10/31/07: Here's something that I should have written about a long time ago. Two years ago, I got home from work on Halloween to find an envelope waiting for me from the
H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society. I had been seeing mentions of their (then) new film
"The Call of Cthulhu" for some time in the
Silent Movie newsgroup, so I had ordered the DVD from their web site. How they timed it to arrive on Halloween I have no idea!
I've been a fan of silent movies since I was a kid (probably from watching
Metropolis so many times) and I've read a few Lovecraft stories, so I figured that I was firmly in their target audience. Turns out I was right, because I really enjoyed the movie. They really did a great job of capturing the feel of a 1920s era silent movie. The story, the actors, the sets, and the music all are a cut above what you would expect from an independent film made by a bunch of fans. The special effects, while maybe primitive by todays Hollywood standards, serve the story well, and look as though they could actually have been done in the early days of motion pictures. On top of all that, the intertitles are available in 24 languages! You can watch the film in Polish, Norwegian, or Luxembourgish if you wish. I watched it (in English) the night it arrived, and several times since, and have been thoroughly entertained each time. And the "making of" featurette was almost as entertaining as the film itself.
Check out the trailer if you think you might be interested. I'd recommend it to anyone open-minded enough to watch a "movie without sound".
The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society has since put out a
radio drama of another Lovecraft story in the style of an old-time radio show, another medium of entertainment that I'm fond of, and is apparently now working on
another film adaptation, this time with sound, though still in black and white. It looks this one might be in the style of those film noir B-movies that I've been taping off of late night TV. These guys really have my number!
Click below for Archived Items:2010:
January February March April June July August 2009:
January February March April May June July August September October November December 2008:
January February March April May June July August September October November December 2007:
January February March April May June July August September October November December 2006:
January February March April May June July August September October November December 2005:
January February March April May June July August September October November December 2004:
January February March April May June July August September October November December 2003:
June July August September October November December Show All Articles
