Much like I imagine the filmmakers here to be, I am a fan of Lovecraft. Not a crazy, super-protective, strict by-the-book fan, but a fan none the less. I certainly have heard the call of the mighty Cthulhu. So I understand why one would want to make this film, I really do. Lovecraft's stories are so imaginative that they seem to cry out to be seen, literally, on screen.
The problem is that I don't think they can truly work in film.
See so much of what makes the stories work is the idea of things that cannot exist. The terror comes from imagining how paralyzingly horrifying these experiences would be if they happened to you personally. So by that token watching a filmmaker's version of the images will always fall short of what yr own mind makes happen when reading the story.
Additionally the actual prose is a huge part of what makes the stories good and obviously that is (due to the nature of the film medium) lost when watched on a screen. A character sitting in a room reading can be horrifying in a Lovecraft story, but it will not be that scary in a movie when you have to watch an actor sitting in a room looking distraught.
And on top of all of this the silent movie treatment turns the whole thing into a hokey exercise in nostalgia. No silent movie is as scary as a Lovecraft story can be. So why turn one of his best into a low-budget throw-back experiment? These guys obviously put a lot of time and work into this movie and I will not bash them for trying. If you like Lovecraft then maybe you should watch this, for fun. But if you are new to Lovecraft then don't let this be yr introduction.
I respect the effort but it doesn't result in a satisfying film.
The problem is that I don't think they can truly work in film.
See so much of what makes the stories work is the idea of things that cannot exist. The terror comes from imagining how paralyzingly horrifying these experiences would be if they happened to you personally. So by that token watching a filmmaker's version of the images will always fall short of what yr own mind makes happen when reading the story.
Additionally the actual prose is a huge part of what makes the stories good and obviously that is (due to the nature of the film medium) lost when watched on a screen. A character sitting in a room reading can be horrifying in a Lovecraft story, but it will not be that scary in a movie when you have to watch an actor sitting in a room looking distraught.
And on top of all of this the silent movie treatment turns the whole thing into a hokey exercise in nostalgia. No silent movie is as scary as a Lovecraft story can be. So why turn one of his best into a low-budget throw-back experiment? These guys obviously put a lot of time and work into this movie and I will not bash them for trying. If you like Lovecraft then maybe you should watch this, for fun. But if you are new to Lovecraft then don't let this be yr introduction.
I respect the effort but it doesn't result in a satisfying film.