Panel: Sex and Cthulhu!
Lovecraft seemed loathe to write about sexual acts in his fiction, but sex and miscegenation are a foundational part of his mythos. From the twisted, mind-swapped sex implied in his "Thing on the Doorstep" to the breeding of Innsmouth folk with undersea creatures, the Cthulhu Mythos is rife with doin' the dirty, even if it's offscreen! A discussion that would shiver Lovecraft's timbers, but it's no mistake that his cosmic horror relies on the "act".
Screenwriter of 2023's Suitable Flesh, directed by Joe Lynch and based on H. P. Lovecraft's "The Thing on The Doorstep", Dennis Paoli achieved his greatest enduring cult popularity by penning the wickedly witty scripts for two superior 80s H.P. Lovecraft adaptations directed by noted horror genre icon Stuart Gordon: the terrific Re-Animator and its equally excellent follow-up From Beyond. Paoli and Gordon first crossed paths working for the experimental Organic Theater in Chicago. Besides those two films, Paoli has also written The Pit and the Pendulum, Castle Freak, Dagon and the Masters of Horror episodes "H.P. Lovecraft's Dreams in the Witch-House" and "The Black Cat" for Gordon. Paoli has done several screenplays for prolific low-budget movie producer Charles Band: a segment of the horror anthology Pulse Pounders, Spellcaster, Meridian, and Ghoulies II. He collaborated with Larry Cohen and Nicholas St. John on the script for Abel Ferrara's supremely creepy and underrated sci-fi/horror winner Body Snatchers. In addition to those credits, Paoli wrote the gruesome The Dentist for Brian Yuzna. Outside of writing screenplays, Dennis Paoli has a regular day job as a Writing Instructor and Coordinator of the Hunter College Writing Center at Hunter College in New York. He's especially knowledgeable on Irish literature and has taught a course on Gothic fiction.
Cody Goodfellow has written nine novels and five collections of short stories, and edits the hyperpulp zine Forbidden Futures, and has won three Wonderland Book Awards. His comics work has been featured in Mystery Meat, Creepy, Slow Death Zero and Skin Crawl. As an actor, he has appeared in numerous short films, TV shows, music videos by Anthrax and Beck, and a Days Inn commercial. He wrote, co-produced and scored the Lovecraftian hygiene films Baby Got Bass and Stay At Home Dad, which can be viewed on YouTube.
Joseph Scrimshaw is a filmmaker, writer, and comedian based in Los Angeles. His film, "The Narrator," starring Phil LaMarr won the Silver Award for Best Experimental short at the Portland Festival of Cinema, Animation & Technology. He’s delighted to be back at the H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival after showing his 2022 film, "Unboxing The Cosmos," and multiple appearances with Tim Uren as the comedy cultists, Chuck & Dexter. Joseph’s also written for television and radio, performed across the country as an actor and stand-up, and did a commercial with the monkey from Friends. A true highlight of a varied career.