The Call of Cthulhu is a movie adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's perhaps most well known story. It's produced by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, the group responsible for the affectionate, tongue-in-cheek musical tributes to Lovecraft "A Shoggoth on the Roof" and "A Very Scary Solstice." There have been many attempts over the years to do justice to Lovecraft but the films that result tend to have little in common in terms of atmosphere (or, for that matter, plot and characterisation, not that Lovecraft was big on these) with the source material. Lovecraft's prose is very dense, his plotting labyrinthine and the arrival of his monsters tend to lack a translatable visual impact due to the narrator starting to go mad with fear and say things like "the thing cannot be described!" And, actually, when you get right down it, there's just a hint of the comical about the Big C, "the green, sticky spawn of the stars" with his "awful squid-head with writhing feelers." I have a Small Plush Cthulhu (Plushulhu to his friends) and we pretend to be overcome with horror at the sight of him so as not to hurt his feelings but mainly he sits glowering on top of the TV looking sort of cute with his little dangling tentacles.

What makes this offering from the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society both unique and successful is the decision to make the movie in the style of the period when the story was written(the 1920s). What you get is an absolutely breathtakingly well-done black and white, silent movie that perfectly captures both the spirit and the letter of the story.

Aside from one of two changes, the plot, for the most part, follows the story very closely. A young man inherits his great-uncle's estate and, while going through his things, comes across a box containing information on the "Cthulhu Cult" specifically a series of accounts (told in flashback) of his Uncle's discovery of and investigation into the ancient race of creatures lying dormant for years deep in the ocean, waiting to be summoned so that they may rule/eat the world. The bizarre dreams of an artist, the arrest of a group of dodgy cultists living in a swamp and the discovery of a strange and sinister idol culminate in the fate of a fishing vessel whose crew chance upon an island which harbours the wakeful Elder God itself! We then come full circle to the young man incarcerated in Arkham Asylum (well, wouldn't you be?) who exhorts the man to whom he is telling his tale to destroy the contents of the box.

The story unfolds in a series of nested flashbacks which does mean it's easy to get lost in the plot ("So, this is what happened to an archaeologist and he's telling it to the police inspector whose story is being told through the notes of the dead uncle guy whose heir is telling it to the Doctor dude in thel unatic asylum?") but, for the most part, they've done a splendid job of following the written material, and making it comprehensible. Furthermore, the title cards for speech allows for the use of genuine dialogue from the story; if spoken, Lovecraft's line tend to sound more than a little stilted. ("The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents."). The acting is generally excellent; slightly less exaggerated than traditional silent movie style the actors nevertheless evince the necessary conviction to carry the story and make its telling palatable to a modern audience. The cultists in the swamp scene is particularly impressive, and possesses a genuine sense of scale and vigorous insanity.

And the film looks amazing. The rich black and white cinematography really captures a classic horror movie feel and, combined with the atmospheric score, evoke a genuinely Lovecraftian sense of slowly building terror and dread. The sets and models are similarly impressive, the non-Euclidian sunken city of Ry'leh, in particular. And Cthulhu himself, tentacles and all, cannot fail to please; the puppet work and stop-motion-action is surprisingly convincing and refreshing in an era of CGI.

I'm not a big "extra features" person but the making of feature included on the DVD is a must-see. The enthusiasm and ingenuity that have gone into all aspects of the film making process only added to my appreciation of the film.

Enjoy a small or utterly Cyclopean here.

You can order the DVD from various funky places on the Internet, for example Lesiure Games seems to be selling copies.

This has nothing to do with the movie but I felt compelled to link to it anyway. What do you get the Cultist who has everything?