R'leyh The Message

"Call of Cthulhu" is arguably the best known story written by master of horror, H.P. Lovecraft. It's a story about cults, ancient gods, dreams and strange coincidences. The story is told through a series of flashbacks within flashbacks. It's a difficult narrative technique to write, let alone film. So it's no wonder that so many filmmakers have declared the story unfilmable. Then came the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society.

With a haunting soundtrack, stark visuals and dream sequences reminiscent of Salvador Dahli, the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society's Call of Cthulhu film is a rare treat for fans of horror and Golden Age cinema.

One of the reasons that this film so smart is because the filmmakers filmed it as if it was produced in 1926. It's a silent movie! While the visuals are stunning, the film also uses an old silent movie conceit; title cards. The filmmakers do a fine job conveying the story and it looks fantastic.

The DVD is available through the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society's website. The movie runs at 47 minutes and there are some nifty extras. It's definitely worth a horror fan's skrill.

A Metropolis Marvel!

Paula Félix-Didier, a Buenos Ares museum director, traveled to Berlin with a long-lost piece of cinema history...Fritz Lang's original vision of Metropolis.

An edited version of film, or at least parts of it, has been shown in college film classes for years; always with a missing chunk in the middle. Film historians previously used production stills and the original screenplay to fill in the story's gaps.

Now, for the first time since May of 1927, an audience watched the the whole film.

Read more about it here.

Raiders of a Lost Art

I remember devouring Marvel Comics' Return of the Jedi movie adaptation for months after I saw the movie. The movie came out in May, and back then, it took a loooooooong time for a flick to come to video rental, let alone purchase. So, what was a kid to do? Well, play with the toys and read the comic book adaptation of course!

The 4 issue mini series was beautifully illustrated by classic Star Wars artist, Al Williamson. It covered all the movie's beats and it looked damn nifty to boot. It was an action-packed emotional rollercoaster echo of the film. I read that series until all the damn staples fell out!

“The Official Movie Adaptation” was a phrase that graced numerous comic books in the 80s and the 90s. Whether it was DC Comics' adaptation of Tim Burton's Batman (which is still my favorite Jerry Ordway comic), Marvel Comics' haunting Dune Super Special or Topps Comic's vision of Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula (filtered through the Mike Mignola), the comic industry released some top notch renditions of their celluloid counterparts.

Comics also have a history of continuing popular franchises. Hellboy publisher Dark Horse Comics made its mark with a series of fantastic Aliens continuations and Marvel continued franchises like Star Trek, Robocop, Doctor Who, Indiana Jones...the list goes on and on. I gotta say, the four colored funnies treated the movie biz a lot better than the celluloid moguls treated them. Hollywood churned out such piss poor adaptations like Captain America, Spider-Man & The Deadly Dust and Superman IV: The Quest For Peace. Dark stuff, my friends, dark stuff.

Somewhere along the way, my interest in “Official Movie Adaptations” waned. Maybe it was my burgeoning interest on video games, my growing (at a snail's pace) social awareness, or my discovery of the fairer sex, but somehow the art form was lost on me. Every once in a while, I'll take a look at stuff like Dark Horse's Indiana Jones and The Crystal Skull or the Superman Returns Prequels, but to no avail, it's as if there's a disconnect...somehow the doors to that particular pleasure have been closed for good. It's as if I've lost my taste for it, and that's a little bit sad.