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Oct. 8th, 2011 07:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
darchildreToday's movies:
The Dunwich Horror: This is not a good film. It is, however, a film I am unaccountably fond of, probably because it's just so groovy. I find Dean Stockwell's groovy free-love pornstache Wilbur Whateley to be charmingly absurd and the climactic magic battle (which consists of people yelling nonsense words at each other while performing silly gestures until Wilbur randomly catches on fire) is hilarious and marvelous. It is a fun, ridiculous movie. We had more people today and they all seemed to share my opinion of the film, so a good time was had.
The Whisperer in Darkness: Okay, so, this movie is probably at least 70% of the reason I wanted to attend this film festival at all. And it completely lived up to my expectations. Hell, it surpassed them. The HPLHS is excellent at distilling Lovecraft's stories, at finding the bits that work and playing them up while excising the bits that are tedious or bad. Which is what they did here. All the long series of letters exchanged between Wilmarth and Akeley? Pared down to a single letter - the last one - with the rest of the correspondence referred to in conversation with other characters. Even Wilmarth's incredible stupidity is lessened in this film, or at least made understandable. It's wonderful. And, on top of that, they added stuff after the original ending so that there could be action sequences. They made Whisperer a film in which people actually do things, instead of simply reading letters and then running away, while still respecting and retaining the shivers of the original source.
Also, it's gorgeous. I know the conceit is that the film is meant to look as though it were filmed the year the story came out. It doesn't, really - the story was published in 1931 and, well, I know from '31 horror films. This is not that. (The soundtrack is way too sophisticated, for one thing.) What this is, what it reminds me of most, is noir. It's stark black-and-white, with deep crisp shadows - it's just a beautiful movie. And there are constant undertones of people keeping secrets. They have conversations where they mean more than they're saying all the time. Also, it rains constantly and Wilmarth acts as a narrator. I'm calling it noir. 8) The Mi-Go look a little silly, but the director wisely keeps them mostly off-camera so we never get a really good look at them. (Until the end, when the plot necessitates it. It's a shame, because they do look really silly at that point and it's an otherwise nicely tense scene. Still, it wasn't enough to pull me out of the movie.) The Mi-Go tech, on the other hand, does appear onscreen and is gorgeous creepy dieselpunk. It's very cool.
Wilmarth is lovely - he's one of my favorite Lovecraft protagonists, for no real reason, and I adore him here. And! They added a female character, with actual lines and things to do and everything! And, okay, she dies but to be fair, so does Wilmarth. A bit.
The only problem I had was that the man playing Akeley was the voice of Zadok Allen in one of the Dark Adventure Radio Theater plays. He has a really distinctive voice and that was a little distracting. But the distraction went away after only a moment, so not that big a deal.Completely and wholeheartedly recommended. I will be buying this one.
The Dunwich Horror: This is not a good film. It is, however, a film I am unaccountably fond of, probably because it's just so groovy. I find Dean Stockwell's groovy free-love pornstache Wilbur Whateley to be charmingly absurd and the climactic magic battle (which consists of people yelling nonsense words at each other while performing silly gestures until Wilbur randomly catches on fire) is hilarious and marvelous. It is a fun, ridiculous movie. We had more people today and they all seemed to share my opinion of the film, so a good time was had.
The Whisperer in Darkness: Okay, so, this movie is probably at least 70% of the reason I wanted to attend this film festival at all. And it completely lived up to my expectations. Hell, it surpassed them. The HPLHS is excellent at distilling Lovecraft's stories, at finding the bits that work and playing them up while excising the bits that are tedious or bad. Which is what they did here. All the long series of letters exchanged between Wilmarth and Akeley? Pared down to a single letter - the last one - with the rest of the correspondence referred to in conversation with other characters. Even Wilmarth's incredible stupidity is lessened in this film, or at least made understandable. It's wonderful. And, on top of that, they added stuff after the original ending so that there could be action sequences. They made Whisperer a film in which people actually do things, instead of simply reading letters and then running away, while still respecting and retaining the shivers of the original source.
Also, it's gorgeous. I know the conceit is that the film is meant to look as though it were filmed the year the story came out. It doesn't, really - the story was published in 1931 and, well, I know from '31 horror films. This is not that. (The soundtrack is way too sophisticated, for one thing.) What this is, what it reminds me of most, is noir. It's stark black-and-white, with deep crisp shadows - it's just a beautiful movie. And there are constant undertones of people keeping secrets. They have conversations where they mean more than they're saying all the time. Also, it rains constantly and Wilmarth acts as a narrator. I'm calling it noir. 8) The Mi-Go look a little silly, but the director wisely keeps them mostly off-camera so we never get a really good look at them. (Until the end, when the plot necessitates it. It's a shame, because they do look really silly at that point and it's an otherwise nicely tense scene. Still, it wasn't enough to pull me out of the movie.) The Mi-Go tech, on the other hand, does appear onscreen and is gorgeous creepy dieselpunk. It's very cool.
Wilmarth is lovely - he's one of my favorite Lovecraft protagonists, for no real reason, and I adore him here. And! They added a female character, with actual lines and things to do and everything! And, okay, she dies but to be fair, so does Wilmarth. A bit.
The only problem I had was that the man playing Akeley was the voice of Zadok Allen in one of the Dark Adventure Radio Theater plays. He has a really distinctive voice and that was a little distracting. But the distraction went away after only a moment, so not that big a deal.Completely and wholeheartedly recommended. I will be buying this one.
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Date: 2011-10-09 04:21 am (UTC)...apparently these are the MAGIC WORDS TO MY HEART. brb acquiring this film
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Date: 2011-10-09 04:31 am (UTC)Hilariously, it is not the only adaptation of Dunwich starring Dean Stockwell, though it is certainly the best. (Because the other is pretty much brain-meltingly horrible.)