Scary Monsters and Super Freaks

Birds of Prey (2020): [Cast and Crew]: Fun outing dominated by Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn, the best thing about 2016's misguided Suicide Squad. Having left the Joker and slightly reformed, Quinn ends up battling foul-mouthed Gotham mob boss Black Mask (an ebullient Ewan MacGregor, all f-bombs) for the life of an unfortunate pickpocket. 

Along the way, she teams up with Rosie Perez's jaded Gotham cop Renee Montoya (like Harley, originally created for Batman: The Animated Series), yet another Black Canary, and another Huntress. The Gotham City Police are especially hapless in this film. Batman and Commissioner Gordon appear to be on vacation for the duration. Recommended.

Brightburn (2019): [Cast and Crew]: Enjoyable, violent, terse story of an evil Superboy-type and the perils of parenting a super-powered sociopath. The end credits suggest a shared-universe sequel that would include Rainn Wilson's loopy vigilante from Super, also produced by James 'Guardians of the Galaxy' Gunn (though scripted by James in that case as well, whereas Brightburn was written by two of his brothers). Bring it on! Recommended.

Swamp Thing (1982): [Cast and Crew]: Totally solid B-movie from veteran horror director Tobe Hooper does a pretty faithful job of adapting the early issues of Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson's DC comic book Swamp Thing. 

Way, way better than the jumbled, misguided 10-episode Swamp Thing TV series of 2019. Louis Jordan makes a good villain as a much more urbane Anton Arcane than that in the comic book. Dick Durock is solid in the rubber suit as Swamp Thing. Adrienne Barbeau is fun as a gender-flipped Agent Cable. Would probably have been better if it had been R-rated to allow for more graphic violence, especially in the concluding battle between Swamp Thing and a mutated Arcane. Recommended.

Godzilla vs. Hedorah (aka Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster) (1971): [Cast and Crew]: Trippy late-stage Toho Studios Godzilla, now clearly a kid's series with an environmental message. Godzilla demonstrates a completely ridiculous ability to fly, a necessity when battling the high-flying Smog Monster. Hedorah's land-walking form looks a lot like Cthulhu after a week-long bender. Often intentionally funny, sometimes horrific, and sometimes with musical and animated sequences! Lightly recommended.

The Strange Cases of Rudolph Pearson (2008) by William Jones

The Strange Cases of Rudolph Pearson (2008) by William Jones: A fun bit of retro-tinged Cthulhu Mythos-infused stories that form a cycle. Set in 1920's New York, The Strange Cases of Rudolph Pearson pits the titular Columbia University English literature professor against a series of evils human and otherwise, but mostly otherwise.

The whole thing has a pleasingly pulpy feel, cleanly written and clever at various points. It's the sort of thing I think of as Cthulhu Mythos Comfort Food. It's not daring or revelatory or even all that frightening. But it is entertaining. Jones makes Pearson an engaging character caught up in situations that change the way he looks at the world. And at himself. 

Pearson turns out to possess the Cthulhu Mythos equivalent of magical powers. This comes in pretty handy as Jones' addition to the Cthulhu Mythos, a hideous devouring being from outside our universe, may be about to break through in New York thanks to the machinations of a Blue Blood New York millionaire.

Jones throws in a stereotypical Irish cop as an ally for Pearson, along with a plucky female archaeologist. The novel makes some clever tweaks to Lovecraft's ghouls and to more traditional monsters, including mummies and ghosts. There's nothing here to make your brain hurt or to set the cosmic senses tingling -- and sometimes that's just fine. Recommended.

The Arcanum (2005) by Thomas Wheeler

The Arcanum (2005) by Thomas Wheeler: If there were an award for worst fictional depiction of H.P. Lovecraft, this novel would certainly finish in the Top 5. 

At least. 

Screenwriter Thomas Wheeler tries for a sort of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, only with real people and not fictional characters. This team is The Arcanum of the title and in this novel consists of H.P. Lovecraft, Harry Houdini, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Louisiana Voudon 'Queen' Marie Laveau.

Set in 1920's New York, The Arcanum pits our rag-tag group of ghost-busters against a sinister plot that's actually a large-scale version of a standalone, supernatural-themed episode of The X-Files. Many references appear to earlier adventures of The Arcanum, now deprived of its creator as his murder by telepathy starts the events of the novel in motion. 

Wheeler depicts Lovecraft as a slightly less cowardly, more magicky version of Ichabod Crane in Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow. Houdini is a bland cipher. It's hard to make Houdini boring, but Wheeler does it. Conan Doyle gets the most prominent role as the de facto leader of The Arcanum. He may be in his early 60's, but Doyle is totally buckling those swashes against the forces of Evil.

It really doesn't help matters that Wheeler wedges Lovecraft's Great Old Ones into a fairly standard Christian narrative in which the Devil, angels, and Nephilim all appear. Aleister Crowley shows up as a lazily written Crowley, twirling his mustache and leering. OK, he doesn't have a mustache. But he is a one-dimensional jerk.

Perhaps the most unintentionally funny moment comes when Lovecraft wields one of the Eltdown Shards. The shards were created by Richard Searight and used by HPL in his portion of the group-story "The Challenge from Beyond." However, Wheeler, who does not seem to do research all that much, re-imagines the Shards as the fossilized arm of some creature, enhanced by what is basically an Iron Man glove to tap their power. And here I thought they were tablets!

There are probably thousands of better stories featuring HPL, Houdini, and Doyle as characters. Hell, you can just read the story HPL ghost-wrote for Houdini, "Imprisoned with the Pharaohs," aka "Under the Pyramids." You can read about a fictional team-up of Houdini and Conan Doyle in William Hjortsberg's excellent 1996 novel Nevermore. Or you can read The Arcanum and laugh and laugh... Not recommended.