This 20-Year-Old Film Is the Most Accurate Lovecraft Adaptation Ever – And It Got 100% on RT
Fans had long lost hope that they would ever see a truly faithful adaptation of the author's work – but twenty years ago, a movie was released that did it almost perfectly.
More than 90 movies and about a dozen video games have been made based on the works of Howard Phillips Lovecraft. Most of these works are from the 21st century.
An impressive number, though somewhat exaggerated, since the big share of these films are only associated with Lovecraft by names and titles.
For example, in Sam Raimi 's The Evil Dead the book of spells is called Necronomicon, and in Lucio Fulci's City of the Living Dead the village is called Dunwich.
It is generally accepted that the writer's works have not yet found their ideal screen embodiment – the chthonic horror of the incomprehensible is simply impossible to translate into the language of cinema.
2005's The Call of Cthulhu Is a Unique Lovecraft Movie
However, one movie has come as close as possible, and has received a perfect 100% on Rotten Tomatoes for its efforts.
The most interesting adaptation in recent years was The Call of Cthulhu, directed by Andrew Leman and released in 2005. The movie's budget was $50,000, and it was originally intended to be released only on DVD; the creators didn't even think about theatrical release.
The Call of Cthulhu Is the Most Accurate Adaptation in the Style of the 20s Silent Movies
The Call of Cthulhu is an almost literal embodiment of the story of the same name, stylized as a black and white silent movie from the 20s. This is probably what a full-length movie would have looked like if it had been made when the great author was still alive.
The digitally shot image was aged using a special technique, and the overly agitated acting, which was natural for silent movies, perfectly conveys the atmosphere of the late Victorian era, of which Lovecraft was one of the last representatives.
The insanely geometric landscapes, the deliberately primitive animation of Cthulhu himself, the beautiful make-up of the characters – all these nuances make The Call of Cthulhu perhaps the best Lovecraft adaptation of all time.
The Movie Has Had an Influence on Other Adaptations of the Author's Works
The style of the film itself became one of the elements of the narrative, the form of presentation proved to be ideally suited to the content of the author's work.
Moreover, this movie set a kind of canon for film adaptations. The horror movie The Whisperer in Darkness by Matt Hundley, which was released two years later, was adapted in the same retro style – and again quite successfully.
