The Call of Cthulhu (film)

Lore & Background

For the first fourteen months of shooting, Sean Branney kept an online journal detailing struggles during production, including the miserably hot summer conditions and shooting on the beaches of Los Angeles where innovative lighting created different scenes at the same location. For some action shots, the camera was placed in the ocean. The swamp used in the film was a miniature set built at 1/24th scale, taking six weeks to construct. The filmmakers used a puppet for the Cthulhu monster, with a skeleton having almost one hundred points of articulation, not counting wire tentacles. The head, hands, and wings were latex; the rest of the body was fabric. The gills were silicone cast in latex, and the eyes were two battery-powered light bulbs, which aided animation in dark scenes.

The plot follows a dying professor who leaves his great-nephew documents about the Cthulhu Cult. The nephew (Matt Foyer) investigates, learning of the cult's dread implications. Sailors aboard the Emma encounter the Alert abandoned at sea. The nephew notes that Inspector Legrasse, who led a raid on cultists in Louisiana, died before the investigation began. As he pieces together the reality, his sanity crumbles, and he passes the torch to his psychiatrist, who hears Cthulhu's call. The cast includes Matt Foyer as Francis Wayland Thurston, John Bolen as The Listener, Ralph Lucas as Professor Angell, Chad Fifer as Henry Wilcox, David Mersault as Inspector Legrasse, and Barry Lynch as Professor Webb.

Reader's Guide

The Call of Cthulhu was selected for numerous film festivals, including the 2006 Slamdance Film Festival and the 2006 Seattle International Film Festival, where it sold out both screenings partly due to a glowing review from The Stranger. Despite the long-standing conventional wisdom that the story was inherently unfilmable, the film garnered mostly positive reception. It holds a 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes with an average rating of 7.1/10 based on 6 reviews. Dennis Schwartz called it a haunting labor of love tribute, praising its style and score. Paul di Filippo of Science Fiction Weekly labeled it the best HPL adaptation to date, calling the silent film decision a brilliant conceit. Daniel Siwek from DVD Talk gave it 4.5 out of 5 stars, calling it very eerie and enjoyable and a testament to what can be accomplished with limited funds. DW Bostaph Jr from Dread Central awarded 4/5, writing it was a step forward for Lovecraft cinema. David Cornelius from eFilmCritic gave 4/5, praising the soundtrack and noting it impresses both hardcore fans and fans of classic or experimental independent film. In their book Lurker in the Lobby, Andrew Migliore and John Strysik called it a landmark adaptation that Lovecraft would have loved. The film received awards including Best Feature at Eerie Horror Film Festival (2006), Prix Tournage for Best American Movie at 23rd Avignon Film Festival (2006), Audience Choice at Another Hole in the Head (2006), and Vuze Audience Favorites Winner (2007/2008).

Did You Know?

• The film uses Mythoscope, a blend of vintage and modern filming techniques to look like a 1920s-era film.
• The Cthulhu puppet had a skeleton with almost one hundred points of articulation, not counting wire tentacles.
• The swamp in the film was a miniature set built at 1/24th scale, taking six weeks to build.
• The film sold out both screenings at the 2006 Seattle International Film Festival.