Josh-da-man

In what looks to be at least an interesting stunt, some people are adapting Lovecraft's "Call of Cthulhu" in the style of a 1920s silent movie.

Information here: http://www.cthulhulives.org/CoC/movieinfo.html

Trailer here: http://www.cthulhulives.org/CoC/trailer.html

Giantrobo

Kinda neat. I always wanted to read that story.

Ky-Fi

After reading the DVD talk review:

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read....=19599&___rd=1

...I picked this one up. Really great!! It's a great example of what can be done by filmmakers who don't have a lot of money but have a real affection and knowledge of the subject matter. Just a nice narrative and moody atmosphere that really captures the vibe of Lovecraft. The outstanding score really works well, IMO, and fits the scenes perfectly. There's a bit of heavy-handedness in some of the scenes, and I didn't quite buy the action in the swamp cult gathering, but those are minor quibbles. It really had an expressionist vibe to it that reminded me of the better early 30's Universal horror movies. I would say that anybody who likes those and is a Lovecraft fan would probably enjoy this one. I just hope they adapt more Lovecraft. Anyone else pick up this one yet?

Joe Molotov

I haven't seen it yet, but it's on the "To Watch" list. I really liked what they did with it, from what I saw with the trailer. Adapting it as a 20's style silent movie was a brilliant move (and undoubtedly helps to disguise the low budget).

The title of the thread threw me off though, I thought this was going to be about the other Cthulhu movie, "starring" Tori Spelling. There's a trailer out now for it too, and it looks pretty iffy. According to the website:

Indeed.

Nick Danger

Oh, I definitely want to see this.

Will the title cards include the words, gibbous, squamous, eldritch, or foetid?

Ky-Fi

I don't specifically remember those words, but there's quite a few little Lovecraft tidbits/details scattered throughout, as far as books, newspaper headlines, etc. And there's even an appearance by that degenerate tribe of devil-worshipping "eskimaux" .

baracine

This is out on DVD today ... again. I guess the first time was a very limited release. I will be either renting or buying, depending on whether the cover art sends chills down my spine or not ...

Giles

oh my~ !!!!


sold!

baracine

The Bus

That's a cool cover. I've never read any of his stuff but I'm somewhat familiar by it because of influence. I'm definitely interested in this release.

Zodiac_Speaking

It's probably my next purchased. I've heard constant good things about it for a while.

Joe Molotov

So is this actually out in stores this time, or is it just available on their website again?

baracine

I bought it just now... in a store and everything!

Joe Molotov

Cool, I'm going to try to pick it up tomorrow.

baracine

Well, I had my first screening and I liked it, all 45 minutes of it. I must say that as a silent-film pastiche, it's a whole lot more watchable than say, La Chute de la Maison Usher (1928) - which is supposedly a genuine pioneering horror classic - especially in the way of atmosphere, special effects and respect for the original source. And the music worked much better for me than the abomination to be found on the DVD of that aforementioned "classic". The acting was also competent. The end result does look like an interesting, overlooked, recently-rediscovered expressionist film and that was the makers' intention. It also has great repeat value.

Otherwise, as a professional translator, I really need to bitch about one thing: The French-language title cards were translated by well-meaning but incompetent amateurs (who even signed their work): their translation was not ungrammatical but often inaccurate, misleading, unimaginative and simply wrong. Another job that suffered from not having been run by me (ahem!). I hope the other foreign languages fared better. Also, some of the English title cards went by so fast, you'd need a speed-reading course to read them all...

baracine

Rotten Tomatoes: 100 % (!)

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/call_of_cthulhu/

MoviePage

Semi-off-topic, but I did notice that Davy Jones uses the word eldritch when referring to the kraken in POTC:AWE.

baracine

Not that I noticed. But they do talk about "Esquimaux" (early XXth century French spelling) when the printed story says "Eskimos" (at least in the latest version). And you have to cringe at the headline : "New York police attacked by mob of Levantines" and other purposefully ancient-sounding racial/racist epiteths.

Here are the main differences I found with the original story:

1. The narrator's uncle dies in mysterious circumstances after an encounter with a Negro sailor (!). Johansen also dies mysteriously after someone (or something) drops a heavy manuscipt on his head from the top-floor window on a street in Oslo.
2. The incident between Prof. Webb and the Eskimo shaman does not end with the violent aggression shown in the film, which is a total (though effective) invention of the adapters.
3. The cultist Castro is an "immensely old man" who does not need to be beaten by the police to extract a confession. He talks willingly.
4. In the story, Johansen's ship, the Emma, is fired at by the yacht Alert and sunk (and the Captain dies). The surviving crew takes over the Alert in a savage fight for survival, which would have been hell to show in such a low-budget film after all the expense of the swamp fight, and commandeers their yacht after killing all those degenerate "half-castes". It is revealed later that these sailors were cultists who wanted to prevent the crew of the Emma from disturbing their projected ritual on the island, which is why the sailors go on to investigate.
5. The original story does not have a framing hospital scene.

baracine

I wonder if the makers have thought about the multiple merchandising opportunities of this film, like this lovely "Hello Cthulhu" plush toy:



(http://www.toyvault.com/cthulhu/index.html)

... or these winsome "Hello Ctuhlhu" T-shirts:



(http://www.cafepress.com/timmyt.47072)

And, of course, there's the highly-addictive late night phone-in Talk Show, "Calls for Cthulhu":

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Joe Molotov

I'd eldritch is a cool word, I'd like to work it into my everyday speech if I could just find more oppurtunities.

Supermallet

And of course Davy Jones is vaguely Cthulu-esque himself.

baracine

A sequel? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SP-33XI4frs

baracine

The "Prank Call of Cthulhu" episode of The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy:

Part 1:

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Part 2:

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baracine

Supermallet

That episode of Billy and Mandy was nowhere near as good as the Pandora's lunch box episode.

I just picked this up recently: