The Big Picture

The Call of Cthulhu
, a 2005 silent film, masterfully brings Lovecraft’s eerie tale to life, delighting horror fans and the movie-seeing public.
Lovecraft’s notorious prose made adapting his work a challenge, yet the silent film form brilliantly captures the essence of his storytelling.
The success of
The Call of Cthulhu
proves that Lovecraft’s stories are not “unfilmable,” opening new possibilities for future adaptations.

When one thinks of H.P. Lovecraft, his iconic short story “The Call of Cthulhu” immediately comes to mind. Much like his body of work, this tale has been considered a challenge to adapt to the silver screen, owing to the famed author’s style that heavily relies on atmosphere, suspense, and cosmic and supernatural terrors that anchor on the unknown. However, in 2005, a low-budget silent film shattered the idea of the immortal story as “unfilmable,” providing one of the most faithful adaptations of his works, to the delight of horror aficionados, Lovecraft fans, and the movie-seeing public as a whole. Directed by Andrew Leman who also co-produced it with Sean Branney, and distributed by the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society, The Call of Cthulhu masterfully brings Lovecraft’s writing to life through the conventions of an F.W. Murnau/Robert Wiene-esque monochromatic silent feature.

What Is Lovecraft’s ‘The Call of Cthulhu’ All About?
Much like its beloved short story, the film faithfully follows the events of Francis Wayland Thurston as he uncovers something intriguing in the wake of the investigation of his great-uncle, Professor George Angell, and his subsequent mysterious death. Upon examination of his great-uncle’s belongings, he discovers a chest full of testimonies about a so-called “Cthulhu cult.” The documents outline several stories, which include the lucid dreams of Henry Anthony Wilcox, who produces a bas-relief of the images he has seen, and the events of a cult ritual gathering narrated by Inspector John Raymond Legrasse corroborated by Professor William Channing Webb. Thurston feels his dread increase with every bit of information he absorbs, and retreats to his own research.

He chances upon a newspaper clipping about the story of Gustaf Johansen, who discovers a mystery derelict in the sea. The vagueness of the article piques Thurston’s curiosity and he travels around the world searching for Johansen. His journey is for naught, as Johansen’s wife informs Thurston of her husband’s death. Johansen’s widow gives Thurston her late husband’s journal, which narrates in terrifying detail how they chanced upon Cthulhu itself in the middle of the ocean, and how he was able to barely escape the crutches of an ancient evil. The film ends with an older Thurston instructing his psychiatrist to burn all the documents related to this impending doom, which now lays dormant in the wide seas, biding its time, waiting for the perfect moment to awaken once again.

A Silent Movie Was the Best Choice to Adapt Lovecraft’s Work into a Movie
Image via the HP Lovecraft Historical Society

Lovecraft’s infamous penchant for lengthy descriptions brings immense difficulty to deriving cinematic projects from his works. In fact, the opening lines of the short story — “The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents” — act as a manifesto for his sometimes esoteric prose. Despite this seemingly insurmountable roadblock, Branney and Leman traverse his words through a spectacular creative choice: making a silent film. Utilizing a defunct manner of filmmaking, partnered with Mythoscope, unleashes the full power of Lovecraft’s story. The grainy, old-school feel of silent movies perfectly blends with the eerie, almost uncanny valley, aspect of the tale. Partnered with the quote cards, Lovecraft’s dialogue waxes poetic on its own instead of having a character speak them like in a traditional contemporary film. The Call of Cthulhu, after all, describes the monster and the conversation leading to its reveal in such a verbose manner that thrives in the medium of literature but would instinctively fall flat if done in the way the modern world makes movies. The monochromatic, museum-like quality of old silent films then provides a layer of protection against the bastardization of such an esteemed author’s work.

The German Expressionist aesthetic provides an avenue for the formalist tendencies of The Call of Cthulhu to shine in every moment of the short film. For instance, the dream sequences of Henry Anthony Wilcox are presented in such a breadth of fantastic images, ranging from the oblique and obtuse angles of the walls to the sheer horror on his face when he wakes up from them. Most important is the reveal of the monster itself, whose very sight is enough to drive those in the vicinity bonkers. The reveal is done in such an artistic fashion as well. The intertwining images of a determined Johansen and his dying sea mate are as alarming as they are strangely seductive, evoking in the viewer a smorgasbord of scared and complicated emotions. The minimalist approach to showing Cthulhu is simply the icing on the cake, leaving spectators to revel in awe and curiosity about what they have just seen, and yearning for what they have not. Such is the power of the unknown, and what strange horrors it carries.

‘The Call of Cthulhu’ Proves That Lovecraft’s Works Aren’t Unfilmable

In a way, The Call of Cthulhu is of great significance to the cinematic world. Not only is it merely a blast from the past, it completely shatters the idea that Lovecraft’s stories are impossible to film. While it is hardly the first film adaptation of Lovecraft’s work, it certainly is the most successful, artistically speaking. It rings true to the spirit of the short story while providing cinematic aspects that enhance the writing of such a beloved literary figure. It stands as a testament that the term “unfilmable” is merely an obstacle that the medium of film will always face and, with the right approach, overcome.

Ideally, the success of this film should encourage filmmakers to dive deep into the tales of horror that Lovecraft painstakingly crafted, given that the breadth of work is such a great pool of material to work on. While garnering a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes is not written gospel on whether something is a masterpiece, this film truly is deserving of the perfect score. The picture has that timeless quality, thanks to the filmmakers’ intricate weaving of the non-linear stories and testimonies provided by the tale’s characters. More than anything, The Call of Cthulhu is a wonderful addition to the ever-growing “Cthulhu mythos,” and a testament to the power of cinema, literature, Lovecraft himself, and art as a whole.