A friend passed this on to me with a laconic "let me know what you think". I wasn't expecting much. I was pleasantly surprised. The silent b/w thing was great and just the right atmosphere for a Lovecraft film. I especially liked the real period feel of the title cards. The acting was surprisingly good, particularly the professor and the degenerate swamp dweller. Silent film acting is much more like stage acting, i.e. it has to be somewhat exaggerated or the audience will lose it. This film understood this and bravo. The production was far better than might be expected on something I suspect to have been low budget and the expressionist set of R'lyeh was fantastic! That said I have a few plaints. Firstly; costumes. Unfortunately they fall into an all too common trap of period film making. Don't assume you know, get someone who really does know, look at old photos or paintings very carefully. In the 1920s men wore suits and ties and hats but that doesn't mean if you put a man in a suit and a tie and a hat he will look like he stepped out of the 20s. The suits here were mostly the wrong cut and style. Henry Wilcox was wearing a pair of ridiculous knickers that looked cheap and ill made, in the 20s they would have been far baggier. The shape of the ties was very modern.In one flashback scene to 1908 they lost it all together with an array of modern jackets and a pathetic attempt at period look by everyone wearing the same wing collar...SOFT ATTACHED WING COLLARS!!!! How 1980s! a variety of stiff detached collars, please! I know I seem a pedant but what is the point in establishing a great period atmosphere if you can't get the clothes right? Some scenes fell very flat and this seemed to be down to underacting and bad direction e.g the archaeologists conference. The music was buzzing and highly annoying. There were definitely moments of drag and tedium and the pace could have been picked up or cuts made, frankly it was too long.
Despite this for what it was it was a valiant and amusing attempt to render a great story in an appropriate context. If you complain about the shoddiness of sets or the crap special effects then you are missing the point. THEY ARE MEANT TO BE! It wouldn't be as good otherwise but I accept some people just won't get the joke. This kind of thing is not for everyone but I'm glad they did it. Being involved to some degree in projects of a similar level I know that it's easy with modern technology to make crap look good. I think it's great that they did the opposite...If you love old movies and Gothic drama have a look at this, it's fun.
Despite this for what it was it was a valiant and amusing attempt to render a great story in an appropriate context. If you complain about the shoddiness of sets or the crap special effects then you are missing the point. THEY ARE MEANT TO BE! It wouldn't be as good otherwise but I accept some people just won't get the joke. This kind of thing is not for everyone but I'm glad they did it. Being involved to some degree in projects of a similar level I know that it's easy with modern technology to make crap look good. I think it's great that they did the opposite...If you love old movies and Gothic drama have a look at this, it's fun.