Movie Review: The Call of Cthulhu

The Call of Cthulhu
Starring: Matt Foyer, John Bolen, Ralph Lucas, Chad Fifer, John Klemantaski, Jason Owens, D. Grigsby Poland, David Mersault
Director: Andrew Leman
H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society, USA, 2005.

The movie is based on the short story written by H.P. Lovecraft. 

The movie begins with the narrator (Matt Foyer) telling about his and his late great-uncle's research. Great-uncle Professor Angell (Ralph Lucas) was conducting a research on the Cthulhu cult. In 1925 an artist Henry Wilcox (Chad Fifer) brought him a strange tablet that had a carving based on his dream experiences. Henry had terrible nightmares about the city of R'lyeh. Professor Angell had collected newspaper clippings about strange happenings with cultists performing strange rituals and cases of insanity occurring around the world. 

The narrator tells his story

City of R'lyeh

Henry telling about his nightmares

Prof. Angell also remembered strange happenings in 1908. Police Inspector Legrasse told about a raid in a swamp where a cult was conducting hideous rituals. After raiding the cult the police confiscated a small statue of Cthulhu. One cultist named Castro (Clarence Henry Hunt) told that Great Cthulhu waits dreaming in the sunken city of R'lyeh an will return when the stars are right. All who studied the cult either died or went insane. 

Rite of Cthulhu

Crazy cultist Castro

Cthulhu figurine

The narrator wanted to end the research but he was already obsessed by the cult. The final piece to the mystery came from the diary of sailor Johansen (Patrick O'Day) who depicts his experience with the cosmic horrors. The sailor and the other crew set foot on an unknown island that rose from the sea.

Tomb of Cthulhu

Terrified sailor

Great Cthulhu

The story uses narratives and diaries of multiple persons peeling the mystery like an onion, one layer at a time. The movie is made in the 1920s silent movie style, the sets are Expressionistic in the style of German silent classics. Also the acting style is dramatic, with heavy make-up. The movie's length is short, being only 47 minutes. Only in some scenes green screen effects are obvious. Cthulhu effects are made using stop-motion animation. The ritual scene in the swamp is intense and uses lighting effects well. The non-Euclidean geometry (something that looks like a corner or horizontal plane may suddenly turn into a deep chasm) of the nightmare city R'lyeh is well realised. The movie is quite faithful to Lovecraft's original story. It may well be the best Lovecraft-movie.

Rating: Excellent