Call of Cthulhu.
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This is a black and white silent movie produced by the H P Lovecraft Historical Society. In other words, it's essentially a fan film. Taken as such, it's not a bad little gem. I don't think it crosses the line to great or to objectively good, though. I found my attention wandering now and again. Maintaining interest these days when you don't have dialog to hook the viewer is difficult. Also, while I'm sure the actors in this production are skilled, they do not have the skills necessary to do well in silent film. Without dialog, everything needs to be communicated via body language and facial expression. Extensive skill in mime and gesture is necessary, but they simply do not have it. The deliberateness of their actions because it was in the script showed through. Often they felt like actors hitting their marks instead of real people living their lives. But this is forgivable in a fan film, although it would be dishonest to not mention it.
The director tried his best, making use of light and shadow whenever he could. Although nothing was particularly striking. But it wasn't completely boring to look at, either. It could have been all flat angles and such.
One place they could have done more but didn't was during the climax on the island of R'lyeh where perspective is supposed to be all wonky. They just built odd-looking sets, but they could have used things like forced perspective to make this point more clear. But they didn't and the film is poorer for it.
Plotwise, it appears to be a faithful to a fault adaptation. This is expected considering the people behind it. It's just not a very compelling narrative for a visual medium. lots of reading and flashbacks. The entire film is a flashback, in fact, where a dude in a booby hatch gives all his papers to his doctor and tells him to burn it so that no one else will come to know what he does and thus suffer the same fate. So, naturally he tells the guy everything he knows in a parade of flashbacks.
that all said, the HPLHS put a lot of effort into this. There's a cult scene with quite a few extras in it that must have strained their budget or personal relations a bit. You can tell there's love put into it, which makes up for the lack of skill in other areas.
But ultimately this film is a curiosity. It's not great. It may not even be good. But considering its an overgrown fan film done in a gimmicky style, it's worth a look just to say that you've seen it. I can't say that it will stick with you after the credits, though.
