all of these writers trying to pandering the mobs? Is this a tale of lovecraftian stuff or gender equality, not equality but superiority of the female gender? You think I kid you?

The Man in the Bubble by David Annandale - Female
City of Waking Dreams by Davide Mana - Male
Brother Bound by Jason Fischer - Female
Honor Among Thieves by Carrie Harris - Female
A Forty Grain Weight of Nephrite by Steven Philip Jones - Non-Binary (in the 1920 lol)
Strange Things Done by Lisa Smedman - Male
In Art, Truth by James Fadeley - Female
Crossing Stars by MJ Newman - Female
The Red and the Black by Josh Reynolds - Female

Almost all stories draw to same conclusion, if you want something done? Send a woman. All stories at some point deal with "gender equality" or some commentary on racism or how "men" look at woman. Fucking sake. Grow up. Tell a fucking tale and shut up. If you want to preach go to twitter. You can talk about this important subjects but not sound like a self important prick who wants to "I will tell those white men how evil they are". Honestly I am tempted to stop buying this books...

Then non-binary character. Well, just because I want, I don't understand the all non-binary stuff nowdays and I don't have to. What I have is to respect everyone the same, no matter how those person feel and I do. being from a language where there is no neutral gender "they" to me means either the plural of he or she (ele ou ela respectivavely) To me They will always be "Eles" or "Elas". So having a character identifiy as they is truly confusing experience to read and at times I was utterly confusing as the author was telling they as single person or multiple. How the heck do other people not find this confusing? Oh well BTW, historically a non-binary character in the 1920's? Not going to happen. Stop with revisionism.

Fuck it. I am sick of it. Tell me a fucking lovecraftian horror story. That's what you promised yet none of these stories are truly horrible. They range for mystery to dark fantasy going to occult urban stuff. But horror? No. The truly horror is this constant need to pandering to the woke mob.

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Book Review : Cult of the Spider Queen- S. A. Sidor

Read in May 2022

366  pages published in 2021

Lovecraftian, Arkham Horror

As you figure it out by now I Am reading through all ARkham Horror novels within the Aconyte brand. I've read them all so far with exception of the compilation of novelas.
~Wrath of N'Kai 3 stars
~The Last Ritual 2 Stars
~Litany of Dreams 2 Stars
~Mask of Silver 2 stars
~The Devourer Below 3 Stars
Missing Dark Origins
Coming out soon - Deadly Grimoire

This one was not that good but also it wasn't as bad as the first one the author created. It's has some connecting dots but overall it's fairly different. In this story we follow a group of adventurers who are going to Amazonia all for different reasons. One of them, a reporter, received a package saying that a missing actress was alive in the jungle and so he wants to go to get fame and rescue a celebrity, one to meet the spirit of her dead husband and a group of scientists that want funding for future enterprises. Meanwhile they are being funded by a man who wants gold.

From this initial premises we are thrown into the Amazonia river with all of it's characteristics of a hidden world that it was back in the turn of the century and give it a twist of Lovecraftian horror. There are some interesting stuff going on that keep me invested in the stories but overall it was a bit bland and the ending left me unsatisfied. If you know anything at all about Lovecraftian lore you know who the spider queen is right?

There are some interesting connections to per example about the Facwett and trying to find the lost city of Z.

Overall it's not a bad story. But it's also nothing that feels like a) game b) lovecraftian pastiche. f you remove the references of Arkham & Atlach Nacha and a couple of other references you would get a normal terror novel - and this is my main problem with most of these novels - or they have any cosmic horror.

Book Review: Fall of Cthulhu Omnibus

Year: 2015
Pages: 500
Reading Time: August 2022 (16 days)
Rating: 7 Stars

First of all just so you know this is a compilation of several comics that tell an overachieving story... It started with The Fugue, The Gathering; the Gray Man, GodWar, Apocalpyse and finally Nemesis (the latter tells a different yet connected tale to the other 5).

