Review of The Call of Cthulhu (2006) by Matthew M — 18 Nov 2009

After being horribly scarred by the B movie crap that is often erroneously attributed to Lovecraft, I must say I was a little worried that this fan made silent film adaptation of HPL's most infamous short story would be poor compensation and amateurishly bad.

How wrong I was.

Was it a masterpiece? Absolutely not. But it has it's heart in the right place and obviously spent a lot of blood, sweat and tears on making its paltry budget go a long way. Most importantly the theme and style of Lovecraft is preserved, and although perhaps lacking in scares it did worm that feeling of perverse cosmic horror into the subconcious. By the end I did have to supress a shudder or two. Acting was a bit mawkish at times, the dialog cards could have been spaced better, but the art direction, props, and the obvious but brilliant silent movie era trickery were all top notch, especially if you consider their probable budget level. Suspension of disbelief is necessary, but think of it like an elaborate theatre production and you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Or driven utterly and inescapably mad!