Call of Cthulhu: One Really Worth Watching

                             The Call of Cthulhu: One Really Worth Watching

                                                              by

                                                                 Jay Agan

      Never before have I seen a more complete & faithful rendition of a Lovecraft story to film. After literally decades of crappy, altered, & sexploited knock offs (Some really only using H. P. Lovecrafts' name for publicity.), a 100% "true to the word" movie actually hit the theaters a few short years ago. Because of its' limited "arthouse" run, few people got to see it. (I don't remember it being shown in central Ohio.) I would have loved to have seen it on the big screen. As it is, I've had to settle on getting the disc & "that ain't bad".

      The original story is the "flaghip" of H.P. Loverafts' "Cthulhu Mythos" set of tales: In the deep dark past of pre-prehistory, non-human beings worshipped a pantheon of less than ethical, trans cosmic "gods". These ethereal beings, indifferent or hostile, manipulated/consumed various sentient species from all over the universe including mankind. Over the eons they fell out of power & the knowledge of man. Wether they were "driven away" or left for their own capricious reasons is unclear. But ..... when the stars are "right" ..... they will return.

      One of these entities is Cthulhu: A behemoth lying "not dead but dreaming" in the sunken city of R'Lyeh somewhere in the southwest Pacific (Anywhere near Kong Island?).

      An investigator, picking up where an uncle left off, tries to find a correlation between various natural catastorphies & mysterious events & succeeds. The story relates three of the incidents: A professors' research in Greenland. A police inspectors' encounter with members of a fantastic cult. And a ship crews' battle with the ultimate horror.

Got this at stevencreech.com/images/posters.

      Then there's the other kool part: This is a silent movie.

      Call of Cthulhu was published in Wierd Tales in 1928. Members of the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society (HPLHS) decided to make the film as if it was made the same year, pre-talkies (Talkin' pitchers r' only a fad. It ain't gonna last!). Except for a music score, it's silent with title cards, & in glorious black & white. The actors have the silent movies "histrionics" down right & the atmosphere really has the look & feel of an old flick (Without all the burns, streaks, spots, splices & background hiss.).

      The film is literally a "back yard" production (The R'Lyeh scenes were done in someones' back yard!). Costing about a quarter million to make with the sets cobbled together with plywood, glue, & nailgun. In spite of its ultra low production values, the result looks like a multi-million endeavor. Looking at the accompanying documentary on the disc, I marvelled at what one can do with very little money.

      Lovecraft fans owe it to themselves to get the disc. I got mine a few years back at Barnes & Noble for about 20 bucks. Info can be obtained from the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society.

      By the way. The HPLHS is in the process of finishing another film: The Whisperer In Darkness. As this story was published in 1931, it's a talkie. Black & white with minimal music (Musical scores weren't a big thing til about the mid 1930s.).

Trailers for The Call of Cthulhu here.

HPLHS ad for The Call of Cthulhu here.

Trailers for The Whisperer In Darkness here.

Previous article to a Loveraft film (Dark Heritage/The Lurking Fear) here.

                                    Article copyright © 2-19-2011 Jay Agan

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H.P. Lovecrafts' Dark Heritage

                                        
H.P. Lovecrafts' Dark Heritage

by

Jay Agan

As with the majority of fans of H.P. Lovecraft, I've found most film adaptations of his works to be less than merely lacking. Many were downright pathetic and laughable. Excessively altering and straying too much from the story, new characters and generally everyone putting in their own "touches". This is because most of the authors' works were short stories and thus not really suited for feature length films. Made for crappy cinema at best.

Up until the fan made Call of Cthulhu (Not only the best but 100% faithful and one of four worth watching.), the best you could hope for were The Dunwich Horror and Die, Monster, Die! (And only because Boris Karloff is in that one.) I exclude the ones made by the Band family. Barbara Crampton's fun to watch but I can't see them as Lovecraft. The fourth one (Marketed by Passion Productions.) I stumbled on in a now defunct dollar store in Delaware, Ohio.

 Dark Heritage the Final Deccendant is pretty much a low budget affair. Certainly looks it and yet I've found it more entertaining and interesting than most previous attempts at Lovecraft. Based (uncredited) on his short story The Lurking Fear, it's a not bad little thriller. Yes, it has some extra "stuff" and characters to pad it out and an added surprise ending (Which isn't bad as it's "Lovecraftian" in its own way.). The location was changed from the Catskills of New York to Louisiana. It still sticks to the basic plot of the story however. H. P.s' stories were narrative and research oriented and this film at least gives more than a nod to the research part.

Both film and story are centered around an investigator (In the film, a newspaper reporter.) looking into the history of a presumably extinct family and its' connection to a series of bloody mass killings. Killings that happen when thunderstorms are raging. Turns out the family isn't extinct but has degenerated into an incest perpetuated group of underground dwelling troglodytes. Thunder drives them "up from under" and they go on the prowl.

This seems to be one of those "regional" productions. (1968s' Night of the Living Dead could fall into this category.) Very location bound with several sets of last names in the cast. Lotsa relatives contributed to the making of this film.

Dark Heritage has the lowest production values I've ever seen in a Lovecraft adaptation. This is more than made up for in its' faithfulness to the source material. For that it's more than good enough for me to have as a keeper.

Article copyright © 2-15-2011 Jay Agan

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DISCLAIMER: All images used on this blog are strictly copyrights of their owners. I do not claim credit/ownership for any images used here in my blog unless stated otherwise. If I have offended anyone by posting any images on my blog, please contact me via email and I will remove specified image(s) ASAP.

This article may be copied in whole or in part with permission. Please be sure to give proper credit & backlink.