Call of Cthulhu

Yesterday I picked up a few movies from work. You're asking yourselves, "What else is new, James?" But I picked up a film I've had on the side for the last year. A black & white silent film version of what many people thought was a story that would never translate to the silver screen. Based on one of H.P. Lovecraft's stories involving one of the Old Ones, Call of Cthulhu somehow gets the adaptation right. Who would've thought a silent film made in 2005 would be the way to do it?

It's a mere 47 minutes, which in today's Hollywood doesn't equal a marketable feature length film, but thanks to the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, or the HPLHS for short, who help produce film versions of the not so normal and radio plays of other Lovecraft stories, this story which started a whole subculture of stories and which is still translated to screen in various ways (Hellboy to give you an example of Cthulhu on the big screen) is given life in a whole new way.

Produced to look as if it would be a film H.P. Lovecraft would have watched at the time of writing the story, it never looks to be trying too hard to convey that feeling. It is just a great story told in a different way, which a lot of the thanks has to go to Andrew Leman and Sean Branney, the director and writer for this film. They had the heavy handed task to take a story which in some ways is more about the feel of fear and death and make it appear on the big screen in a german expressionist way. The props, the title cards, the retro special effects, the silent acting (which I don't care what anyone says, watching a good silent film actor means forgetting you're not hearing the words but just seeing them mouth them but not even realizing it), everything works. One of the most important things within a silent film is also the score. Chad Fifer, Ben Holbrook, Troy Sterling Nies and Nicholas Pavkovic do an amazing job and are all names everyone should be looking out for in the composing world.

I really can't say anymore besides everyone who either loves Lovecraft, prefers a story driven horror film and/or wishes the talkies had never come about should check out this film. And go to http://www.cthulhulives.org and check out the other films, radio plays and buy some stuff from them. Keep these films funded, because the majority of the production budget is paid for by the fans themselves buying the cool t-shirts and props that they painstakingly reproduced for nerds like myself. Besides Stuart Gordon (and one day Guillermo Del Toro), H.P. Lovecraft has been given the love he deserves in the independent field, so let's keep the good fight going.

Miskatonic University forever!