Fancy Dress Outfit – From Cthulhu To Satan
- arthurpeterchappell
- Feb 27
- 4 min read
I had an opportunity recently to dress in my Satan claws and mask for the first time since about 2018. The Costume has quite a complicated history. It was created on my behalf by drinking buddy, Tom Clarke, for a Halloween party night at Satan’s Hollow, in Manchester. The costume was inspired by my short story, Blind Date, about a Lovecraftian entity called J Alfred Cthulhu, using a computer dating agency to find himself a romantic date.
Originally, the big claw actually opened and closed, operated by a litter picker buried in the heavy latex, but the mechanism was quite fragile and soon got damaged enough to freeze up.
From his first appearance, J Alfred went on to appear at various science fiction masquerades and Comicons. He won Best Newcomer award at the Torcon 3 Worldcon convention in Toronto, Canada, gaining a rosette from chief judge Sir Terry Pratchett.
The costume’s last public apppearance as a Cthulhu chaos demon was at Preston’s Comicon, and I still wore him immediately after that for a trip to the then Ham & Jam Cafe.
Around that time I also joined Preston Movie Makers, a group for local movie makers. Though I didn’t film anything myself I had written several short films, often adaptations from my stories and poems. I gave some them to Roy Logsdon, who ran the PMM, and the film of Poor Soul was singled out for filming. I played Satan, and provided some props, like the crisps and the skull seen as part of my victim’s ritualistic materials for my summonsing.
Co-performer Sonny Toissant was great to work with, often improvising his way round the basic script. His opening chants and the closing anguished scream he emits are stunning. His character has a tragic fate. He hasn’t done anything evil. He’s just a man afraid of dying, trying a final desperate gambit to spare himself the end awaiting all of us. Unfortunately, he summons a demon without pity or sympathy.
There were about eight cameras trained on us during the shoot, at a church hall the PMM used for meetings and as a storehouse for their camera equipment. We filmed over multiple takes and director Roy Logsdon edited the final cut very well indeed. Until the Vinyl Tap appearance, this was Cthulhu/Satan’s
Sadly, The PMM lease on the hall expired soon after thie shoot and I thought that was that, but Roy also had links to the similarly run Burnley Movie Makers and, looking at the scripts I had, he decided to get the group there to film my only other film script to get made to date, Watching Paint Dry, about a film maker holding an audience hostage to force them to watch his work.
Poor Soul https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mPtHTVwq6A
Watching Paint Dry https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mPtHTVwq6A
Short Story – Blind Date
She came alone. Waiters guided her to the darkened alcove I had selected, out of sight of other diners, though I saw them, despite the gloom.
Sara was pretty by mortal standards. I quoted my letter to prove that I was indeed J. Alfred Cthulhu, her date from the Love-Craft Dating Agency.
She held my hand. Just in time I retracted my extra fingers. She took my writhing flesh for nervousness and assured me that I had nothing to fear from her. I moved my chair back so she could not touch my face. I spoke trying not to hiss or lisp.
"You list Madness among your hobbies on your character profile. That is why we are deemed so compatible."
She blathered on about Suggs and a House Of Fun. I discovered with horror that her 'Madness' were musicians.
I almost induced her briefly with the gift of sight, to be removed the instant she saw me, leaving that the only true visual image in her head. Instead I left quietly, having settled the bill. I was stared at by a priest near the exit, who peered through the shrouds I cloaked myself in. Seeing that he ate squid. I resurrected it (both what was on his plate and already swallowed) and left to the sound of his screams as fellow diners rushed too late to his aid.
I stepped into the night, and beyond I will ask the Love-Craft people to arrange another blind date very soon.
Arthur Chappell
Poem – Poor Soul
Nice pentangle. Sorry I destroyed it.
I always smash things up a little bit
Arriving as I do through concrete floors.
It would be wiser to summon me outdoors.
So why am I here? Why would you tempt fate?
Are you degenerate or desperate?
You have some great need or so it would seem.
Raising Beelzebub is dammed extreme.
What do you want? To what do you aspire?
Why do you risk my everlasting Hellfire?
Lust for revenge through cowardly malice?
Or wealth beyond your dreams of avarice?
The love of a woman who turned you down?
Or fame and good fortune and World renown?
You want to live for all eternity!
You want me to grant you immortality!
Don’t make me bleedin’ laugh. You can’t survive.
If nobody died I could never contrive
Ways to torment them. I’m sorry the price
Of bringing me here is your sacrifice.
I’m sorry your dream ends in frustration.
What would you like before your damnation?
You raised me so you should be rewarded.
Most don’t know how. You should be applauded.
But you should seek something less ambitious
Like these prawn cocktail crisps. They’re delicious.
Rest assured you are not the first to blunder
Into selling his soul for Golden Wonder.
Arthur 666 Chappell
On 26th February 2026, a revised Poor Soul was included in a short film screening event at Preston’s Vinyl Tap pub, so I grabbed the opportunity for a live appearance in the latex too. Hopefully it won’t be the last for J Alfred, aka, Lord Satan.
Thank you to Roy Logsdon, and the members of both Preston & Burnley Movie makers, the various folk of several conventions, Ellen Fincher for organising the Preston screening in 26, and Sean Keefe & the staff / patrons of Vinyl Tap.
If you like my writings and you would like to see more, you can help fund my activity with a modest donation or two to my new Buymeacoffee Donations Page https://buymeacoffee.com/arthurchappell?new=1
Arthur Chappell
Comments