Horror is a genre that lends itself to the short story form particularly well. Every genre writer worth his/her salt has published at least one compendium of short fiction. The inherent brevity of the medium allows the writer to perhaps take risks they normally wouldn’t dare to or to take flights of imagination they would rein in for a longer work. Many short stories are filled with much wilder and more bizarre stuff than full-length novels from the same writer. Take Stephen King for example with his short stories about (amongst many other things) a rain of carnivorous toads, a finger that bafflingly and persistently pokes through a sink’s drain, a pair of sentient novelty chattery teeth with a taste for flesh. Crazy stuff that clearly hasn’t got what it takes to become a novel but nonetheless material that is perfect for the short story.

Short films share many of the same traits, again particularly in the horror genre. It is just a shame that the average viewer doesn’t really get the opportunity to see many true short films. Of course there are plenty of those portmanteau anthology movies like Creepshow or Tales From the Darkside etc but the stories in these are more the equivalent of the novella, somewhere between the short and the feature. A real short film is typically no longer than about ten minutes but often closer to four or five.

As a vehicle for a collection of true short films then, LoveCracked! The Movie is a welcome treat. The fact that it is a completely independent production only makes it more exciting. Often independent filmmakers at the start of their careers are at the height of their creativity, imagination and enthusiasm if perhaps not their technical skill.

  All the shorts in LoveCracked! Are based in some way around the works of H.P Lovecraft though anybody worried about the high rubbish percentage in Lovecraft adaptations need not fear as very few of these films are straight adaptations of Lovecraft’s work. They actually have more of a sort of ‘inspired by’ or ‘based on the ideas of’ kind of vibe and this works quite nicely around the central running story thread of a hapless reporter trying to find out the truth behind Lovecraft and his work. These segments, starring the film’s producer and creator Elias, are extremely goofy and played very much for laughs. Though they are not often all that funny they do set up a chaotic, anything goes mood for the film which prepares the viewer well for the wildly varying tones of the various different films. It’s gaudy, brash and nonsensical but it’s got energy, enthusiasm and vitality.

The actual quality of the individual films is pretty high with a couple of real stand-outs in ‘Chaos of Flesh’ and ‘Bugboy’. Both of these films, which are by the same director, Tomas Almgren have a similar look and feel (black and white with no dialogue and a classical soundtrack) and really capture a feel of utterly alien dread. They display some nice effects work too, especially on Bugboy. The Statement of
Randolph Carver is also a highlight and makes great use of atmosphere andsound to convey that special Lovecraft feeling. There are also a couple of animations thrown in with Remain and And This Was a Good Day the formerof which is a serious delve into horror and madness while the latter is a technicolour piece of musical silliness. There are also a couple of films whose link to Lovecraft is pretty tenuous but whose high quality easily justify their place here, Alecto and Witch’s Spring, both films which have been reviewed previously on this site as individual works incidentally (check out the Shorts section for more). The only real dud is the slack and unfocussed History of the
Lurkers which stretches a slim concept way beyond breaking point. This only leaves the final film of Lovecracked!, a frankly insane little piece of blatant pornography called the Re-Penetrator which basically involves a mad scientist getting nasty (real nasty!) with a busty naked re-animated porn corpse. Although softcore it’s still pretty strong stuff for a horror movie and really has no place here at all though it does fit the generally mad chaos of the film as a whole.

All in all then, a very mixed bag in a semi-Troma vein. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t and sometimes it really doesn’t but it is still impossible not to recommend this film. It’s a great showcase of new director’s work and it’s a wonderfully surreal piece as a whole. Oh, and Chaos of Flesh and Bugboy are really really good.

7/10

Review By Matt Compton