The Call of Cthulhu
The Call of Cthulhu, written in 1926 by H.P Lovecraft is a central piece in the horror genre. Lovecraft renewed Horror with his style and ideas. Many have tried to adapt his books to the big screen, but none has been as successful as the HPLHS who just recently completed their black and white silent version of Call of Cthulhu. Not only did they attempt to make a faithful and creepy adaptation, but also to make it look as if it was made in the time of Lovecraft. The movie is blessed with terrific actors who all seem like they genuinely care about the portrayal of the story. All performances are top notch which signifies that the actors are very talented as well as great directing on part of Andrew Leman. This is truly one of the great strengths of Call of Cthulhu. The movie has a really authentic 1920ties feel to it. The producers have paid much attention to detail; so everything looks and feels genuine. Another strong point.
The adaptation itself is magnificent. Never before have I seen such a faithful adaption of any Lovecraft-story in my entire life. Nothing is rushed, it is all there and even though the movie is only 45 minutes long it is just as good at telling the story as Lovecraft himself. The movie is full of special effects, stop motion animation and so forth. This movie is low budget and independent, and yes Universal studios would be able to create more convincing effects, but that is entirely unessential to this film as it is made to fit the 1920ties era. If Cthulhu himself were made with fancy computer animation the movie would have failed at its objective; to be faithful to the silent movie genre. To be honest I love the effects in Call of Cthulhu. They strengthen the feel of authenticity and you never miss the big and pointless explosions that mainstream cinema offers.
I would personally recommend this movie to anyone with an interest in HP Lovecraft, Horror, Independent films and vintage films. It truly is remarkably good. I’ve already watched it three times, and I love it more each time. I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I have.
Martin
Martin, a young man who looks around 20-years-old, boards a train in Indianapolis, Indiana for New York. At night, he breaks into a sleeping car and sedates a woman with a syringe full of narcotics. She struggles, but he tells her not to struggle or be upset because she won’t feel pain. After a few minutes, the woman falls asleep, and Martin has sex with the unconscious woman. Afterward, he slices her wrists with a razor blade so he can drink her blood. The woman bleeds to death in her sleep. Martin gets a job at Cuda grocery store of stocking shelves, hauling boxes around, and even gets to be a delivery boy for some of the customers. One of his customers is a certain Abby Santini, who becomes taken in with Martin. She is a very friendly young woman who is depressed when she tells Martin that her husband is unfaithful. But Martin still does not have the nerve to talk with her, so she is happy to have someone to confide in with her life problems. Martin phones the radio show host to describe his infatuation with the housewife and senses that she wants to have sex with him. When the radio show host asks Martin if it is a sexual problem that he has involving women criticizing him during sex, Martin replies that he has never had sex with a woman who was awake.
One day, Martin finds Mrs. Santini dead in her bathtub, after she had slit her writs with a razor blade. Martin anonymously calls the police to report the body and leaves. He phones the radio show host one final time to say that he really doesn’t need friends or people to talk to for he is his own person. But when Cuda learns about Mrs. Santini’s suicide, is mistaken thinks Martin killed her and made it look like a suicide as he’s done before. Cuda walks into Martin’s room while he is asleep and kills him by hammering a wooden stake through Martin’s heart. Cuda buries Martin’s body in his back garden, while over the closing credits various voices from people are heard talking to the radio show host asking the whereabouts of “the Count”.
Cemetery Man
The cemetery manager Della Morty, who has the same name as Death, has recently had trouble: The burial corpse will wake up to attack the living after seven days, so Della Morty and the obese assistant Najib often have to fight those zombies and let them back to hell. The boring work life of Della Morty and Najib showed some vitality due to their love experiences, but their lover’s final ending was not ideal. When Della Morty almost collapsed, the god of death appeared and let him shoot and kill people, and things began to develop even more ridiculous…