MATTHEW WARNER

If you’re in Roanoke, VA, this weekend, catch Darkstone Entertainment’s premiere of The Lovecraft Chronicles, Vol. 2. I helped director John Johnson write the four short film scripts.

Starring Mariah Johnson and Donnie Sturges, this is the sequel anthology to the volume that came out seven years ago. It’s about the descendants of horror writers hunting down the monsters created by their ancestors, which have been mysteriously brought to life.

The films will show at midnight on Friday and Saturday night at the MystiCon SciFi Horror Fantasy Convention.

Darkstone Entertainment has green lit production on a second volume of The Lovecraft Chronicles, starring Mariah Johnson and Donnie Sturges, its urban fantasy series about the descendants of horror writers battling the creatures of lore.

Director John Johnson and I are now writing four short screenplays to follow the first volume, which came out five years ago. As before, Darkstone will sell it from its website and at conventions. Principal photography will occur this summer, with a goal of releasing the collection at Mysticon 2016.

My wife, Deena, sure has been a huge help with the release of The Seventh Equinox. Check out this point-of-purchase display she made for our local bookstore, Bookworks, in advance of my Dec. 7 signing there.

Point-of-purchase display for THE SEVENTH EQUINOX, made by my awesome wife (and featuring her cover art). The article on the front ran in the Nov. 10, 2013 edition of the News Leader.

On top of that, Deena also made all these freebies for readers to download:

WEBSITE BANNER — Right click and “save as” to download.

DESKTOP ART Download your size: 1024×768 1440×900 1600×1024 1920×1080

The desktop art is based on yet another advertisement that she made. It’s on-screen ad at Zeus Digital Theater in Waynesboro that’s been running before each movie showing for the past month, also promoting the signing I’m doing at Stone Soup this weekend.

All this comes after the work she’s done for my other releases. This includes the cover art and design for Blood Born, No Outlet, Death Sentences, Horror Isn’t a 4-Letter Word, Eulogies I and II, Tales from the Gorezone, the DVD box art for The Lovecraft Chronicles . . . shall I go on?

So let’s hear it for Deena! What do you think I should get her for Christmas? And no tasteless jokes about what I’m “paying” her. . . .

If you’re going to be in Dallas this weekend, head to the Unnamable Blood Bath Film Festival. They’ll be showing two films I co-wrote for The Lovecraft Chronicles from Darkstone Entertainment: Dumas and Leviathan.

The Lovecraft Chronicles: Vol. 1 is finally for sale online! Darkstone Entertainment is self-distributing this limited edition DVD. Contains two short movies I co-wrote, plus a bonus short story booklet that I wrote and autographed. Click here for more info.

If any of you are headed to Monster Mania this weekend, be sure to stop by the Darkstone Entertainment table to buy a copy of The Lovecraft Chronicles, Vol. 1 DVD. It contains three movies, two of which I co-wrote: Dumas and Leviathan. It also comes with a limited-edition booklet of a tie-in short story I wrote, Raven. DVD cover designed by Deena Warner!

Just got back from the Horrorfind Weekend convention in Gettysburg, PA, where I gave a reading of my tie-in short story to Darkstone’s forthcoming Lovecraft Chronicles.  I got a lot of questions about the status of my various projects with Darkstone, so here’s what I know:

• The Lovecraft Chronicles movie trilogy is in post-production.  It should be finished this month in time for Darkstone’s tour of the convention circuit, hopefully beginning with Monster Mania.
• The Good Parts is also in post-production.  I saw a second cut of it last week, and it looks great.  There are just a few details to work out concerning sound effects and end credits, then I think we’ll be good to go.

Stay tuned for more news!

The last few days have been an endurance test of late-night shoots as I helped with Darkstone Entertainment’s production of the next installment of their Lovecraft Chronicles series.  This episode, titled Dumas, is about a Bram Stoker vampire of the same name.  (In the story, Dumas was from an unpublished manuscript, unknown until recently.)  Due to an interdimensional weakness, horrific literary creations are coming to life.  Now it’s up to the far-flung relatives of famous writers — using code names like Lovecraft, Poe, and so on, depending on their affiliation — to restore the natural order.

Dumas and another episode that will be filmed this weekend, Leviathan, will premiere at the Horrorfind Weekend film festival in September.  (The tentacled Leviathan, as you might have guessed, is a previously unknown creation of H.P. Lovecraft.)  It will also be for sale there as a limited edition DVD, with a booklet insert containing a special fourth episode written by me.

Here are a few pictures:

The crusader codenamed Stoker kneels during a magical blood rite that will locate the vampire Dumas.

The crusader codenamed Hitchcock prepares to have his chest ripped open by a vampire. Special effects were provided by Bio Duck FX.

Actress Teale Davies in the course of being buried alive for a vampire-birth scene.

Brian Wimer made for an effective and menacing vampire Dumas.

Overall, it was a great experience, but good God did I sweat a lot — not from nervousness, since the production was in great hands, but from the freakin’ 90-degree weather!  It wouldn’t have been so bad except we spent the first two nights filming in un-airconditioned warehouses.  I’m sure all the sacrifice will be worth it, though.