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36 out of 38 people found the following comment useful :-
Best Lovecraft movie ever... and it's mute!, 31 January 2008
10/10
Author: agersomnia from Mexico

This is the best adaptation of any H.P. Lovecraft movie ever made, either by fans or big studio. It's a silent movie, done in a style that makes it look almost as if truly made long years ago.

The script comes directly from the Call of Cthulhu story, with virtually no alterations whatsoever.

It has been done to look as an old movie (from the times when Lovecraft was alive), so the F/X department are appropriately rudimentary or done in modern media to replicate the original ones.

Direct influences to the style are Metropolis, Faust, and Nosferatu; 3 great silent movies.

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32 out of 38 people found the following comment useful :-
One of the best Lovecraft adaptations ever committed to film, 1 January 2006
8/10
Author: dbborroughs from Glen Cove, New York

The story is classic Lovecraft, a man recounts how his discovery of secret knowledge has driven him over the edge and brought him close to death. Its the framework that Lovecraft used again and again to tell his stories of horror. Here the story is that of the cult of Cthulhu which he discovers upon the death of his Great Uncle, a man who was himself driven to the edge of madness and to death by the secrets he uncovered. Essentially a series of flashbacks and narratives this film builds a great deal of unease as bits of story and coincidence create an a narrative that has unpleasant implications. Its not the kind of think that will make you jump out of your seat, but it will make you want to turn the light back on.

Shot now (2005) but in the style of a 1926 silent film this movie manages to make what could be very silly seem very real and menacing. There is something about the black and white imagery that makes it all seem very possible. Many people have said the story was un-filmable because of its structure of multiple tales and because if not handled correctly the hysteria felt by some characters would just be silly, this film however has proved it can be done and in a very satisfying manner.

The film's flaws are mostly technical and except in one case minor. The film, which appears to have been shot on digital video for the most part looks good, though in sequence where fire is seen the film takes on an odd appearance. The films budget also has a some stark sets that seem more like a set than place. Still they are minor complaints. The one major complaint is Cthulhu himself, which is clearly a stop motion model. While its understandable that because of the nature of the beast this was probably the way to go (and probably close to how he might have looked in 1926 had he been put on screen back then), it still removes some degree of the horror that had been created prior to this point. Ultimately its a minor quibble because whats goes before and after makes up for it.

If you like classic horror and the writing of HP Lovecraft see this movie.(just remember its suppose to have been made in 1926, not now). 8 out of 10, one of the best Lovecraft films to get Lovecraft right.

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25 out of 25 people found the following comment useful :-
This may be the most appropriate adaptation of an H. P. Lovecraft story ever!, 27 April 2007
9/10
Author: jmusser-1 from United States

This is my first review on IMDb. I was so pleasantly surprised (in such a twisted way) by this film that I felt almost obligated to comment on it.

I've always loved H. P. Lovecraft's stories and have read pretty much everything he produced. Unfortunately, his work must not translate well to film because most movies based on his stories are pretty regrettable. Many excellent and unique movies have incorporated elements and themes from his stories (The Ninth Gate, Cast a Deadly Spell, The Evil Dead movies, In The Mouth of Madness etc.), but many of those taken literally from his writings (The Dunwich Horror, Beyond The Wall of Sleep, The Curse, etc.) just don't work.

This film contains many elements that also generally don't work, at least for modern audiences. It's a silent movie filmed in black and white. The acting is consistent with old silent films or stage, with exaggerated expressions and movements and is even comical at times. It is clearly a very low budget affair with outmoded special effects. The strange thing is that all of this works very well with the story, making it perhaps the best screen adaptation of a Lovecraft story that I've seen to date.

Because of its format, TCOC takes a little patience but overall it's a lot of fun to watch and manages to build a fair amount of suspense and tension even as it amuses.

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27 out of 29 people found the following comment useful :-
Easily the Best HPL Adaptation Ever, 9 February 2008
10/10
Author: AlamoNation from United States

We're not likely to ever get a project as faithful to the source material as we did with the HPLHS's incredible production of 'The Call of Cthulhu.' At least not out of Hollywood.

Making it a silent flick was a novel approach - especially when you consider that the Lovecraft story was written in 1926, when silent pictures hadn't quite yet come to the end of their glory days.

The performances are quite nice and are a little over the top - which is necessary for a silent movie since they're having to convey the emotion of the story with just their faces. Matt Foyer carries the movie along extremely well and I loved David Mersault's portrayal of Legrasse.

