The Call of Cthulhu
The book which the Man reads at the bedside of his dying uncle is an actual published work: "The Story of Atlantis & the Lost Lemuria" by W. Scott-Elliott (1894).,During the escape from the island by 2nd Mate Johansen and the other sailor (the only two surviving crew), Johansen is seen piloting the vessel, using throttles such as are only used on boats with a bell system, with the vessel responding immediately to the changes he makes in the wheelhouse. However, a bell system necessitates that another person manually throttle the engines from below decks, responding to chimes triggered by the throttles in the wheelhouse. Despite this, both survivors are seen in the wheelhouse at the same time during these changes, and it is indicated that only Johansen and (the corpse of) the other crew member were recovered from the ship.,The Man: Before his death, my great-uncle asked me to be the executor of his estate... I went through his papers, intending to settle his affairs. My great-uncle had not been one to hold any interest in such non-scientific fancies as dreams. But I discovered his account of a phenomenon that began the First of March, 1925.,Violators of HPLHS copyrights may have their eyes plucked out by byakhee as they sleep.,Featured in The Cine-Masochist: From Beyond (2012),This is my first review on IMDb. I was so pleasantly surprised (in such a twisted way) by this film that I felt almost obligated to comment on it.

I've always loved H. P. Lovecraft's stories and have read pretty much everything he produced. Unfortunately, his work must not translate well to film because most movies based on his stories are pretty regrettable. Many excellent and unique movies have incorporated elements and themes from his stories (The Ninth Gate, Cast a Deadly Spell, The Evil Dead movies, In The Mouth of Madness etc.), but many of those taken literally from his writings (The Dunwich Horror, Beyond The Wall of Sleep, The Curse, etc.) just don't work.

This film contains many elements that also generally don't work, at least for modern audiences. It's a silent movie filmed in black and white. The acting is consistent with old silent films or stage, with exaggerated expressions and movements and is even comical at times. It is clearly a very low budget affair with outmoded special effects. The strange thing is that all of this works very well with the story, making it perhaps the best screen adaptation of a Lovecraft story that I've seen to date.

Because of its format, TCOC takes a little patience but overall it's a lot of fun to watch and manages to build a fair amount of suspense and tension even as it amuses.,