The Call of Cthulhu (2005)

With having seen the film mentioned on IMDbs Horror board a number of time,I decided the it was time that I finally took a look at the movie. Disappointingly finding the DVD of the title to be deleted,I was happy to discover that the flick had recently been put online,which led to me preparing to at last hear the sound of Cthulhu.The plot:Gathering up his late uncles belongings as he takes care of his estate,a man finds a large box locked shut.Breaking the box open,the nephew finds disturbing newspaper clippings that his uncle has left behind.Decades earlier:Uncovering details of an occult praying for a strange creature called the Cthulhu to rise from the dead,the man/uncle starts searching round for clues about where the ritual is taking place.Gathering a crew to take him to a remote island,the man soon begins to regret ever having heard the name "Cthulhu."View on the film:Filmed over 2 years with a $50,000 budget from The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society,director Andrew Leman makes sure that every penny can be seen on the screen.Filmed in crisp black and white,Leman and cinematographer/editor David Robertson make the title look like a long lost German Expressionism artifact,thanks to a rich depth of field placing the unfolding newspaper story with a razor sharp edge.Harking back to the earliest days of cinema,Leman brings Cthulhu to life with excellent stop-motion animation,as the jerky animation movements give Cthulhu a stop/start spider-like creepiness.Bringing Lovecraft's tale to life,the screenplay Sean Branney perfectly uses a minimum of dialogue to build a striking sense of the fear that Cthulhu is held in.Building an investigating path with the dual nephew/uncle investigations,Branney peels away any hope that the characters have of finding an answer in "reality",as the deep-fried memories of victims cast a chilling shadow across the screen,as Cthulhu rises from the abyss.

What a wonderful effort by a creative team. I've always been disappointed with Lovecraft inspired films. They tend to ignore the master's plots and the fear of the unknown, which is at the center of every story. Having read the canon several times, I went into this thinking, "OK. Another novelty film. What has transpired here is masterwork, using movie techniques from another era (ala "The Artist). The creation of dark shadows and the ongoing threat after discovery of documents that we should not see, sets this up so well. I had not heard of this production so will put it on the shelf with the great cinema surprises of my life. Cthulhu is there in many of the Lovecraft stories. All we know is that seeing him can induce horror that will drive one to madness (don't you just love it). Cthulhu hangs over every element, as the character bumble their respective ways from discovery to discovery. The scenes of terror are masterfully underplayed and are still designed to grasp us by the throat. I am hoping that someone else has the courage to try something like this again. Perhaps to do "The Dunwich Horror" properly.

The Call of Cthulhu (2005)** 1/2 (out of 4)The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society produced this silent movie, which is certainly one of the more unique horror films of recent years. Based on one of Lovecraft's best works, the film follows a man who starts to dig around about his uncle a short time after his death. This leads the man down several dangerous paths, which might end up costing him his life. The CALL OF CTHULHU is a very flawed movie at times but you really have to tip your hate to the producers, writers and director for even attempting to do a film in this style. The movie takes place in 1926 and they film it as if it was being made during that time. The B&W cinematography does a very good job at capturing the look and feel of a silent film and I thought that director Andrew Leman did a very good job with the sets, costume design and the overall atmosphere making this look as if it was made in 1926. At times I did feel that the style was the main focus and this let the story slip into the background quite often. A someone that's not familiar with the original story I had a hard time following it at spots but I've heard from those familiar with Lovecraft's work that it's pretty faithful. The performances for the most part are good and I'd say that the cast members at least managed to make you believe they were performing in a silent picture. Obviously the appeal of a movie like this is going to be limited but I think fans of silent pictures should at least get some good moments out of it.

The Call of Cthulhu gets extra points for passion and guts; the idea of filming Lovecraft's story - a notoriously unfilmable one - as a 20's silent horror film is clever and appealing, and it's obvious that the filmmakers have a lot of love and passion for Lovecraft's work and for German Impressionist cinema. In fact, as was noted before, it's probably the most loyal adaptation of Lovecraft made yet. But loyal and gutsy doesn't automatically equal good. The attempt to replicate the atmosphere of a silent-era film works only partially (the set designs are terrific, but the camera-work and acting didn't convince me), the fact that Lovecraft doesn't work as a movie hadn't changed, and ultimately it's mostly just a good film school project, rather than a good film, and one that will only hold interest for Lovecraft and German Expressionism enthusiasts.