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Post by hman on Jun 30, 2007 16:13:23 GMT -8
I watched the "silent film" adaptation of this film a few weeks ago. It was pretty good. It was incredibly faithful to the story, with the exception to one scene that they changed because it would've been too expensive to shoot (the gunfight with the derelict crew).
Cthulhu makes a limited appearance in this film. He is realized using stop motion, although the quality of the stop-motion is somewhere between "The Beast of Hollow Mountain" and "The Lost Continent '51". I was expecting to see more of him, but showing us a lot of the monster isn't exactly in the spirit of Lovecraft, is it?
I hope the filmmakers manage to make "Whisperer in the Darkness", which I still need to read.
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Post by Xenorama ™ on Jun 30, 2007 19:17:22 GMT -8
i have this in the rental queue, and am looking forward to the movie. haven't read the story though, as it's not in my book.
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Post by Xenorama ™ on Jul 13, 2007 23:21:15 GMT -8
i just watched this, and it's really well done. just the right amount of time to tell the story. had it been a studio picture it would have been 2.5 hours long and full of useless side stories.
the animation was well done, and pretty cool. the outtakes were very interesting to see in color, as well as more animation and the full (if amateur thespian) Cthulhu was pretty cool.
hope they do more!
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Post by octoman on Jul 14, 2007 7:19:04 GMT -8
gents, to me it is the " lovecraft" movie followed by " dagon" --the short silent movie was extremly creepy and faithful to h.p.'s original classic cosmic horror story that started the mythos. the special effects of opur favorite " squid" were pretty good. i hear that the same group is doing " the whisperer in the darkness"--ralph g
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Post by Shonokin on Jul 14, 2007 8:25:02 GMT -8
Funny I was just talking about this over on MZ. I think it's the finest direct adaptation of Lovecraft to date. The Cthulhu model is neat looking but yeah, the animation could have used some help. Model animation in the 30s was easily on its way to being very well done, especially by auteurs such as Willis O'Brian and Ladislaw Starewich. So there's no excuse for how sloppy it was outside of someone just not being a very good animator. Despite that one caveat, it is a really great movie and I'm eagerly awaiting their next one. Here's a couple of interesting pics Cthulhu Armatureand the finished puppet
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Post by Xenorama ™ on Jul 14, 2007 9:32:45 GMT -8
fortunately for the animators, Mighty Cthulhu didn't need to do too much! it's a great looking model, that's for sure, and was used effectively. good movie, and another one will only improve on their techniques!
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Post by hman on Jul 15, 2007 14:43:10 GMT -8
I really need to read Whisperer in the Darkness. I have it downloaded. Is it part of the Cthulhu mythos?
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Post by Shonokin on Jul 15, 2007 19:35:15 GMT -8
Yep, very definately a part of the Cthulhu Mythos. There are some of Lovecraft's infamous scenes of endless naming of gods and planets that sort of run like a bestiary of the whole Cthulhu universe.
THE WHISPERER IN DARKNESS is usually in my top 4 of Lovecraft stories, along with CoC, THE RATS IN THE WALLS (non-Mythos, just super creepy and oozing with mood) and DREAMS IN THE WITCH HOUSE (sort of Mythos, like you can feel it's in the same universe, but not dealing with the usual superdimensional alien monster gods, just superdimensional psycho humans). Stuart Gordon quite faithfully for once adapted DREAMS as one of the episodes of MASTERS OF HORROR.
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Post by RedKing on Sept 27, 2007 5:53:28 GMT -8
Just got this(thanks David!) and have watched it twice so far. What an excellent film-I really am looking forward to more HPL adaptations from these guys. The silent film treatement really captured the creepy, otherworldly quality of the story, and even if the animation was not up to Obie standads, it did look like animation from the 1925 period for a non-Obie production. I liked their design for Great Cthulhu, although in my mind's eye, I usually picture him with thicker arms and no skinny neck, usually a mishappen, Hedorah -like head, but that's just my own vision of him.Considering the almost non-existent budget these guys had, the movie looks great, and they used some inventive tricks, like using sheets with glitter on them for water, which worked fairly effectively, and frankly probably looked better than had they tried filming the model ship in a pool of water. What really struck me was the quality of the actors-they really did a fantastic job without going over the top. The main character looks truly haunted and the sea captain and sailors are convincingly terrified and driven to madness by Cthulhu's presence without over doing it or camping it up.
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tyranitar42
Jungle Patrol
In one of its' mighty claws, the Earth rumbles and mountains crumble
Posts: 35
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Post by tyranitar42 on Jul 26, 2008 0:40:14 GMT -8
I didn't even know this was out, let alone existed!!! I gotta see this
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