Kickstarting Cthulhu the Conquerer!

by Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

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When two great minds think alike, an older creation from H.P. Lovecraft’s world will arise. Cthulhu is a creation that’s getting a Conan the Barbarian style resurrection by creators Myke Allen and Steven Saunders in a crowd funding campaign. These two informally met at a local festival (introduced to each other by their mutual partners) and they hit it off quite well because of their common interests in fantastic literature. Saunders was editing for an e-magazine called The Uninvited at the time and needed an artist for a few stories. Allen was quick on the draw and from then on, they both realized they enjoyed working together.

“Steve’s interest is in dark noir and I was used to drawing superheros. It was a fun transition for me to build darker scenes, to develop harrowing stories. Steve sent me to the Whitechapel message board where I came up with the concept [of Cthulhu the Conqueror],” said Allen.

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A Look at Sandman and the Lost Sand of Dreams. A DVD Review

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

910gsOx1UrL._SY445_I’ve always been fascinated with discovering what dreams are made of and there’s plenty of library material to look at for self-study or to be entertained by. On this special list is the stop motion animated epic, Sandman and the Lost Sand of Dreams (Das Sandmännchen: Abenteuer im Traumland).

It’s a wonderful film because of the positive messages it imparts to younger audiences and for myself, the world it presents is comparable to other dream tales I enjoyed prior. The fantastic that’s evoked in H.P. Lovecraft‘s haunting world of the Dreamlands, the endlessness of the beauty found in Robin WilliamsWhat Dreams May Come and the innocence of youth that Nemo represented in his Adventures In Slumberland are recalled in this German-made film originally released in 2010. Shout! Factory Kids released this English dubbed piece last month and my order did not arrive till recently for me to watch. There’s no bonus material with this release.

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Revealing More than One of The Last Witch Hunter’s RPG Roots, a Review

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

The_Last_Witch_Hunter_posterIf Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) can include centuries spanning narratives that leads to modern-day, then The Last Witch Hunter is an ideal way to introduce the concept. Vin Diesel plays Kaulder, a role-playing character turned into a cinematic one, out to destroy all witches. This ranger-class warrior hunts them down because he believes most of them are inherently evil. In the film, they were once led by a queen bent on destroying all of humanity. When she was defeated long ago, she cursed Kaulder to eternal life and he’s fated to roam the earth like a Wandering Jew.

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[Victoria Fringe Festival ’15] Adapting Neil Gaiman’s Fortunately, the Milk to Stage, A Review

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

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LOCATION:
The Roxy Theatre
2657 Quadra Street
Victoria, BC

SHOWTIMES:
September 1 | 6:00 pm
September 4 | 9:30 pm
September 5 | 8:30 pm
September 6 | 7:15 pm

DURATION: 60 minutes

Anyone familiar with Neil Gaiman‘s Fortunately, the Milk will find Windwhistle Theatre’s adaptation for the Fringe festival circuit captivating. Marion Jeffery is excellent giving life to the spoken word, and she commands the stage. When considering her background includes working at Birmingham Children’s Theatre in Birmingham, Alabama, and performing at The Kennedy Center, no one should be surprised. Both adults and children will be enthralled in how vividly well she can recall the text.

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Miss Peregrine Blackpool Location Shots

By James Robert Shaw (The Wind up Geek)

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Tim Burton is currently on location in Blackpool, England for the filming of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiars, slated for release in March of next year.

The movie is based upon the novel Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by American author Ransom Riggs. The story follows the exploits of 16-year-old Jacob Portman. After his grandfather is murdered by what Jacob believes was a make-believe creature, the lad travels to Wales to discover his heritage, which happens to lay at the ruins of an orphanage for Peculiar Children. Jacob soon learns that the children in the school were far from peculiar, they were endowed with powers.

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[Victoria Film Festival ’15] Examining the Folklore behind Song of the Sea

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

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11am Feb 9
The Vic Theatre
Victoria, BC

3pm Feb 14
Star Cinema
Sidney, BC

With only a trailer to go by, this animation by the production house Cartoon Saloon, who produced Secret of Kells, will go far. It’s a guaranteed winner for its cultural aesthetic and expansion of a traditional mythic tradition about the Selkie, supernatural creatures found in Irish and Scottish folklore. They can transform from seal to human and vice versa. These beings are well-known to those living in the Orkney Islands, and their proliferation into Celtic popular culture can be found in many a piece of literature or found featured in a play.

On an island located west of Canada, there’s some Scottish tradition to be found. Some audiences may have been introduced to the lore about the Selkie during last year’s Victoria Fringe Festival by Voice Box Theatre Company’s low-budget Cirque du Soleil style performance, “Selkie Tales.” To have a follow-up of sorts as part of this year’s Victoria Film Festival’s Family Day Program is a blessing of the faeries.

To understand what these supernatural sea-faring folk are about means delving into what little documentation there is. In the surviving folklore, there is no agreement as to how often the selkie-folk were able to carry out the transformation. Some tales say it was once a year, usually Midsummer’s Eve, while others state it could be “every ninth night” or “every seventh stream.” (1)

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