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Call of Cthulhu Available on DVD 163

An anonymous reader writes "The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society is finally finished with the ultimate labor of mythos-love. The Call of Cthulhu is now available on DVD! For those not familiar with the long-awaited project, The Call of Cthulhu is a silent film adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's famous literary masterpiece of the same name. It really looks like something that would have been shot in the 1920's silent film era. I, for one, welcome our new multi-tentacled, aquatic, ancient overlord. Iä! Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn."
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Call of Cthulhu Available on DVD

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  • warning (Score:5, Interesting)

    by cow_licker ( 172474 ) on Sunday October 02, 2005 @04:06PM (#13700101)
    I ordered it the other day and got the testimonial of randolph carter as well (based on my favorite lovecraft story). and this is the message I got back.

    Thanks for your order; your DVDs will ship the end of the week via US
    Airmail. Be forewarned, the quality of The Call of Cthulhu is WAY better
    than Randolph Carter. TTORC was shot on VHS tape and suffers from poor sound
    and image quality. It's watchable but I wanted to give you fair warning.

    Sean


    I have no problem with that. But thought I would share.
  • by porky_pig_jr ( 129948 ) on Sunday October 02, 2005 @04:07PM (#13700103)
    isn't Chtulhu a father of Flying Spaghetti Monster?
  • R'lyeh (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    It had better feature non-euclidean geometry.
    • Re:R'lyeh (Score:3, Funny)

      by Artifakt ( 700173 )
      Actually, it does. The producers deliberately built a lifesize model of that part of R'lyeh that included the angle that looked obtuse but was actually acute, or whatever, and had it swallow one of the actors.
  • by DrSkwid ( 118965 )
    I loved that game =)

  • by Winckle ( 870180 ) <{ku.oc.elkcniw} {ta} {kram}> on Sunday October 02, 2005 @04:11PM (#13700120) Homepage
    Coralized links

    http://www.cthulhulives.org.nyud.net:8090/store/st ore.lasso?1=product&2=8 [nyud.net]
    http://www.cthulhulives.org.nyud.net:8090/toc.html [nyud.net]

    These links do not go over standard port 80 and so may not work behind company firewalls
    • These links do not go over standard port 80 and so may not work behind company firewalls

      Just once, I wish that all the "security administrators" out there who are convinced that they are protecting their network from "the evil hackers" by blocking *outgoing* ports need a swift kick in the ass.

      God forbid that the evil hackers work their way back up the finger connection and destroy the entire LAN!

      I remember at the place I used to work, I once asked a DNS question (I wanted to know whether I could have a CNAM
      • Just once, I wish that all the "security administrators" out there who are convinced that they are protecting their network from "the evil hackers" by blocking *outgoing* ports need a swift kick in the ass.

        Well, I don't want anyone logged on to eDonkey or somesuch at work. And believe me, no company policy is enough to stop people from running those things on warehouse terminals having a direct connection to our ERP.

        God forbid that the evil hackers work their way back up the finger connection and destro

        • Well, I don't want anyone logged on to eDonkey or somesuch at work. And believe me, no company policy is enough to stop people from running those things on warehouse terminals having a direct connection to our ERP.

          When I'm at work, I'm doing work. I use the computers there for work and the printers there for work (with the exception of printing out directions if I need to go somewhere directly after work). My employer specifically has a policy allowing personal use of outside webmail at work (which I don'
  • by Doc Ruby ( 173196 ) on Sunday October 02, 2005 @04:11PM (#13700122) Homepage Journal
    A silent feature of Cthulhu released on the heels of photographs of a live battling giant squid. Isn't it better to leave dreaming leviathans lie?
  • Silent Film Eh? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Kawahee ( 901497 ) on Sunday October 02, 2005 @04:11PM (#13700124) Homepage Journal
    It's been a while since I've seen a silent film. I don't think too many have been made since we've had the technology to have audio in films. Does anybody know of any?

