hellraiser7 H.P. Lovecraft is one of my favorite authors, his stories always carried a strange allure of the unknown, and were always scary for our fear of it. Though his stories adapted into the visual medium have always been a hit or miss affair (though same can be said for a lot of other writers.) However this short film I'll admit in my book is no doubt one of the best and most faithful.The film is made in the silent film style which surprisingly fits like a glove and from a historical standpoint makes sense since the 1920's were the time when H.P.'s stories came out. I'll admit it is really surreal that I even watched this film, it really looks, sounds, and feels like a lost silent horror film.This was done on a low budget but it was used well and right. I really like the production design, most of them were stage/studio props and pieces but they were constructed well. The design of the Cyclopean civilization didn't disappoint me, some of the design obviously borrows from the German expressionist horror film "The Cabnet of Dr. Calagari". And I feel it fits just right because it really gave the Cyclopean civilization a mysterious, disorienting, ominous quality; as if the civilization was something constructed and derived from dreams or nightmares. Even liked the cinematography, not just in the use of once again black and white but that they added a granny quality to the film to make it really look and feel like something from a by gone era. Music is on cue and I think is great and memorable, really liked those tunes that evoked dread.But I really like the story structure which was slightly true to it's predecessor, where the whole thing is basically told in a sort of journalistic style from the perspective of one to several people, which gave it the mystery sensibility and a participatory sense where in a way we're the real investigators trying to put it all together.It's true we don't really see Cthulhu till about the end of the film, but Cthulhu's presence is felt throughout the whole build up of the film. You really have this sense of doom and dread not just that what we're immersed in isn't just going to lead to something bad but possibly this monster is already watching and waiting and as we discover those that investigate too deeply are doomed.If your a fan of H.P. Lovecraft's works then this is a call worth answering if you dare.Rating: 4 stars

Rectangular_businessman The problem with most of the film adaptations of the wonderful works written by H.P.Lovecraft is that most of them fail to capture all the subtle elements that made his stories so incredibly fascinating and influential, keeping only the premise or the most basic components of each tale, resulting in very poor adaptations that sometimes doesn't have very much in common with their literary counterparts.Fortunately, this fascinating short remains faithful to the essence of the original story, resulting in a incredibly well done adaptation which also pays homage to several horror films from the Silent Age of cinema (Such as "Nosferatu") Despite some little differences between this and the original tale, "The Call of Cthulhu" it's a pretty solid film that gives this great story the sober treatment that it deserved.Sometimes I wish that the other movie adaptations of Lovecraft's writings were as good as this one.

itamarscomix The Call of Cthulhu gets extra points for passion and guts; the idea of filming Lovecraft's story - a notoriously unfilmable one - as a 20's silent horror film is clever and appealing, and it's obvious that the filmmakers have a lot of love and passion for Lovecraft's work and for German Impressionist cinema. In fact, as was noted before, it's probably the most loyal adaptation of Lovecraft made yet. But loyal and gutsy doesn't automatically equal good. The attempt to replicate the atmosphere of a silent-era film works only partially (the set designs are terrific, but the camera-work and acting didn't convince me), the fact that Lovecraft doesn't work as a movie hadn't changed, and ultimately it's mostly just a good film school project, rather than a good film, and one that will only hold interest for Lovecraft and German Expressionism enthusiasts.

quis89 I've never read The Call of Cthulhu or any of Lovecraft's work, so I went into this movie not really sure what to expect. It came up in the Netflix Instant Watch Horror section, and it caught my eye because the of the old-timey cover, but the modern date. I looked it up and was more intrigued to see that it was a black and white silent film, made only 6 years ago.I'm interested in movies that use the medium of film to do something more than simply capture moving images - films that have a unique take or message through how they're being filmed just as much as what is being filmed. "The Call of Cthulhu" indeed has an interesting message - to take you back to the time in which the story is set, you are watching it in the medium of the time. It is not a simple "period piece" where all the actors are wearing old fashioned clothing but being filmed with state of the art equipment... This is a true period piece, and feels as if it could've been made in the 20s. And I think this is the sort of medium, atmosphere and period that this story was made for... The time of the Creature Feature, but also a time where exploration and globalization were really just taking off.In any case, it gave me a lot to think about as to how we view what we are viewing in a movie, and I highly recommend it. It really says a lot about how you can create a good story with bad (or at least outdated) special effects. At the end, well, I won't give anything away, but it really did frighten me. It's only 45 minutes and definitely worth your time.