Joe Morgenstern, in his movie review of Ghostbusters (2016) in the Wall Street Journal, concludes his assessment with this line: “Busting ghosts used to be a lot more fun.” I found this remake of Ghostbusters mildly entertaining. Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones (all Saturday Night Live cast members) combine forces to fight para-normal creatures. Chris Hemsworth (The Mighty Thor!) plays their hunky, dumb blonde secretary. The flaws in the movie are caused by a weak script with too many “slow spots.” And way too much “action” with the proton packs. The women fire their weapons so often it just gets tedious. But, on the plus side, the cast is good and there are some funny lines (though not enough of them) to keep the audience semi-satisfied. GRADE: B-

In addition to 30 years of Doonsbury comics featuring Donald Trump, Trudeau also includes a handy treasury of Trump insults! Yes, you too can use 500 words from Trump’s tweets to berate others! Trudeau has captured the essence of Trump in these comic strips. In fact, like Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin impressions on Saturday Night Live, Trudeau uses the actual words of the person he’s mocking. And the subjects are actual: Trump University, Birther-controversy, Marla Maples, Trump as a middle-school bully, Trump’s bromance with Chris Christie, and much more! If you’re looking for something to laugh at this week of all weeks, Yuge! could be the answer to your humor needs. GRADE: A

Just as Matt Ruff’s Lovecraft County, the book that kicked off H. P. Lovecraft Week here, tells the stories of African-Americans drawn into the Lovecraft Universe, Victor LaValle’s The Ballad of Black Tom features an African-American hustler who finds himself looking at Cthulhu. The lead character starts out the story as Tommy Tester, a resident of Harlem in 1924. But a tragic event transforms Tommy Tester into Black Tom, a man with fabulous powers. The Ballad of Black Tom is one of TOR Books’s “novella” series of paperbacks. It weighs in at 150 pages. But the story it tells is a powerful one. I hope Victor LaValle is working on more tales of Black Tom. GRADE: B+

You know you want this!

The contemporary writer who has embraced the Cthulhu Mythos most ardently is Brian Lumley. He has written dozens of stories with Lovecraftian themes. The House of Cthulhu features wizards and spells and books of forbidden knowledge: all the trappings Lovecraft loved to play with in his stories. Lumley’s stories are like potato chips: you can’t just stop with one. Cthulhu shows up in several of these stories to wreck destruction on those foolish enough to summon him. If you like classic story-telling with magic and menace, you’ll enjoy The House of Cthulfu.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction 11
How Kank Thad Returned to Bhur-Esh 33
The Sorcerer’s Book 57
The House of Cthulhu 87
Tharquest and the Lamia Orbiquita 104
To Kill a Wizard 124
Cryptically Yours 142
Mylakhrion the Immortal 162
Lords of the Morass 173
The Wine of the Wizard 219
The Sorcerere’s Dream 248

The Nightmare Stacks is the seventh novel in Charles Stross’s Laundry series. The Laundry is a super secret British Intelligence agency who focuses on Lovecraftian threats to our world. You don’t have to read the previous books in the Laundry series to enjoy The Nightmare Stacks. Our hero is a mathematician named Alex Schwartz. Alex had the bad luck of invoking higher level math that opened a dimension so V-symbiots infected him. The result: Alex is now a vampire. But, that’s okay. The Laundry has uses for vampires, werewolves, and other strange creatures.

The existential threat in The Nightmare Stacks revolves around an invasion of Leeds by an extra-dimensional army armed with basilisks and dragons. The Laundry’s assets are spread thin in Leeds so Alex is called upon to engage the enemy forces. If you’re a fan of the Laundry series, you’re going to enjoy this latest romp. If you’re looking for some fun Summer reading, The Nightmare Stacks would make a great Beach Book! GRADE: B+

