The Call Of Cthulhu

I had first heard of H.P. Lovecraft as a teenager reading Stephen King, who wrote about him at length in his nonfiction. Since I was a serious King fan (and still am), I was always curious to see what the big deal was about Lovecraft, and I so when I later saw a collection of Lovecraft’s works in a paperback volume called The Best of H. P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre on the shelf at a bookstore, I quickly purchased it. I soon became immersed in the dark world of The Old Ones, and how they sought to break free from their otherworldly prison to wreak havoc upon the helpless human race. Lovecraft was famous for writing about horrific creatures that were so terrifying to behold that just the mere sight of them would drive a sane man mad. These stories, along with artist Michael Whelan’s memorable cover art for the book, remains haunting to this day.

One of Lovecraft’s best stories is The Call Of Cthulhu. In 2005, the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society produced a movie based on this classic tale. But rather than make yet another cookie cutter Hollywood-style horror film, they sought to create a silent film--one that looked as if it were made back in 1926, the same year that Cthulhu was first published. Using technologies that would have been used back in the day, along with a few that weren’t, the result is a fascinating movie that’s truly as faithful to Lovecraft as any film can be. Shot in black and white, with cue cards for the dialogue (viewers in other countries can even choose cards in their own language) the film has the look and feel of a classic silent, thanks to the incredible attention to detail that the crew had in all aspects of the production.

Complete with a rich orchestral score (silent films usually had an organ player in the theater who played along with the film, helping to build the moods within the scenes, and inadvertently creating an expectation within the audience of hearing music with the film--a tradition that continues in force to this day), and old-school special effects that invoke the classic fantasy feel of the original King Kong, The Call Of Cthulhu manages to build up a great sense of atmosphere and menace. The making of documentary is in color with sound, and when you see the low budget production up close like this, it just makes the film all the more impressive. If you’re truly looking for something different this Halloween, then invite The Old Ones over. --SF

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