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The 18th annual H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival and CthulhuCon will be held on all three screens of Portland's Hollywood Theatre the weekend of May 3-5, and we have the details for you Pacific Northwesterners right here.

Featuring independent short films, indie and classic feature films, author readings, panel discussions, an art show, special live events, and shopping in the Mall of Cthulhu, it's the biggest and longest-running gathering of Lovecraft fans in the world. This year's feature films include:

- Clive Barker's Nightbreed: The Cabal Cut with a special Q&A with restoration director Russell Cherrington

- Prince of Darkness (35mm) with video intro by John Carpenter

- Beyond Re-Animator (35mm) with special Q&A with director Brian Yuzna

- Solomon Kane (35mm)

- La Herencia Valdemar and La Sombra Prohibida (Spanish with subtitles)

- Dunderland (Norwegian with subtitles)

The guest line-up includes: Sandy Petersen (creator of the Call...

We're always on the lookout for cool sounding events to share, and today we got word on a new film festival starting up this June in Madrid: Nocturna International Fantastic Film Festival, which will be one of the biggest events related to fantasy, horror, and science fiction cinema in Spain.

From the Press Release:

Since the closure of the Festival of Imaginarium and Science Fiction Cinema in 1993 (Imagfic), Madrid has been lacking an international film festival focused on the 'fantastic' genre. Being aware of this fact, José Luis Alemán (director of The Valdemar Legacy), Sergio Molina (Paul Naschy's son), and Luis M. Rosales (President/CEO of Scifiworld Entertainment) decided to change that and give Madrid the international film festival that this big European capital deserves.

Since their first meeting in 2010, this trio of fantasy film lovers have made the necessary contacts, and now (with Aleman and Molina as the...

There is a particular subgenre of kitschy horror film that comes out of countries like Spain and Italy. Usually something to do with some dark legend, a dark devil, and a group of hot young people who get caught up in the madness. Spanish director José Luis Alemán continues with his Valdemar series in La Sombra Prohibida, based on H.P. Lovecraft’s work. With a brief introduction of the story from the first film (a rich man, Valdemar, finds a book that allows him to resurrect a devil with the promise of everlasting life, but it takes his wife as payment,) the story picks up with a group of young people who have various interests in Valdemar’s property and fortune. Add in a crazy yet gentle man at the mercy of the cult, a strange gypsy in the woods and horror legend Paul Naschy (in his last live-action role...

H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos seems so perfect for film adaptation, but it's consistently been either ignored, or completely botched. From awkward adaptations like Dagon to serving as the inspirations for Mike Mignola's elder gods in Hellboy, we've never really seen the stories and creatures put to film.

Guillermo Del Toro is supposedly at work on a cinematic adaptation of At The Mountains Of Madness, one of Lovecraft's most chilling and bizarre works (and that's saying something), but in the interim, we have the Spanish film Inheritance Valdemar II: The Shadow Prohibited (La Herencia Valdemar II: La Sombra Prohibida) to keep us busy. It comes out at the end of this month in Spain, and will make its way to Us shores later this year.Here's the synopsis, courtesy of Bloody Disgusting:

Luisa Llorente, a farm appraiser had the formidable task of going to evaluate the home of Lazarus Valdemar,...

José Luis Alemán's sequel to his own Spanish horror flick La herencia Valdemar, Inheritance Valdemar II: The Shadow Prohibited (or La Herencia Valdemar II: La Sombra Prohibida for you purists), will be opening in Spanish cinemas on January 28th; and we've got the trailer and more for you.

No word on the original film hitting the States just yet, but it's said to be arriving here sometime in 2011. In the interim dig on the goods for the sequel, including an incredible one-sheet, below courtesy of Abando Moviez.

Synopsis

4 days ago: Luisa Llorente, a farm appraiser, had the formidable task of going to evaluate the home of Lazarus Valdemar, but she's not been heard from. Two expeditions go out in search of her: first is Nicholas Tramel, a detective hired by Maximilian Colvin, head of Inmoverance, the company Luisa works for, and the other comprised of coworkers Ana and Eduardo,...

This morning the Spanish site Aullidos got a slew of imagery from Jose Luis Aleman’s La Herencia de Valdemar (The Valdemar Inheritance). Never heard of it? Neither had we until today!

The story starts when Luisa Llorente, an expert in building appraisal, disappears shortly after moving to the mysterious Victorian mansion owned by the Valdemar family. The owner of Luisa’s company hires someone to find the appraiser, but soon they find out that he was not the only disappearance...

Apparently the story has some history in the writings of H.P. Lovecraft, but I couldn’t find out if it was inspired by the man or based on an actual story. No matter the case, Spanish legend Paul Naschy stars in it, so that’s good enough for me!

Head over to Aullidos to see all the pics from La Herencia de Valdemar!

- Johnny Butane

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