They're going to try to capture the indescribably horrible Cthulhu on the screen? So one worries before seeing this film, but Lovecraft also contradicts himself by describing Cthulhu and a parade of other ineffable horribles. He means that one couldn't fully convey the horribleness of it. Cthulhu is, however weird, a part of the natural world, and when the movie finally reveals him fully, it's scary. What cannot be described is what it was like to be there when Cthulhu emerged, but we see this indirectly in people's reactions (e.g. in one person dropping dead from fright). The creature himself is a stop-motion triumph, and the city on the mysterious island reminds one of The Cabinet of Dr Caligari's amazing art direction. The movie is faithful to the story, as I remember it.
This long wished-for experience is marred only by a super-annoying fake aging effect--hairs and specks and holes in the "film." That is an incomprehensible lapse of taste in a scary and otherwise stylish movie. (I especially liked the authentic-looking period handwriting and printed documents--nice touches for a story in which much of the narrative action emerges through the act of reading.) These talented Lovecraft-lovers demonstrated the continuing vitality of black-and-white and silence as stylistic choices, by making a good BW silent movie. To hide their light under a bushel of fake digital pubic hairs (just guessing from the length) was a misstep, and had me looking for a "view movie with hair turned off" easter egg. Maybe in the next edition--and, let's hope, in their next "film."
This long wished-for experience is marred only by a super-annoying fake aging effect--hairs and specks and holes in the "film." That is an incomprehensible lapse of taste in a scary and otherwise stylish movie. (I especially liked the authentic-looking period handwriting and printed documents--nice touches for a story in which much of the narrative action emerges through the act of reading.) These talented Lovecraft-lovers demonstrated the continuing vitality of black-and-white and silence as stylistic choices, by making a good BW silent movie. To hide their light under a bushel of fake digital pubic hairs (just guessing from the length) was a misstep, and had me looking for a "view movie with hair turned off" easter egg. Maybe in the next edition--and, let's hope, in their next "film."