    At least this means that the movie can be multilingual with few problems.
    • Re:Silent Film Eh? (Score:2, Informative)

      by pwrtool 45 ( 792547 )
      Modern Times, starring Charlie Chaplin. The mechanical salesman has audio, the rest is a normal silent film (IIRC). Last one, AFAIK.

      http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0027977/ [imdb.com]
    • by Anonymous Coward
      Hmm, come to think of it, porn does a pretty good job of being multi-lingual too.
    • Re:Silent Film Eh? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by HermanAB ( 661181 ) on Sunday October 02, 2005 @04:19PM (#13700161)
      Actually, it is amazing how much better some movies are if you press the mute button...
    • Re:Silent Film Eh? (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Well, how about Mel Brook's "Silent Movie" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075222/ [imdb.com]
    • Re:Silent Film Eh? (Score:2, Informative)

      by ocelotbob ( 173602 )
      Mel Brooks' Silent Movie is, as the title suggests. Except for that one line spoken by a mime...
    • Re:Silent Film Eh? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by nunchux ( 869574 ) on Sunday October 02, 2005 @04:30PM (#13700220)
      There's a great silent theater on Fairfax in L.A. (I think it's still around, though I haven't paid attention for a few years) that shows old films, complete with live piano accompaniment. I think the Turner Classics channel also shows them occasionaly.

      As for recent silent films-- there are plenty, but most are made by film students and obscure artistes. The "e" was intentional. It's a lost art, but like making a black and white movie today it's a conceit, so if you're doing it you better have a good reason and do it well... Most films of the silent era would have used sound if they could. It would be fun to see a major or large independant studio make one-- it really is a different kind of filmmaking, and works well with creepy horror and broad physical comedy-- but it's not likely to happen, since most moviegoers would avoid silent films like the plague. Also, they don't tend to play well on TV, it's harder for a silent film to hold your interest on the small screen... You really need to be in a theater.

      • Re:Silent Film Eh? (Score:3, Interesting)

        by isomeme ( 177414 )
        There's a great silent theater on Fairfax in L.A. (I think it's still around, though I haven't paid attention for a few years) that shows old films, complete with live piano accompaniment.

        It's still there, but struggling. The accompaniments aren't always just piano; a couple of years ago I saw a live performance there of an original rock orchestration for Metropolis that was friggin' amazing.

        The venue is also notable for being the site (about 10 years ago, IIRC) of a murder worthy of a second-rate detectiv
    • Re:Silent Film Eh? (Score:4, Informative)

      by Daverd ( 641119 ) on Sunday October 02, 2005 @04:51PM (#13700325) Homepage
      Although not a "silent film" per se, an interesting French movie that came out in 2003 is The Triplets of Belleville [imdb.com]. There is a small bit of spoken French scattered throughout the movie, but very little. For the most part you can watch it and fully understand what's going on even if you don't speak French, because they did a very good job of communicating the characters' feelings and other plot elements without the use of words. I'd recommend it to anyone.
    • Re:Silent Film Eh? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by xTown ( 94562 )
      It's not the technology. Silents really don't play well today; the acting style is so different from what we're used to that modern audiences just don't understand them. I used to go to silent screenings at an old theater near my house, but after suffering through people laughing throughout the entirety of "Phantom Of The Opera", I vowed that I would only watch silents on TV.

      Anyway, I couldn't think of any modern silents other than "Silent Movie," which someone else mentions. There are long stretches of mov
    • At least this means that the movie can be multilingual with few problems.

      How is this meaningful to you? Do you speak a lot of languages and like to practice your comprehension?
    • Well, it had noise, but the RIAA is preventing it from being distributed... for once.
    • Re:Silent Film Eh? (Score:2, Informative)

      by n4t3 ( 266019 )
      If you want to see a great silent movie, check out Buster Keaton's 'The General'. Made in 1927, Keaton did most of the stunts himself and they are pretty incredible. Set in the Civil War, Keaton is a locomotive engineer too small to make it into the Confederate army, so he helps out any way he can. Great comedy too! Note: this is not entirely OT, it's a *real* 20's film, so you can use it to set the mood before your next Cthulhu campaign.
      • Re:Silent Film Eh? (Score:3, Informative)

        by westlake ( 615356 )
        Set in the Civil War, Keaton is a locomotive engineer too small to make it into the Confederate army, so he helps out any way he can

        A minor correction here: Keaton's character tries to enlist, but as an engineer, he is desperately needed right where he is.

