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major_clangerWhilst enduringly popular some seventy years after his death, H P Lovecraft has not generally been well-served in film. Most adaptations of his works tend to be so distorted as to be scarcely recognisable (The Dunwich Horror) or recast as comedic parodies (Re-Animator). It was thus a pleasant surprise to find that the H P Lovecraft Historical Society have released a DVD of a dramatisation of Lovecraft's most famous work: The Call of Cthulhu.
The film's conceit is wonderfully simple: what if The Call of Cthulhu had been seized upon at original publication for film adaptation, and had been filmed - as it would have been in 1926 - as a black and white silent movie? The team behind the picture have done a beautiful job of recreating the style and feel of films of the era, from Expressionist set design (especially in the final segment set in R'lyeh) to period lighting and make-up. What makes this even more impressive is how this was done on a scale and budget that, as the accompanying documentary makes clear, would have made Ed Wood look like Cecil B DeMille.
(As a point of trivia, this approach allows the DVD to present the film in 24 languages - including Welsh. It just cuts to different sets of intertitle cards...)
The film follows the original story very closely, with only the addition of a framing story (the asylum-confined narrator being interviewed by his psychiatrist) to provide context. In three acts, we see the narrator's quest - reluctant at first, but finally obsessive - to uncover and eventually take over his late great-uncle's investigations into the world-spanning 'Cthulhu Cult'. From Rhode Island to the bayous of New Orleans and finally R'leyh itself, the story's locations are beautifully realised (and in the case of Providence, filmed partly on location). Whilst many of the effects are crude, they are appropriate for the supposed era of the film, and as the documentary makes clear, there are a lot of very well-done modern effects that you explicitly don't see. The climactic scene, sustained without any dialogue (even intertitles!) should, in the world where this was released in 1926, have gone on to inspire a young Ray Harryhausen.
If you have any interest at all in Lovecraftiana, then do try to find a copy of this film. It's a delightful (if that can be the right word for a story of cosmic horror!) piece of work that was clearly a labour of love for the makers, and deserves to become a classic. Although it's too early to confirm this for sure, we hope to be able to arrange a showing as part of the video programme at Concussion - I'll make sure to confirm nearer the date if this comes off.
The film's conceit is wonderfully simple: what if The Call of Cthulhu had been seized upon at original publication for film adaptation, and had been filmed - as it would have been in 1926 - as a black and white silent movie? The team behind the picture have done a beautiful job of recreating the style and feel of films of the era, from Expressionist set design (especially in the final segment set in R'lyeh) to period lighting and make-up. What makes this even more impressive is how this was done on a scale and budget that, as the accompanying documentary makes clear, would have made Ed Wood look like Cecil B DeMille.
(As a point of trivia, this approach allows the DVD to present the film in 24 languages - including Welsh. It just cuts to different sets of intertitle cards...)
The film follows the original story very closely, with only the addition of a framing story (the asylum-confined narrator being interviewed by his psychiatrist) to provide context. In three acts, we see the narrator's quest - reluctant at first, but finally obsessive - to uncover and eventually take over his late great-uncle's investigations into the world-spanning 'Cthulhu Cult'. From Rhode Island to the bayous of New Orleans and finally R'leyh itself, the story's locations are beautifully realised (and in the case of Providence, filmed partly on location). Whilst many of the effects are crude, they are appropriate for the supposed era of the film, and as the documentary makes clear, there are a lot of very well-done modern effects that you explicitly don't see. The climactic scene, sustained without any dialogue (even intertitles!) should, in the world where this was released in 1926, have gone on to inspire a young Ray Harryhausen.
If you have any interest at all in Lovecraftiana, then do try to find a copy of this film. It's a delightful (if that can be the right word for a story of cosmic horror!) piece of work that was clearly a labour of love for the makers, and deserves to become a classic. Although it's too early to confirm this for sure, we hope to be able to arrange a showing as part of the video programme at Concussion - I'll make sure to confirm nearer the date if this comes off.
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no subject
Date: 2006-01-14 12:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-14 10:19 am (UTC)Meanwhile
So, what is Welsh for 'Squamous' and 'Rugose'?
Date: 2006-01-14 10:24 am (UTC)Actually ... I have Geiriadur yr Academi to hand ...
rugose crychlyd, crychiog, crebachlyd, gwrymiog, crimpiog, crych (pl. crychion).
squamous cennog
See also: http://www.geiriadur.net/ :-)
no subject
Date: 2006-03-06 10:42 pm (UTC)