Amongst my friends I have three fellow Lovecraft lovers. I bought the DVD the day it was available at the HPLHS's site and as soon as it arrived we had a viewing party here at my apartment on the widescreen. Needless to say, everyone loved it.

Music is as important to any film - doubly so if that's a silent film. Chad Fifer, Ben Holbrook, Troy Sterling Nies and Nicholas Pavkovic turn in a thrilling score.

The DVD's also got some fantastic 'Behind the Scenes' bits that go into what it took to make the movie which is quite entertaining.

'The Call of Cthulhu' is fantastic, and I expect even more from the upcoming HPLHS take on 'The Whisperer in the Darkness.' Huzzah!

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25 out of 26 people found the following comment useful :-
Best Locecraft movie ever!, 13 June 2007
10/10
Author: andrejarosch from Germany

Howart Phillips Lovecraft (1890 - 1937) wrote a lot of weird fiction stories, which all play with the fears of the reader. Unfortunately he is mostly known by film geeks for delivering the novels on which splatter and gore movies like "Re-Animator" are based upon.

This is the only movie so far (except lots of fan movies) that handles his novel right!

Lovecraft lived in the 1920s and 30s, and wrote an published his famous story "The Call of Cthulhu" in 1928, so it was a good choice to do it as a silent movie! With the overacting, like in old silent movies. With simple special effects, like in old silent movies. What it's best: it gets the feel and flair of the original story right. Even if the viewer might find this kind of suspense noir out of date: THIS IS HOW THE ORIGINAL STORY WAS WRITTEN! I would be happy if more movies based upon novels would try to really film the book, and not to make a movie-that-makes-a-lot-of-money-but-is-only-BASED-upon-the-book.

If you are interested to see this movie because you liked the splatter movies associated with the name H.P. Lovecraft, then avoid this film. If you are REALLY interested in seeing Lovecraft films right, you MUST have seen this one.

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28 out of 32 people found the following comment useful :-
A faithful recreation of the story, as a silent movie, 10 February 2006
10/10
Author: ivorybow from Duluth, MN

This movie is a little gem. The love, care and respect that went into its making, both for the story itself, and for the genre of silent film, makes "Call of the Cthulu" a triumph of honest artistic effort. The decision to make this a silent movie was a stroke of genius. The black and white silent format so well matches the dark and antique ambiance of H.P. Lovecraft stories. As far as I know, it is only available by order from the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society. We gathered a group of life long Lovecraft fans for the viewing, and we were all delighted by the film, and felt the movie did the story complete justice. There are some very nice extras on the DVD which explain the process of making the film, how a backyard was used to build sets, and what went into making a modern silent film hold true to the look and feel of the genre. Do yourself a favor, buy the movie, and watch it with friends. Priceless!

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20 out of 20 people found the following comment useful :-
A great Lovecraftian film, 18 January 2008
8/10
Author: Iwasthefirstmarshman from United States

This film was a great filler for the afternoon. It's the sort of thing that only fans of Lovecraft would actually enjoy. It's black and white and silent, the way a film actually would have been made at the time Lovecraft published his first work featuring Cthulu. The effects are done in a similar manner, looking old fashioned. They're not embarrassingly bad, though. You see no strings or unintentional shadows from off stage. It's not quite an hour long, so don't plan an evening around it. Also, there's no nudity, foul language or awful gore, so if you want, you can watch it with your kids and explain to them the mythology of Lovecraft's Old Ones.

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22 out of 24 people found the following comment useful :-
Artistic Masterpiece, and a Good Lovecraft Tale to Boot, 24 April 2007
8/10
Author: Gavin Schmitt (gavin6942@yahoo.com) from Kaukauna, Wisconsin

A man inherits his great-uncle's papers and finds that his uncle had been investigating some strange occurrences surrounding a lost ship at sea and a man's exotic dreams. The nephew picks up the investigation where his uncle left off and is soon driven quite mad.

Let me say the obvious: this film is artistically a masterpiece beyond a doubt. The way the director decided to give it a 1920s feel with the picture quality (to match the time period) as well as making it something like a silent movie (none of the dialog is heard and only some of it appears written on a frame by itself) is awesome. Some people might rag on the picture for this technique or perhaps because it's not exactly like a 1920s picture, but I think it turned out well. Who wants an exact copy of the 1920s style? I'd just watch an older film then (like "Metropolis").

The story is also quite good, even if it is really simple and open-ended. I've heard people complain about plot holes, but I didn't notice any of that. I found a man who dreamed of Cthulhu and carved tablets, and another man who landed on an island with a Cthulhu cult actively trying to raise him. They interconnect, and if the viewer doesn't catch this they aren't paying attention (which is crucial when there's no words spoken).

