What I'm Watching: HP Lovecraft's Cool Air

Always a treat to get a new Lovecraft adaptation in my hands!  Sadly, they tend to be not very good.  Lovecraft always seems to work best in movies that aren't his.  Lovecraftian ideas and themes are much better than ACTUAL Lovecraft adaptations, more often than not.

This is an issue I struggle with, even though I know the answer, I think.  Lovecraft was very atmospheric, a lot of the brilliance comes from the use of language, and that tends to be lost in visual adaptations.  And when he comes up with SUCH unique visuals in his writing that defy description, often literally for the sake of sanity, it's understandable why that stuff is hard to translate.

It's the sort of things almost all book adaptations deal with, but Lovecraft's style makes it 1000 times more difficult.

And Cool Air is no exception.

This version of the story follows struggling screenwriter Charlie Baxter (A reference to Charles Dexter Ward?) finding a place to stay while he tries to get his life together, and having things get very weird, very quickly, when he has a heart attack and a stroke.  He is drawn into a world of mystical forces, a scientist who needs the cold, and a poor autistic girl.

The story unfolds well enough over the next 70 minutes, and the short runtime is a blessing.  The movie is not bloated, and since there is a LOT of narration and sitting around, the pace actually doesn't feel too bad.  Considering.

But when the movie takes long moments of Charlie narrating, as if he's writing his next script, and the movie shows him sitting next to Doctor Shcokner while you see the printed script pages of what he's saying floating behind them...you can't help but go, "...Really?"

The acting is decent, at least from Charlie and Shockner.  He has a bit of a deadpan, but it works, and he gets in the emotion when he needs it while recounting his tale.  And Shockner really sells her tale of her life and the terror she lives through every day, and the dire consequences awaiting Charlie.

Less successful is the autistic daughter of their landlord.  Her lines sound VERY forced and over rehearsed, which becomes increasingly obvious because they're halting and stuttering.  Every pauses feels perfectly planned, like she's remembering exactly how it was written on the page.  Which is a shame, because I can still see the raw talent beneath all that, and if she was just allowed to speak, and be awkward in her mannerisms in a more natural manner, it would be a standout performance here.

So, ultimately, the movie is not great, because of the limitations of Lovecraft's work for source material, and the low budget, sometimes amateurish nature of the production.  But since the movie doesn't overstay it's welcome and gets to the point in a short runtime, I can almost forgive it's flaws, and accept it as a decent short story.  If they had gone for a full 90 minute movie, or more?  This would be interminable.  But 70 minutes is just about right to get in and do its thing, and not feel like I wasted my time on slow, annoying sitting.

If you're a Lovecraft fan, it's worth checking out, if you can do so on the cheap, but definitely not anything you need to rush around and see right this second.

What I'm Watching: The Whisperer in Darkness

This is going to be a big WIW week, as I've got a handful of movies to talk about, but for now we'll just start with this one, The Whisperer in Darkness.

If you're familiar with the Lovecraftian Cthulhu Mythos, then you are likely familiar with this story from the 1930s.

If not, then here is the short version: A sceptical college professor has been conversing with a man in Vermont, and learning about strange creatures and the strange things they're doing.  He travels to my home state, and is dragged kicking and screaming into a world of alien monsters, looming insanity, and disembodied brains.

This movie was amazing.

The people behind the movie, members of the HPL Historical Society, decided to take the idea of making a movie as if it was made when the story was written, like happens so often these days.  So, the movie was made in the style of a 1930s black and white 'talkie'.

And it TOTALLY works.  SO many Lovecraft movie adaptations end up being pretty damned terrible, if entertainingly so.  But doing in that slightly stilted style, where you can be overly dramatic, and not really blink...totally works.  Sure, it's very much a 1930s movie (With the exception of some CGI for the Mi-go), but if you're willing to take that and run with it, this is a very fun ride.

This may well be the best Lovecraft movie I've ever seen.  The style, the story, the acting actually isn't terrible, and having this modern day throwback, and yet made with modern sensibilities so it doesn't have to be completely bad and dated...just makes everything click.

The ending has a few odd moments for me, but overall, this is one of the most fun and unique movies I've seen in awhile, and it really tickled my Lovecraft loving heart with a drippy, glistening tentacle.

If you love Lovecraft, this is an absolute must see movie.  If the experiment of a 1930s movie being done today intrigues you, then you won't be disappointed.  The pace is a little slow at times, but that's to be expected, since this is not a big action movie, and more thought provoking and thinking.  Which is just fine.

These guys need to make more movies, now.  And I need to check out Call of Cthulhu, although I'm not sure how much I'll like that as a silent film.

J