There is more than one tale here, or plot and there are multiple characters on different stories....The story behind is a war in the Dreamlands or at least the main story is about the war between Cthulhu vs Nodens (sure looks like Poseidon & Zeus?). Nyarlathotep is there in mist as well and Harlot (didn't knew about this one)

At times, it's a character driven story, at times , someone shows the great scope (mainly in Godwar part 4) and how the war has been set in place for thousands of years... Now about the art, I don't enjoy comics to be honest.. I've read of course, I read manga as well but usually I don't enjoy that much of comics but since I was enjoying the tale the art was there... I will not be giving much on that as I am not an expert if it is good or bad. I like the dreamlands parts; I like the depiction of the ancient ones. At times the art didn't felt the same for me (besides the art style chose to differentiate our world vs dreamlands). But this took some time and the artist evolved I would deduce so it can be that

If you have played the games, you may enjoy this feeling ; if you read the stories you know it should end poorly to our main characters.. I think it has that grandiose element of battle.

Recommendation: Is it for you?

Let me ask you two or three things; if you are sick of nowadays "interpretations" and "modernizations" and other stuff people write to feel good about themselves by stealing an idea of cosmic horror for their own gains while at the same time spitting on Lovecraft and Cthulhu Mythos - then yes. This is a good tale.

It has some good story, as I said a bit confusing at times but good overall & some interesting characters - nice to see Portuguese from brazil there (The Grey Man)

Now the caveat is that it's comics...

The Harlot

Book Review: Ire of the Void - Richard Lee Byers

Year: 2018
Pages: 136
Part of Series: Novella 
Reading Time: 3 days
Rating: 3

This is the third Lovecraftian novella published initial in individual format then turn into a paperback novel called Dark Origins.

This tale focus as you can see in the cover - this if you play the game - Norman Withers tale. What we have here is the tale behind the story of Norman. Basically, Norman was a respected Astronomy professor but due to his "discover" of missing stars he become a bit recluse and discredit. With the help of a physician that discover that there places within Arkham that don't behave as they should they will try to uncover if all the stuff is connected.

So, I am not going to spoil anything here but basically this is the first I saw some mechanics from the games into a book. After the initial investigation Norman must arm himself to go find the physician in another world and we are able to see that things that happen in the game - how Norman or any other play has objects that are a bit strange to him... after all we are not seeing Norman, an old guy with a machete or a machine gun and throwing dynamite sticks... Here we see a bit of that and the realm and some strange beasts... DHOLE's...

unto the fourth tale... or is onto?

Book Review: The Dirge of Reason - Graeme Davis

Author:  Graeme Davis
Book: The Dirge of Reason
Year: 2017
Pages: 112
Part of Series: Arkham Horror (novella)
Reading Time: July 2022 (2 days)
Rating: 3 Stars

This is the second novella of a series of 7 or 8 created years ago (back in 2017 I believe). I am reading this in the novel printed by Aconyte (Dark Origins). But I Am reading only one novella per month.

So was this good story? Nah. It's bad. Basically we follow Roland Banks which is a character in the Arkham Horror; Eldritch Horror and Mansion of Madness universe. It's one character that I really enjoy but unfortunately everything that made that character good in the game was absent here.

If you don't know he is a lawman that never bends the true and holds duty above all. I believe the author didn't knew that much about the character. We know that he changed since he came to Arkham but in the novella in the beginning he is reasonable and then go to a loony bin and becomes a complete different person.

The story is nothing too interesting BUT as the previous tale and the ones coming these tales, you know, if you play the games know basically how they will play out. Per example in the last tale you know that Jenny (I believe that was her name) was searching for her sister and not get find it. Here we know that he will change views/actions and so on... but it was too rapid. Oh and the plot was boring...

Book Review: Hour of the Huntress by Dave Gross

Author: Dave Gross
Book: Hour of the Huntress
Year: 2017
Pages: 130
Part of Series: Akham Horror
Reading Time: June 2022 (2 days)
Rating: 8 Stars

This was the first tale on the Dark Origins omnibus edition. While the remaining aconyte novels we've got non game characters as the main characters here is the other way around. The main characters are  playful characters - at least for  Eldritch Horror or Arkham Horror 2 Edition. Can't really talk about Mansion of Madness or 3rd edition arkham horror.

