The Call of Cthulhu!
Jun. 1st, 2006 08:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tiggymalvern
No, you're not mistaken, yes it is yet another SIFF experience XD. The Call of Cthulhu is one the SO and I had been dying to see ever since we first laid eyes on the trailers for it late last year. And you too can see the trailer (and buy the DVD!), here :-) Though alas, I actually think the first trailer was better than the one currently up at the site.
Making this film was a real work of genius. The story is an utter nightmare to adapt into a screenplay, with its many layers of narrative (a story within a story within a story, as told by the guy whose uncle actually saw the thing XD). This is evidenced by the many bad Lovecraft film adaptations over the years, but here the writer's made it work, so that unlike in Lovecraft's original, nothing really drags.
The director cheerfully admits that the decision to make a throwback film was largely financially inspired, because of the impossibility of a guy and his friends with no budget making a film that was any good at all in colour XD But having opted to do it, they went for it all the way, which was the best decision they could have made. So here we have a 2005 film as an almost flawless rendition of a 1925 silent film (the year the story was written). Yes, that means crazy exposure contrasts and melodramatic acting with much eye-rolling and arms in the air Dramatic Poses, but it works! There's so much attention to detail in this - the slightly jerky feel of the film, the artificial aging with drop-outs and lines, the style of the costuming, sets and effects. The score is brilliantly done to suit both the film and the genre. Much of the time you really could be watching an eighty-year-old film, and there are only one or two places that sensation gets broken.
No, it's not a 'horror' movie by modern standards - but nor are Lovecraft's writings scary any more by those same standards. It's a film made by Lovecraft geeks and aimed squarely at other geeks who want to watch something fun - and come on, who wouldn't want to see a film with 'nameless cultists' listed in the credits and a delightfully, authentically cheesy stop-motion Elder God? *g*
Making this film was a real work of genius. The story is an utter nightmare to adapt into a screenplay, with its many layers of narrative (a story within a story within a story, as told by the guy whose uncle actually saw the thing XD). This is evidenced by the many bad Lovecraft film adaptations over the years, but here the writer's made it work, so that unlike in Lovecraft's original, nothing really drags.
The director cheerfully admits that the decision to make a throwback film was largely financially inspired, because of the impossibility of a guy and his friends with no budget making a film that was any good at all in colour XD But having opted to do it, they went for it all the way, which was the best decision they could have made. So here we have a 2005 film as an almost flawless rendition of a 1925 silent film (the year the story was written). Yes, that means crazy exposure contrasts and melodramatic acting with much eye-rolling and arms in the air Dramatic Poses, but it works! There's so much attention to detail in this - the slightly jerky feel of the film, the artificial aging with drop-outs and lines, the style of the costuming, sets and effects. The score is brilliantly done to suit both the film and the genre. Much of the time you really could be watching an eighty-year-old film, and there are only one or two places that sensation gets broken.
No, it's not a 'horror' movie by modern standards - but nor are Lovecraft's writings scary any more by those same standards. It's a film made by Lovecraft geeks and aimed squarely at other geeks who want to watch something fun - and come on, who wouldn't want to see a film with 'nameless cultists' listed in the credits and a delightfully, authentically cheesy stop-motion Elder God? *g*
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no subject
Date: 2006-06-02 07:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-02 03:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-02 08:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-02 03:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-03 07:03 am (UTC)To be honest, while I like his plots, I do find him over-wordy in getting there! And the repeated omniscient-style 'But that was nothing compared to the horrors yet to come!' doesn't stand up well by modern literature standards and expectations. His works feel very dated, but that's why a dated film-style is the perfect way to adapt them.
The director said he's planning to do another, one of the later 1930s works, so this time they can do it as a 'talkie' instead of a silent film, but right now I'm blanking completely on which one he said it was!
no subject
Date: 2006-06-03 06:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-20 09:00 am (UTC)& kitty pr0n<3 Lovecraft but I find him a bit of a drone. My ex would read HPL aloud at night for me to fall asleep to. Still, that's not stopped me from attending two local productions of HPL short stories or having friends who are creating an on-going iTunes radio play, to which I'm auditioning for. Because who doesn't want to be the melodramatic voice for a victim of a nameless cult and other worldly entity/ies?
no subject
Date: 2006-11-20 07:22 pm (UTC)Yeah, Lovecraft's omniscient POV style hasn't dated well, nor has his tendency to draw out his great revelations at extreme length. I'll admit I find him hard to read myself, but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate the condensed visual version XD He had better concepts than he had execution - probably not at the time, but by modern standards. And yes! Everyone needs a little melodrama in their lives! Good luck with that :-)