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The Call of Cthulhu: The Celebrated Story of H.P. Lovecraft [2005]


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Arthouse
Review date: 2008-06-06 Rating: 10 out of 10

Difficult to rate this movie, but I thoroughly enjoyed this film. Its not a popcorn movie, but if you like both arthouse films and H P Lovecraft books you will love this work. If not you should probably give this film a miss. George Lucas should really watch this film in order to understand that less can be more; this film actually benefits from being a low budget movie. Dark, atmospheric and true to the original story, this is a sublime piece of art. For the fan of the 1922 film Nosferatu.

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Reviews


They Don't Have To Pronounce It, They Just Act It
Review date: 2008-05-28 Rating: 10 out of 10

It was a stroke of genius to make this a silent movie with plenty of period touches. It's tremendous fun, with some genuinely good performances and lots of interesting visuals. Unlike a lot of modern 'so what?' horror flicks, this fil can be watched more than once with real pleasure. The movie manages to cram in a lot of disparate elements plus dollops of exposition and still maintain a good pace. The detailed work on various sets and props is excellent. The Cthulhu idols are fab, and the scene on/in the bayou is great. If I have one slight reservation it's that we don't get enough of the eponymous anti-hero-deity. But that's largely down to Lovecraft himself, and we can hardly blame the HPLHS team for sticking faithfully to the text.

An interesting Lovecraftian artifact
Review date: 2008-01-10 Rating: 6 out of 10

I've been a collector of Lovecraftian material for many years and an avid reader of his stories for even more, so when I heard about this I was very excited. Having now seen it, I have to agree with the other reviewers in most points. Yes, they've done a loving and excellent job. Yes, it's a pretty good realisation of what the movie could have been like if it had been shot when "the Call" was first published.

That being the case why do I only give it 3 stars? Well, pretty much because of the last point. It's a nice period piece...an artifact from an earlier age. Unfortunately, for better or worse, we are almost a century on and used to seeing some pretty impressive tratments of stories I thought at one point could never be filmed (The Lord of the Rings comes to mind). Try as I might to be thrilled when watching the film, I found I wasn't (perhaps it's me!).

My opinion (and that's all it is) is that this is an interesting piece for a fan of Lovecraft, is almost certainly the most accurate Lovecraft adaption to date (which isn't saying much), but as a movie, I'm still waiting for Guillermo Del Toro's "At The Mountains of Madness".

The Call of Cthulhu faithfully told in a beautifully presented Film
Review date: 2007-11-03 Rating: 10 out of 10

Nowadays I find that most big budget films that hit the cinema are generally all "same-old, same-old" big star (or more likely the current hyped individual) lots of flashy special effects and little or no story, the only thing keeping your interest, the explosions, special effects and the chases.

I am an avid reader of H P Lovecraft and his works, and on seeing this DVD being available I decided to buy it, I have watched several other adaptations of lovecrafts works, some enjoyable others simply rubbish.

The Call of Cthulhu, is a silent, black and white, low budget movie that does the most important thing right, it tells a fabulous story, faithfully and in what I would agree the best way possible, as a Silent, black and white movie. From the moment the film started I was impressed, from the simple yet elegantly aged appearance the film-makers have given the movie to attempt to fool the audience into beleiving the film is an authentic 1920's made film, accompanied by a fabulous music score that hits all the right notes at the most poinient points in the story.

Although the special effects are not in the same league as a big budget Hollywood production, they hold up exceptionally well in this movie, and I have nothing but praise for all those involved for making such a remarkable piece of Cinema.

As I watched the movie on my HD DVD player I was drawn inexorably into the tale as it was told on the silver screen before me, I watched with anticipation to find out what would happen next (although having already read the story, I did actually kinda know). Some of the scenes in the movie are exceptionally well put together and the digital compositing done to make some of the outside scenes effective, as well as the Island of R'lyeh, are a marvel, my congratulations go to the the H P Lovecraft Historical Society for the fine work to create such effects.

All in all this has to be one of the best films I have seen in years, a remarkable feat by the makers and producers of the film, and will take pride and place in the centre of my DVD collection along side Ghost in the Shell and others.

A superbly made and enjoyable film, please find out for yourselves as you will not be disapointed.

Brilliant expressionistic silent Movie!!
Review date: 2007-09-03 Rating: 10 out of 10

YES, it IS from 2005 and
YES ist IS a silent Movie!
In black and white and trimmed to look like it was produced in 1926
- the year, the orignal short story was written by H.P. Lovecraft.

O.K., single actors are quiet afar from being perfect and sometimes seems to loose there false beards but most of them
- rouged as in old silent movies - do there acting very well.
Also the coulisse sometimes looks like the film-makers were a little short of cash. And the whole thing just runs 47 minutes - but it's based on a SHORT story!

However, it's the best piece of expressionistic motion picture
since DARK CITY! Some scenes even bring to mind films like Wienes "CABINET DES DR. CALIGARI". And it's the first film adaption of Lovecrafts works, that doesn't try to be cheap horror but instead copies the original story nearly 1:1!

Conclusion:
It's an absolutely ambitious film with the small weakening of not having enough money to make it perfect.

But beeing a fan of either Lovecraft or expressionistic films or both
YOU HAVE TO WATCH IT!


Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
David Mersault
Matt Foyer
Noah Wagner

Creators:
Matt Foyer (Primary Contributor)
David Mersault (Primary Contributor)
David Robertson (Cinematographer)
Nick Pavkovic (Composer)
Troy Sterling Nies (Composer)
Ben Holbrook (Composer)
Chad Fifer (Composer)

Director(s):

Recording label: Microcinema
Manufacturer: Microcinema
EAN: 0837101095662
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: Closed-captioned, Colour, DVD-Video, PAL,
Release date: 2007-05-29
Universal product code (UPC): 837101095662
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Running time: 47 minutes
Theatrical release date: 2007-05-29
Language: English (Original Language)
Language: English (Unknown)
Language: German (Subtitled)
Language: French (Subtitled)
Language: Swedish (Subtitled)

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