Sometimes fans scrape some pennies together to make a movie based on their favorite novel, comic, television show, character or film, usually starring amateur actors who simply love the material. Having been involved in some independent, very low budget projects myself, I admire the passion and resourcefulness behind such efforts. But I have never recommended one here because most of them are simply not very good. I am happy to highlight an exception to that rule, namely a fan-made movie that is arguably the best of the many efforts that have been made to adapt the works of H.P. Lovecraft to the screen: Sean Branner’s 2011 film The Whisperer in Darkness.
As you would expect for a movie distributed by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, the plot follows very closely their hero’s source material of the same name (good audiobook here), echoing many details perfectly as well as generously quoting passages from the text. But to the great credit of director Branney and his co-scripter Andrew Leman, the filmmakers improved on the original by giving the film an exciting third act which creates a more satisfying wrap up than does the novella.
The story opens after torrential rains have caused flooding in the streams that gush from the uninhabited (???) mountains of rural Vermont, bringing scattered reports of locals seeing the corpses of huge, crab-creatures in the swollen waterways. A skeptical academic at (where else?) Miskatonic University, Professor Albert Wilmarth (Matt Foyer), notes that similar stories have been told even back before the European immigration to the region, which he sees as a sign of human’s persistent tendency to imagine things but others consider evidence that something Lovecraftian is really going on. He is stimulated to investigate by a visit from young George Akeley (Joe Sofranko) who says that his father owns a farm that is being menaced by mysterious creatures, for which he presents enough proof for Wilmarth to go investigate, leading him to bizarre perils that could drive a man insane.
Knowing the budgetary limitations, I was prepared to be merciful to this labor of love, but it doesn’t need much mercy: None of the performances are bad and the most critical roles are very well-performed by Foyer (who has a face that was made for this kind of material) and by Autumn Wendel as a little girl in danger with whom he forms a bond. The movie is shot in something the makers called “Mythoscope” which is their effort to combine modern techniques with the look of 1930s classic horror movies. I don’t think the result actually is very visually reminiscent of those old films, but it looks fine nonetheless. Last, I expected weak special effects and was again surprised by what they achieved on a shoestring, especially in the third act.
Bravo to every Lovecraft fanatic who worked on this project. I hope some Hollywood producer is wise enough to give them a real budget to make another movie based on their idol’s strange, creative, and compelling works of fiction (OR ARE THEY?!?).
All Good Movies 