Review of The Call of Cthulhu (2006) by Jared D — 06 Sep 2012

Such a noble effort, but it's so clearly a film shot on digital cameras trying to masquerade as something else; the footage does not look old or faded in the least, despite the shitty scratches, dirt and hairs, and grain overlays that they use (which get distracting from the start).

The sets on the island are inspired by German Expressionism with the jagged edges, but while the effect is eerie and stylized in something like "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari," here it sometimes just looks cheap, giving off more of a homemade feel than the abstractness it was probably going for (although a somewhat cheap vibe is also contributed to by costumes, bad fake moustaches, and some digital effects that were attempted to be subtly slipped in).

Granted the movie was fairly homemade and incredibly cheap, which helps lend it some charm, but going for a specific type of filmmaking with a certain time period really limits what the audience is going to swallow.

By making the film not only a period piece in story, but in how they told said story as well, they really limited how the film should have been made. A 1920's silent horror film sounds cool in nature, but when you take liberties with egregious camera movements, handheld shots, zooms, quick cutting and other conveniences of modern filmmaking, it starts to become increasingly less believable; this does not look like any film from the 20's or 30's.

But all of that technical criticism aside, this is a really cool tribute to H.P. Lovecraft made by people who love his work.