|
If you read the Collector Times DVD Gift Guide last month, then you'll know that I recommended the Call of Cthulhu movie despite having not watched it yet. After writing my suggestions, I figured I might as well take my own advice and order it, especially since I wanted the HP Lovecraft Historical Society "A Very Scary Solstice" holiday CD (best $20 I ever spent, by the way).
My recommendation still stands. Call of Cthulhu isn't for everyone, but I'm pretty certain that most Lovecraft afficionados will enjoy it greatly. I know that my husband and I sure did! There wasn't any question of what we were going to do on the evening that we finally received the DVD in the mail: bag of Kettle Corn in hand, we settled down for a fun movie-watching experience.
As I mentioned last month, Call of Cthulhu is done in the style of a 1920's silent film . . . that's right, it's in black and white, with no spoken dialog, and a soundtrack that runs throughout the entire film. I'd never watched a silent film before, and I found the experience to be pretty enjoyable. The soundtrack fits the movie very well and sounds quite professional. It set the tone for each scene without being overwhelming.
One of the benefits of a silent film is that it's very easy to translate it into other languages - no dubbing to concern yourself with, just translate the "cards" that display the dialog and narration. The HPLHS took full advantage of this, offering an astounding twenty-four languages on one disc. While I was disappointed to discover that Mandarin was not one of them, I AM looking forward to eventually watching Call of Cthulhu in Welsh.
It was my desire to let you all know how closely the movie matches up with the short story it's based on. Unfortunately, I don't have a copy of Call of Cthulhu to use as a contrast. Some years ago, my husband loaned out a couple of our Lovecraft story collections to curious co-workers. They were never returned to us. May the books spontaneously combust and burn the libraries of those callous book-thieves!
My husband is more familiar with the story than I am, and he never offered any complaints about the movie deviating from the book. Of course, because this movie is a labor of love by fans of Lovecraft, one would expect no less. You can tell that a great deal of work and thought went into this film; it's not some half-ass pet project. The low budget shows, but it still comes off as a very professional and enjoyable product.
The main part where this movie fails is in the sets and stop-motion animation. You cannot go into this movie expecting to be blown away by an awesome, computer-animated Cthulhu. While such a beasty would have been more scary than the one on display here, I do believe it would have been jarring in the old-style black and white movie. I do wish, however, that the stop motion was a little less jerky. Cthulhu is pretty well-designed (his face is especially spooky), but his movements are rather clumsy.
I'm not sure whether Call of Cthulhu will serve as a good way to hook non-Lovecraft fans on his stories. It may hold some appeal for fans of silent movies, but those with more modern film tastes might find it a little hokey. I would recommend that any Lovecraft fan buy this film... even if you don't end up enjoying it, I feel that it's important to support the efforts of those dedicated enough to make such a movie.
Call of Cthulhu runs an admittedly brief 47 minutes (it IS based on a short story, after all). The disc also holds some entertaining extras - I loved seeing the dialog that was being ad-libbed so the actors could be filmed "talking". There's also some extra Cthulhu animation. It is not rated - there are some mutilated bodies on display at one part, but no sexual content, bad language, or overly gory violence is found in this film.
|