Here we have Jenny Barnes. A hot elitist girl. You know that girl that makes every man look her way? She is that one. When I play the game, those characters all had their own stories and their stories were coherent with 1920/1930 stuff. Of course people nowadays think they must personalities and goals like nowadays people - WHICH IS DUMB.  This is how you know you are a good writer or not. Don't give characteristics to people set a century before.... Some parts were like that - a bit Woke.

The plot deals with Jenny coming from France to Arkham to discover what is happening to her sister. In Arkham she meets and with the help of a couple characters they try to uncover what happened to her. It was cool to see the history of Jenny and the pistols she has in the painting on the arkham horror card.  I believe the original book had some extra cards but since I didn't had arkham horror 3rd edition I didn't buy at that time.

Overall was invested and eager to read the next novellas...

Book Review: Tinfoil Dossier Trilogy - Caitlin R Kiernan

Author: Caitlin R Kiernan
Book: Agents of Dreamland; Black Helicopters; The Tindalos Asset
Year: 2015/2017/2020
Pages: 125 / 202 / 176 
Part of Series: Tinfoil Dossier Trilogy
Reading Time: 7 days (5 & 6 September 2021; 16 to 18 October 2021 and 14 to 15 January 2022)
Rating: 4 & 2 & 1 stars  

Agents of Dreamland

I may say that up front I didn't enjoy it. To weird for me. Discovery we follow the guy was trying to find something, discover, uncover something. Next chapter it's just other person and it's very confusing at times to understand what's happening or who's talking and so on. To be quite honest it didn't felt that felt like a complete novel which it isn't since there are two sequels. Maybe I am at fault but it seem two different writers.. some interesting thoughts on the fungus and the zombie ants and a different type of Cthulhu stories.. I will read the 2 and 3 without a doubt .

Black Helicopters

Well, what we have here it's the second novel in the Tinfoil series.

I've read the first a couple of months ago and I didn't enjoy it. But I know Caitlin is well received as a Lovecraftian horror master but alas, I just couldn't get into it. The book is 200 pages long and it's boring and pointless. First of all, I may be at fault here. Maybe I am not erudite to fully understand the novel but I couldn't. Of course I understood the plot - overall it follows the first but I guess you can read it without having read the first - although it makes zero sense to start at book 2 of a series.

So what is the story and why I didn't enjoy it. - first of all the constant changing of timelines every chapter. This confuse me. Then you've got the plot itself and I couldn't understand anything. You've got spies in Dublin, you've got ships, you've got the black and white queen stuff, you've got the future where the writing was even more incomprehensible (probably just saying that writing from the 1800 it's different from nowadays so probably the future will sound/read differently.

Bear in mind that by the descriptions I hope something more akin Lovecraftian but what I got was some weird stuff- probably Weird Fiction is all about? I didn't felt any kind of horror or fear - nada that I could say it's Lovecraftian. To mention Shoggoths and labelling as Lovecraftian it's like saying that anything has four tires it's a care. It doesn't work like that. It could be a wagon or anything in-between. The only connection is that a car and a wagon has four tires...

Then why the chapter with people speak in French? Damn... Those non-translated sentences... I thought okay they are talking in French and in-between someone will explain what it means... Well, nope.

Sucks to be you - who don't know French haha...

Overall I will read the third one but coming from the 1 and 2 maybe i will be disappointed... I hope not

The Tindalos Asset

Here it is the third instalment on the series.

How is this horror, lovecraftian horor for that matter?

It took Caitlin a couple of years to release this novel and it shows... it's convoluted, confusing timelines and very strange characters. I didn't enjoy at all, even comparing with the previous 2 (and bear in mind all are bad..)

I would love to say something good but I cannot.