H.P. Lovecraft’s stories work best as silent film.
Who knew?
The Call of Cthulhu was a labor of love of the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, who decided to adapt the 1926 story in the style of a silent film of the mid-twenties.
The strange thing is that is hard to imagine how this close adaptation of the story could have been made any other way – its series of flashbacks within flashbacks would be hard to understand without the help of title cards. The deliberately stylized approach, the high contrast make up, and lack of dialogue all make it all seem that much eerier.
The ancient alien Cthulhu even makes an appearance, courtesy of some deliberately shaky stop motion.
Their 2011 follow-up, The Whisperer in Darkness, is nowhere near as good. But at least it does feature some nice alien flying machines.
(The film is available on Hulu)
rivets on the poster 
I dig this movie so much! Lovecraft’s stories are notoriously hard to convert into film but when they succeed it’s a freakin’ delight. Most of all I appreciate the fact that the HP Lovecraft Historical Society make their film versions in the film style that was popular at the time of their publication.
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