Review - Call of Cthulhu, The Movie

“That is not dead which can eternal lie,
And with strange aeons even death may die.”

If you’re a fan of H.P. Lovecraft or have read The Call of Cthulhu you’ll know that line. I’ve said before that I’m a fan of Lovecraft and all things that have to do with the Cthulhu mythos so when I heard that the HP Lovecraft Historical Society was making this most famous of his titles I was a little……..apprehensive. This movie The Call of Cthulhu(film) is a short film being only 47 minutes in length but it is a good solid 47 minutes. It was written (screenplay) by Sean Branney and directed by Andrew Leman. Both men co-produced the movie. I picked up my copy at Gen Con last year.

If you’ve ever followed the movies that have been made depicting Lovecraft’s works you’ve seen some (excuse the pun) monstrous aberrations in the past. It has always been difficult to put his works on film. Oh there were some films like ‘The Shunned House’(Italian movie titled 'La Casa Sfuggita') and ‘In The Mouth of Madness’ were decent attempts at this ever elusive franchise. Others like ‘Dagon’ meant well and sufficed as ‘good’ for that time being. Of course nothing can compare to the travesty that was 1970 ‘The Dunwich Horror’. For some reason his works have never translated well to film. Perhaps it is because he constantly refers to the fact that our mind can not fully understand the horrors of the mythos. Trying to make those inconceivable things come to life on the big screen has proven to be one of the hardest things ever.

So what the HP Lovecraft Historical Society has done with this film was nothing short of amazing, in my opinion. They took an unorthodox approach to making this film and filmed it as a black and white silent film. I think it actually works well with this story as it makes you kind of think about what it was like at the time when these stories were written. The special affects in this movie were just about in the neighborhood of none but rather relied more on cinematography and visual affects. There was some special affects as they used stop-motion photography to animate Cthulhu with a puppet, similar in the way King Kong was first done. However at its time King Kong was a big budget film and the puppet was of high quality. This Cthulhu was of a lesser quality but it wasn’t from lack of wanting to do a good job. This movie is very low budget so some things had to be sacrificed and while Hollywood has large teams and departments that can build something of this nature these folks did not have that luxury.

What they did to compensate for the low budget was used some tried and true filming techniques that most movie makers don’t think about anymore. Forced perspective, lighting and angles coupled with the musical score and slightly over acting went a long way to make up for anything lost from its budget. I’ve said before that I don’t think blood and gore necessarily constitute good horror. Nor do I believe that a mad killer running around with a carving knife is ‘scary’ per say. Does that mean that a slasher movie or a splatter fest isn’t scary? Not at all. I just think some movie makers rely too much on those forms to make their horror films. Today’s younger views think the Saw movies are scary. To a degree they are but really they’re more just gross. Horror conveyed by lighting, sound (or musical score), angles etc. can have a greater impact than I think most modern day movie goers can appreciate.

When interviewed about the movie and its budget the producers pretty much said they didn’t have a budget, they just spent money as they needed it to get the film done. My hat goes off to them. This must have been a very expensive personal venture without knowing for certainty that it would pay off for them. I’m sure with as many fans as there are in Lovecraft and Cthulhu that it has, on the other hand the community that know about the mythos is quite a bit smaller than the mainstream general public so maybe not. I feel in my gut though that it did. I really hope that they did as this might encourage them and others to make more movies.

The acting was a bit over the top sometimes with exaggerated motioning and sometimes forced expressions. But see that’s were the beauty and genius comes in from filming this as a black and white feature. That was the kind of acting that was needed in the era of the silent movie. Because no words or inflections could be heard feelings, emotions, tensions needed to be conveyed to the viewer by other means. While the acting was over the top it was not overly done and fit perfectly in with the whole feel of the movie.

I really like this movie and I’m glad I had a chance to see it. I’m giving it 9 out of 10 and would suggest it for any fan of Lovecraft or Cthulhu. However I’d say see the movie with the caveat that you should be able to handle a silent movie, as that is not everyone’s cup of tea and don’t be expecting fantastic special effects when it comes to Cthulhu. It just isn’t there.

“In his house at R’lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming”
“Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn”