I’m a big mark for H.P. Lovecraft and the whole Cthulhu-mythos genre (wow Cthulhu is a word according to Firefox that is sweet), from the original stories to the Cyber-Cthulhu of Charles Stross’ Atrocity Archives. It’s often lamented that Lovecraft is virtually impossible to translate to the big screen, since “things so horrible that the mere glimpse will drive you into unending madness” tend to render special effects technicians into gibbering insanity, which makes finishing under budget difficult. I suppose John Carpenter has come the closest, although not with his Lovecraft-themed At the Mountains of Madness but instead with the other two entries in his “Apocalyptic Trilogy”: The Thing and Prince of Darkness (especially the latter). The closest I think anyone has gotten to a true capturing of the Lovecraft spirit are the games Call of Cthulhu and Eternal Darkness, both of which you should play (I’ll wait). Ok you’re back? Well, the reason for this somewhat lengthy discussion is that in 2005 Sean Branney and Andrew Leman created a version of Lovecraft’s Call of Cthulhu short story as if it had been filmed in 1926, when the story was released. Therefore, it’s black and white, silent, and with 20s-style special effects. All in all it’s pretty sweet. The plot sticks pretty close to the original story, I’m sure there are some deviations (the filmmakers did strip out a good bit of the *ahem* racially sensitive content of Lovecraft’s story) but I’m not quite that nerdy that I would notice the minor changes plus it’s been like two years since I last read “Call.” Anyway, the plot works well as a silent film and you can get away with more bad acting and a crappier budget (as my own Eisenstein-inspired films for my Russian film class prove) in black and white. The finale on the island is especially well done, with some good Cabinet of Dr. Caligari inspired landscapes and a suitably cheesy Cthulhu that the filmmakers wisely don’t let you see clearly. Having watched far too many silent films from the era, I couldn’t help but notice that the camera work was a little too modern for the time period (too many cuts/too much movement and some other techniques that didn’t come along for a whole bunch of years) but it didn’t really detract from the actual film (unless you’re some kind of weird silent film purist). In fact, the anachronistic camera most likely made the film better as most silent films are, quite frankly, deadly boring, which this surely isn’t. Anyway, it’s kind of hard to find but I really recommend that you check it out, either at a film festival or on dvd. Plus support indie filmmaking! The website is here.
Fracture
I meant to see this film in theaters but kind of dawdled until it was gone. I’m glad I finally saw it because it’s a pretty good movie. Ryan Gosling is a hot-shot prosecutor, moving on to bigger and better things, who is trying to put away Anthony Hopkins (who killed his wife) in his final case. Of course, things are not as they seem blah blah blah. The twists in the film are pretty cool and I was really impressed with Ryan Gosling, who I’m never sure if I like or not (I wasn’t the biggest fan of Half Nelson). He did a great job as the extremely cocky lawyer, although his head still has a weird shape. Definitely worth a rental, especially in the doldrums of summer.
The Future – Hopefully Disturbia tonight, Stardust later this week, and then Superbad on Friday. ADVENTURE!