I also felt the people behind this had a deep love and admiration for Lovecraft, which is essential. They nailed the outfits and the relics -- I couldn't imagine them any better than they appear in this film. I would have liked to see Miskatonic University rather than the university they chose, but I suppose there's the chance of overdoing it.

Really, if you like Lovecraft or artsy films, do check this one out. It's very short (less than an hour) so if you end up not liking it you're not really wasting time. I'm not sure how easy it is to come by; my source of videos is pretty impressive with the independent and rare films. But if you should come across this one, grab it. Definitely worth a watch.

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20 out of 21 people found the following comment useful :-
Strange Eons..., 4 August 2006
10/10
Author: docdespicable from Los Angeles, CA

This is, without a doubt, the most amazing adaptation of HP Lovecraft's work to the screen that I have ever seen. Bar none. The only modern film that even comes close to capturing the feeling induced by HPL at his best is IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS, and even that has its failings.

The key, here, then, is atmosphere. I mean, CALL OF CTHULHU is unquestionably true to the source material, but other adaptations have tried that (though not very hard) and failed. What makes this work is the filmmakers' decision to place it in the cultural idiom of Lovecraft's era - to portray it as one imagines Lovecraft envisioned it in the writing.

So we have a 45 minute feature (short, but still officially feature-length for the era), in black & white, silent, with a classic score. It begins in menace and builds to madness. There is an aura of foreboding in this film missing in just about any "later" feature you can name - and it never lets up. Even Hitchcock provided moments for his audience to breathe and unclench until the next sequence. Every moment of CALL OF CTHULHU is fraught with the notion that something terrible is about to happen, that there are "worse things waiting".

Stephen King has voiced the opinion that, after so much build up, the storyteller MUST show his readers/audience/victims the monster. This is debatable. CALL OF CTHULHU shows us the monster - in a fashion. The filmmakers take their lesson from the true masters of horror and suspense: Boris Karloff, among others, always assured us that the audience can do ten-times worse things in their imagination that anything that could be accomplished in full view. Here, we are shown just enough of the titular beast to provide fodder for our imagination, and it does not well serve one to linger too long on visualizing the Great Cthulhu in all his mind-shattering detail! My only complaints are that, first, some of the actors read as a bit modern in their appearance; but this is very infrequent, negligibly so, and the acting more than compensates. Second, the idols/statues - one is practically an art-deco rendering, and too slick for my tastes, while the other (lumpen, tribal and highly suggestive) is only briefly glimpsed. Third... well, the movie is too danged short! It covers the entire content of the story, is nicely and tightly produced and never really misses a beat. I just wanted more, dagnabit, which I suppose is more tribute than complaint.

If these folks produce another of Lovecarft's visions, if I can't be a part of the production, rest assured that I will certainly be near the front of the line to see it. Find it, buy it, see it, love it - for Lovecraft fans and aficionados, this is vindication at last!

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18 out of 18 people found the following comment useful :-
The first real Lovecraft adaption, 26 August 2007
10/10
Author: RevoxFintail from Germany

"Call of Cthulhu" is the first real adaption of a Lovecraft story. It was made by amateurs with a very low budget, but they managed to produce a great movie that is better then many professional productions. It is made up as a silent movie in black&white. Usually I don't like retro-fakes, but it works perfect in this movie. There are some little mistakes that reveal it is a post.modern film; for example some cars in the background that were built in the 1930s. Another example is the the VanGogh-jigsaw; it is rather unusual for a 1920s movie to show the work of a classic modern painter. Nevertheless, some of the people (including a professor) thought it was indeed a film from the 1920s as I showed them the movie without explanation. As you see from the examples above, the anachronisms in this movie aren't to serious to spoil the fun. The scenes in the swamp and in R'lyeh are superb. There are no boring and stereotype computer-effects that you would find in every mainstream-production today. It is very difficult to make the appearance of Cthulhu not look like a scene from a video game, but the HPLS-team was able to avoid that. The dreamlike atmosphere is caught well. The acting is quite capable for amateurs; probably better then some over payed "actors" in other productions. Especially Noah Wagner as captain gives a great performance. "Call of Cthulhu" deserves a 10 of 10. It is a shame that some people try to put this great movie down with fake reviews. If the spilling-connection has to run a smear campaign against a great fan-movie to advertise their own product, they must be selling a real stinker.

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