Tentacles and Pincers
Last night, I got together with a large group of most excellent geeks for dinner at Racha Thai, and then the H.P. Lovecraft double-feature at SIFF. Although the group was mostly writers, we ended up spending most of dinner talking about movies. We also sang a pretty harmonious version of "Happy Birthday" to oldmangrumpus whose natal day it was.
We walked over to SIFF from the restaurant and were such a large group that we took up almost a full row in the theatre!
The two films we saw were created by a group calling itself the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society. As was explained to the audience by Dan Doody, one of SIFF's veteran programmers, the film projects were the result of the group playing the Call of Cthulu role-playing game. What they ended up producing is two films that are both faithful film versions of H.P. Lovecraft's science fiction/horror classics and true homages to early film. Also? The acting and effects are really pretty fine. Mostly, what the films are is well-crafted fun.
The first film was "Call of Cthulu" (trailers), produced as a 1920s-style silent film. The story of a man discovering the truth behind the ancient horror of a cult that was his great-uncle's one obsession, the film is a perfect silent-movie pastiche: dark and moody, full of foreboding and dread. The set design, especially the conception of R'lyeh, was very true to the period and also quite striking. If you didn't know it was a modern production, you might not have known at all.
The second film was the nearly-feature-length "The Whisperer in Darkness" (trailers), made in the style of a classic 1930s flick, and all the tropes are there--the harbinger who warns of the danger to come and is not believed, the advocate who believes in Mysteries, the skeptic (in this case, our hero), the one who is not as he appears to be, the washed-out bridge, the giant crablike creatures in the dark, and the child in distress. When folklorist Albert Wilmarth receives correspondence from a farmer in rural Vermont that relates stories just like those collected by Wilmath's predecessor, Wilmarth decides to go to Vermont to investigate the wild stories himself. And in true form, what he finds is Beyond Mortal Ken. It's pulpy fun in the best tradition and, again, really does look like it was made in the '30s. The sets, lighting, costumes, are all perfect.
One thing I noticed right off with each film: the music. In both, it's lushly orchestrated and really true to the era: rich and atmospheric, adding a wonderful element to the environment.
These flicks--and that's really what they are, flicks--are great fun, and I'm glad I was able to marshal a crowd to see them.
We walked over to SIFF from the restaurant and were such a large group that we took up almost a full row in the theatre!
The two films we saw were created by a group calling itself the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society. As was explained to the audience by Dan Doody, one of SIFF's veteran programmers, the film projects were the result of the group playing the Call of Cthulu role-playing game. What they ended up producing is two films that are both faithful film versions of H.P. Lovecraft's science fiction/horror classics and true homages to early film. Also? The acting and effects are really pretty fine. Mostly, what the films are is well-crafted fun.
The first film was "Call of Cthulu" (trailers), produced as a 1920s-style silent film. The story of a man discovering the truth behind the ancient horror of a cult that was his great-uncle's one obsession, the film is a perfect silent-movie pastiche: dark and moody, full of foreboding and dread. The set design, especially the conception of R'lyeh, was very true to the period and also quite striking. If you didn't know it was a modern production, you might not have known at all.
The second film was the nearly-feature-length "The Whisperer in Darkness" (trailers), made in the style of a classic 1930s flick, and all the tropes are there--the harbinger who warns of the danger to come and is not believed, the advocate who believes in Mysteries, the skeptic (in this case, our hero), the one who is not as he appears to be, the washed-out bridge, the giant crablike creatures in the dark, and the child in distress. When folklorist Albert Wilmarth receives correspondence from a farmer in rural Vermont that relates stories just like those collected by Wilmath's predecessor, Wilmarth decides to go to Vermont to investigate the wild stories himself. And in true form, what he finds is Beyond Mortal Ken. It's pulpy fun in the best tradition and, again, really does look like it was made in the '30s. The sets, lighting, costumes, are all perfect.
One thing I noticed right off with each film: the music. In both, it's lushly orchestrated and really true to the era: rich and atmospheric, adding a wonderful element to the environment.
These flicks--and that's really what they are, flicks--are great fun, and I'm glad I was able to marshal a crowd to see them.