- Actors: Matt Foyer, David Mersault, Noah Wagner
- Directors: Andrew H. Leman
- Format: NTSC
- Language English
- Subtitles: German, French, Swedish
- Region: All Regions
- Aspect Ratio: 4:3 - 1.33:1
- Number of discs: 1
- Classification: Exempt
- Studio: Microcinema
- DVD Release Date: 29 May 2007
- Run Time: 72 minutes
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
- ASIN: B000BQTC98
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 15,988 in Film & TV (See Top 100 in Film & TV)
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Product Description
The Call of Cthulhu, an all new silent film, is HP Lovecraft's most famous story. It is the only story to feature the celebrated monster Cthulhu and in many ways it encapsulates the ideas that went on to permeated Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. The film follows the story's three-part narrative construction, and it moves from the 1920s to 1908 to the 1870s and back, as the story does. The story embodies HPL's nihilistic world view, his cosmic perspective, and his sense that mankind is doomed by its own insignificance. And it's a pretty good globe-trotting adventure story. (Spoiler Warning) In the story, a dying professor leaves his great-nephew a collection of documents pertaining to the Cthulhu Cult. The nephew begins to learn why the study of the cult so fascinated his grandfather. Bit-by-bit he begins piecing together the dread implications of his grandfather's inquiries, and soon he takes on investigating the Cthulhu cult as a crusade of his own. As he pieces together the dreadful and disturbing reality of the situation, his own sanity begins to crumble. In the end, he passes the torch to his psychiatrist, who in turn hears Cthulhu's call. Complete Intertitles in 24 languages: Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Euskera, Finnish, French, Galician, German, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Lithuanian, Luxembourgish, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Welsh
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
38 of 42 people found the following review helpful
I approached this product with apprehension and unease. An unknown film of one of Lovecraft's most celebrated stories could have been an utter disaster. Luckily it isn't. This is a remarkably loving adaptation of an oft-considered unfilmable story. The driving force behind the film is the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society and thankfully they have done an excellent job.
The genius lies in making it a silent black & white production. It does have a truly early-1900's feel to it with a subtle placement of a few canny visual effects to reinforce the illusion. The overly eye-rolling performances of some of the actors are thankfully diluted by the period atmosphere and the brevity of most roles, as dictated by the story itself.
When they finally discover the grim secret of earthquake risen R'lyeh you'll be favourably impressed. It is stylistically reminiscent of the 1933 King Kong and incredibly, almost as effective.
A few minor niggles are far outweighed by the good points and when you consider this is not made by a "professional" studio it's an outstanding piece of work.
If you love the story, I heartily recommend this adaptation.
edit: my copy says "region 0" on the back !
The genius lies in making it a silent black & white production. It does have a truly early-1900's feel to it with a subtle placement of a few canny visual effects to reinforce the illusion. The overly eye-rolling performances of some of the actors are thankfully diluted by the period atmosphere and the brevity of most roles, as dictated by the story itself.
When they finally discover the grim secret of earthquake risen R'lyeh you'll be favourably impressed. It is stylistically reminiscent of the 1933 King Kong and incredibly, almost as effective.
A few minor niggles are far outweighed by the good points and when you consider this is not made by a "professional" studio it's an outstanding piece of work.
If you love the story, I heartily recommend this adaptation.
edit: my copy says "region 0" on the back !
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Difficult to rate this movie, but I thoroughly enjoyed this film. Its not a popcorn movie, but if you like both arthouse films and H P Lovecraft books you will love this work. If not you should probably give this film a miss. George Lucas should really watch this film in order to understand that less can be more; this film actually benefits from being a low budget movie. Dark, atmospheric and true to the original story, this is a sublime piece of art. For the fan of the 1922 film Nosferatu.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
This is possibly the best amateur effort I have seen and an absolutely ingenious way to do this sort of stuff. When Del Toro gets round to the mountains of madness no doubt it will be filled with terrific digital stuff (and I will be the first in the queue) But I can't see how he can improve on the atmosphere of this. There is a genuine feel for the distant past when it was written. Great attention has been paid to the art direction and the score deserves very high praise.
Lovecraft is extraordinarily hard to pull off on screen and I can't wait for the HPLHS next effort.
Lovecraft is extraordinarily hard to pull off on screen and I can't wait for the HPLHS next effort.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A real treat - Lovecraft served à la Fritz Lang with sauce F.W....
This movie was made with a little budget and unknown actors by people I never heard about - but after the first minute I completely forgot to care about it! Read more
Published 2 months ago by Maciej
Obey the call
This version of 'The Call of Cthulhu', filmed in fabulous Mythoscope, is a must for any and all H. P. Lovecraft fans. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Micro
Hear the Call of Cthulhu--In a Brilliant SILENT Film!
The works of venerable horror writer H.P. Lovecraft have, in some ways, become the backbone of the genre, especially cinematic horror. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Michael R Gates
Atmospheric delight!
This 47 minute film knocks the socks off so many big budget Hollywood flops issued in the last decade. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Adrian Drew
Lovecraft would love it.
Its not often you buy a black and white silent movie on DVD and i was a bit curious about what i was getting. Read more
Published 20 months ago by N. Shepperson
Cthulhu Lives!
This is simply awesome. Made by a film club of enthusiasts, it knocks nearly every studio attempt at Lovecraft for six. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Mr. P. M. D. Navin
Surprisingly good
A modern black and white silent film? Normally this would put me right off, and I'd take no notice of reviewers who said it was good because I'd suspect them of just being too up... Read more
Published 23 months ago by R. Hayes
A Real Treat
Call of Cthulhu is an example of a fan-film done right, where imagination has made a virtue of the inevitable low budget. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Emilio Mestiga
Lovecraft on a shoestring budget
I was looking forward to see this film after reading the feedback from amazon reviewers. However after watching it I have to admit that I was bitterly disappointed. Read more
Published 24 months ago by M. Legall
Genius
The film makers chose a creative way to film what should have been unfilmable by making this look like a lost film from the 1920s German expressionist school. Read more
Published on 17 July 2009 by Godzilla The Hun
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