First off, this is shot in Glorious MythoScope, so there’s that. Which basically means, uh, digital camera knocked down to black and white and 4x3 aspect ratio? HPLHS aka H P Lovecraft Historical Society presents...A fuckin crazy old-timey black & white themed moving picture of the esoteric tale known to some as...The Sleeper of R’lyeh! More of a grower than a show-er, until it isn’t! 1925. 1908. 1873. This fuckin thing boogies around quite a bit in its short run-time!
The Great Grand Step nephew or somesuch is going through is his dear recently-dead great grand step uncle’s files. Finds some...interesting papers and such. Something about a weird Cthulhu Cult? Time jumps go backward, filling in pieces of history and the fantastical tale plays out with both awesome AND absurd model and effects work (but mostly the latter). But it’s like 1925 so I’ll give em the benefit of the doubt. Shit, I’m surprised they even had film back then! Or that much under-eyeshadow!
Overall a bit of a mixed bag but thematically they stick to a good adaptation of what some describe as...”indescribable.” Wow, Lovecraft really used that so, yeah. Maybe he wasn’t the best writer ever? Dammit, I can’t hold that against him, or his pet naming conventions. I don’t agree with some of his choices, naming or otherwise, fer fuck’s sake, it was like over 100 years ago. And he did have an uncanny knack for exploring some really weird shit before a lot of other people got there. As for the movie here itself, Some of the shots here are great, nicely inventive even with the obvious budget limitations. Some are, well, more functional. It’s funny to see the high frame rate of digital shots here. FFS, throw a light blur filter on the fucker and knock it down to like 12 fps for authenticity. The grain, shutter scratch and hair filters don’t quite cut it. But the score does do it justice especially considering it is, uh, silent. Like the majority of movies from 1925. The title cards are nicely fonted, though!