The New Mammoth Book of Cthulhu presents 476 pages of Lovecraft-inspired stories to a growing audience. Not a month goes by now without a new Lovecraft-themed anthology being published. Paula Guran’s latest tome from Running Press features stories by writers who base their stories on the Cthulhu Mythos. My favorite story in this anthology is Laird Barron’s “The Clutch” where Dark Magic follows a man for years. Caitlin R. Kiernan’s “The Peddler’s Tale, or, Isobel’s Revenge” revolves around promises made and promises kept across centuries. I’m also fond of John Shirley’s “Just Beyond the Trailer Park” which updates Lovecraft’s classic “From Beyond.” For a modern twist on Lovecraft, there’s “The Future Eats Everything” by Don Webb with its alien bugs from the future. If you’re looking for a contemporary anthology with a variety of Lovecraftean stories, Paula Guran’s The New Mammoth Book of Cthulhu might be just what you’re looking for. GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction: Who, What, When, Where, Why…
“In Syllables of Elder Seas” by Lisa L. Hannett
“The Peddler’s Tale, or, Isobel’s Revenge” by Caitlín R. Kiernan
“It’s All the Same Road in the End” by Brian Hodge
“Caro in Carno” by Helen Marshall
“The Cthulhu Navy Wife” by Sandra McDonald
“Those Who Watch” by Ruthanna Emrys
“A Clutch” by Laird Barron
“Just Beyond the Trailer Park” by John Shirley
“The Sea Inside” by Amanda Downum
“Outside the House, Watching for the Crows” by John Langan
“Alexandra Lost” by Simon Strantzas
“Falcon-and-Sparrows” by Yoon Ha Lee
“A Shadow of Thine Own Design” by W. H. Pugmire
“Backbite” by Norman Partridge
“In the Ruins of Mohenjo-Daro” by Usman T. Malik
“Legacy of Salt” by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
“I Do Not Count the Hours” by Michael Wehunt
“An Open Letter to Mister Edgar Allan Poe, from a Fervent Admirer” by Michael Shea
“I Dress My Lover in Yellow” by A. C. Wise
“Deep Eden” by Richard Gavin
“The Future Eats Everything” by Don Webb
“I Believe That We Will Win” by Nadia Bulkin
“In the Sacred Cave” by Lois H. Gresh
“Umbilicus” by Damien Angelica Walters
“Variations on Lovecraftian Themes” by Veronica Schanoes

A Cabin in the Woods is another Joss Whedon movie so you know things are going to be exciting and strange. A group of college kids travel in an old RV to a cabin in the woods to spend a weekend having fun. But fun becomes extinct when a family of zombies attack the group. This seems like another teen-ager horror movie but Joss Whedon has other ideas. What if the sleeping Ancient Ones need a yearly ritual to stay asleep (and not wake up to destroy the world)? Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Jesse Williams, and Fran Kranz battle the forces of darkness. Lovecraftean themes and creatures make A Cabin in the Woods my choice for H. P. Lovecraft Movie of the Week! GRADE: B+

Welcome to H. P. Lovecraft Week here on this blog! There are dozens of Lovecraft-inspired novels and short story collections being published each year. I thought I would feature some of the best Lovecraft material for your enlightenment and pleasure. Who can pass up alien soul-sucking entities, eldritch spells, and lurking doom? What better material to read during the run-up to the Republican Convention?

Although marketed as a novel, Lovecraft Country is really a series of interrelated stories with an ensemble cast of characters. Most of the characters are African-Americans. The stories are set in 1954. The United States in that period had a high degree of racism. One of the characters, George, operates a travel agency and publishes The Safe Negro Travel Guide that identifies areas to stay away from, and hotels and motels where African-Americans would be welcomed. The Lovecraft elements center around a rare book called The Book of Names that’s written in “the language of Adam.” Whoever masters the book is able to wield immense power. Atticus is an Army veteran who travels from Florida to Chicago because his father asks for his help. Atticus discovers his father, Montrose, is being held by a coven in Massachusetts. That adventure set off a series of mysterious events where cataclysmic threats hover over our world. My favorite characters are sisters: Ruby and Letitia. Both women encounter weirdness on a cosmic scale. I enjoyed this off-beat approach to Lovecraft’s Universe and hope that Matt Ruff writes more stories about the complex characters he’s created. GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Lovecraft Country
Dreams of the Which House
Abdullah’s Book
Hippolyta Disturbs the Universe
Jekyll in Hyde Park
The Narrow House
Horace and the Devil Doll
The Mark of Cain
Epilogue
Acknowledgements

In the aftermath of the disasterous BREXIT vote, a movie like Our Kind of Traitor (based on the John Le Carre novel of the same name) gathers more impact. Ewan McGregor (a college professor) and his beautiful wife (Naomie Harris), on a holiday in Marrakesh, meet a boisterous Russian (Stellan Skarsgard) named Dema. Dema takes Ewan’s character aside and tells him he’s the chief money launderer for the Russian Mafia. But, he wants to leave. Dema gives Ewan a memory stick filled with secret financial information. Ewan gives the memory stick to MI6 when he arrives in London. But, the story doesn’t end there. Dema won’t give the really juicy financial information up until MI6 provides sanctuary for his family. Ewan and Harris find themselves involved in the negotiations and the movie’s action scenes. I really liked Damian Lewis as the MI6 operative who wants to damage the Russian Mafia and keep their dirty bank out of England. I also liked Jeremy Northam as the traitor who is willing to sell his country’s financial system to the Russians. But the star of Our Kind of Traitor is Stellan Skarsgard, Skarsgard’s energy powers this impressive film.

Before the BREXIT vote, John Le Carre and a number of British writers signed a petition predicting that a post-BREXIT Britain, separated from the European Union, would be reduced to “an outsider shouting from the wings” on the world stage. Our Kind of Traitor shows why Le Carre feels that way. GRADE: A