Movies

"The Call of Cthulhu" is a silent film made by director Andrew Leman of the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society.The film is shot in high-contrast black-and-white that recalls the best German expressionism.The result is an almost vintage tale of hair-raising mystery full of truly bizarre dreams,murderous Eskimos and bloodthirsty cultists that culminates in the revelation of an unspeakable horror.The orchestral soundtrack is captivating,the special effects are surprisingly well-made and the sets for the sunken city of R'leyh look creepy."The Call of Cthulhu" is easily one of the best adaptations of Lovecraft adaptations I have seen to date.Check it out along with Ivan Zuccon's massively underrated "The Shunned House".10 out of 10.

Wow! This is quite good.This is a silent movie, with dialog cards rather than sound dialog. It has a quite good, atmospheric music soundtrack.If you're a Lovecraft fan this film is a must see. It's not long, less than an hour, after all the original material is a short story, not a novel.The film stays close to Lovecraft's material. Special effects are minimal, but workable. After all, we're talking H.P. Lovecraft Historic Society budget, not Hollywood.All in all, this is a worthwhile little gem.HPLHS is at www.cthulhulives.org.

I am a bit surprised by the terrible reviews Call of Cthulhu has received. While it is not perhaps the best movie ever, or chilling and/or gory like modern horror movies are, that's not the point of the movie. What it is, and it succeeds in, is a very faithful adaptation of the original story, following also its non-linear storytelling and describing events around the globe. The movie is also atmospheric pastiche of the 20s impressionistic silent movies. As such, it is very much worth seeing, of you are interested in how Lovecraft's stories would have been filmed when they first were written, and/or are interested in 20s impressionism in general.