The Call of Cthulhu

I bought this with some reservations... after all, how good could a silent version really be? The answer I give now is "exceptionally good"! "The Call of Cthulhu" is unquestionably the most faithful adaptation of Lovecraft's work to date, and very effectively conveys the weirdness and horror of the story. The choice of making this a silent film was inspired, and suits the tale perfectly. I especially enjoyed the third act, which eschews intertitles entirely in revealing the terrible fate of the Emma's crew. The music and silent acting in this sequence is the best of the film, and even the titular terror himself is wonderfully realized and surprisingly effective. If you're on the fence about this because it is silent, don't be. This outshines any other Mythos adaptation you've seen. "The Call of Cthulhu" is a marvelous film, and I recommend it highly.

I do not want to rehash all the excellent things in the reviews of my fellows. But I too exult that we finally have an adaptation of a Lovecraft story that cleaves almost precisely to the story. (The only major changes in the story being making Thurston, the narrator, an inmate of an insame asylum, and his uncle dying in bed rather than from what is probably an assassin in the form of a "Lascar" bumping him on the street.) For having been made on so small a budget, its realization of the more fantastic elements in the story-- the risen city of R'lyeh, and Great Cthulhu him(it?)self, are splendid. The expressionistic geometries of R'lyeh are admirably brought out. And as an added bonus, the filmakers actually went to Providence and filmed at the real Fleur-de-Lis Building, so vividly described in the story (and one can see how true Lovecraft's judgment of its style is!). In my opinion, the many previous "adaptations" from Lovecraft have ranged from abysmal to fair; the best, pe... Read more

THE CALL OF CTHULHU is that long dreamed of but seemingly impossible feat--a film that is absolutely true to the work of author H.P. Lovecraft! Financed and filmed by members of the HPL Historical Society, this black & white silent film was wisely designed to appear as if it had been filmed during Lovecraft's lifetime and this decision is undoubtedly the biggest factor in its success. There aren't any high tech CGI monsters here either, just good old fashioned stop-motion animation which is extremely well done which also adds to the film's appeal and its feeling of authenticity. The film clocks in at a brief 45 minutes or so, but there are at least that many minutes of special features which are just as much fun to watch as the movie is. The story concerns a young man who is called upon to manage his dying uncle's estate and in the course of discharging his duties he comes across some mysterious papers detailing his uncle's lifelong obsession with the bizarre and secretive Cthulhu Cult... Read more

Generally speaking, Lovecraft has been done and immense disservice by the film industry. B-rated films based on his weaker stories (Reanimator) have been tasteless, objectionable, and certain to prejudice the intelligent viewer against the eldritch author. Praise be the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society (HPLHS), the group of talented aficionados who produced this film. This Call of Cthulhu is the closest any film has come to true Lovecraft, and is a must for any Lovecraft fan. I also highly recommend visiting the society's website http://www.cthulhulives.org/toc.html for other tasteful tributes to the mythos.

I've always loved scary stories. One of the few positive memories I have from my childhood was staying up with my father and watching classic Universal monster movies in a rocking chair. I loved scary comics like CREEPY and EERIE and monster comics like Marvel's WEREWOLF BY NIGHT (I remember, when I was about 9 or so, scrambling around the desolation of our suburban neighborhood by moonlight in a torn shirt pretending I was the werewolf). I could quote Edgar Allen Poe, and read all the horror I could get hands on from DRACULA to "The Monkey's Paw" to SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES. Well, I read most things I could get my hands on. But horror was among my favorites. The first fiction I ever read that actually scared me, though, was H.P. Lovecraft's story "The Dunwich Horror." This tale offered up an unspeakable invisible horror terrorizing a New England landscape that took root in my imagination with such force that I remember laying in my dark room at night, wanting to sleep, but w... Read more