        The movie is based on the Anderson raid, "The Great Locomotive Chase."

        • Set in the Civil War, Keaton is a locomotive engineer too small to make it into the Confederate army, so he helps out any way he can

          A minor correction here: Keaton's character tries to enlist, but as an engineer, he is desperately needed right where he is. The movie is based on the Anderson raid, "The Great Locomotive Chase."

          My grandfather faced the same dilemma in WWII. A railroad dispatcher by trade, he twice tried to enlist, the second time travelling from Georgia to California in order to do so, bo

    • Re:Silent Film Eh? (Score:5, Informative)

      by ColaMan ( 37550 ) on Sunday October 02, 2005 @08:09PM (#13701096) Journal
      A lot of Rowan Atkinson's work (that is to say, Mr Bean) had no dialogue at all.
      Mind you, any of his live performances (with a lot of dialog) are quite funny (with a fair bit of wit) as well.
    • Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary [imdb.com]

      You might have to be a film geek, or a ballet fan, to love it, but I thought it was great.
    • Here's a recent movie.
      Text in french with english subs.

      http://www.reellifereview.com/fantasia_review_2000 .htm [reellifereview.com]
      L'Invasion Silencieuse (Quebec - 2000)
      Starring: Jean-Sébastien Durocher, Martine Losier, Martin Sauvageau
      Director: Eric Lavoie
      Plot: Santos, the masked ex-wrestler crime-fighter, must team up with police to stop an invasion of undead zombies and save a young woman abducted by a UFO.
      Review: Mixing a huge variety of genres and B-movie icons, L'Invasion Silencieuse is the ultimate homage to the bad
  • by icepick72 ( 834363 ) on Sunday October 02, 2005 @04:15PM (#13700139)
    and woken from his slumber as a result. Shit man! A server on fire is one thing, but bringing on the end of the world as we know it ...
  • My wife is a huge fan of Cthulhu. This is the perfect X-mas present for my geeky lady. Too bad it's already down.
    • Re:Awesome! (Score:3, Funny)

      by KillShill ( 877105 )
      of Cthulu or the Cthulu mythos?

      there's a difference...
      • with one, she'll have cute quirks, with the other you'll wake up from a drug induced haze to find yourself laying on the ground with candles all around. Then as you see a dagger start to plunge toward your heart, you mange to roll away just in time. Of course then you knock over a candle which starts the place on fire. Thats not even going into what happened when the monkeys got loose.
        .
        .
        .
        Or so I've heard.
  • by Black Parrot ( 19622 ) on Sunday October 02, 2005 @04:22PM (#13700177)
    DON'T welcome this particular overlord!
  • Yeah yeah! (Score:5, Informative)

    by Henriok ( 6762 ) on Sunday October 02, 2005 @04:25PM (#13700192)
    I'm really glad to see the correct spelling of "Iä Iä". As a native Swedish speaker I use the "ä" daily as it is a common vowl in Swedish. "Iä" is pronounced quite like an English speaker would pronounce "yeah". I'm not quite sure of how Lovecraft would've pronounced it though.
    • Re:Yeah yeah! (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Huh?

      "Iä" is NOT the correct spelling.

      "Ïa" is. Look it up. And if the i-umlaut is pronounced as it normally is, it would sound like "ee-yah".
    • by Number6.2 ( 71553 ) on Sunday October 02, 2005 @05:01PM (#13700362) Homepage Journal
      I know how John, Paul, Ringo, and George would have said it:

      He wants you Iä, Iä, Iä!
      He wants you Iä, Iä, Iä!
      He wants you Iä, Iä, Iä!

      With a lust like that, you know it's gonna be baaaad!

      Apologies to the Pre Fab Four
    • Considering that the average American (or, more generally, English-speaker) seems to think that accented letters, umlauts etc. are just "funny" versions of the regular letters where it's safe to disregard the diacritics (even when the letters aren't really related - it always bugs me that ð is often transliterated as a d, for example) it probably would've sounded like "yah".

      Not that Lovecraft was an average English-speaker, of course, though.
      • im an english speaker and I studied Hebrew. I found it interesting that they read their literature mostly without the vowels marks. Then I realized we do too. The vowels we have in every day writings do not tell you how to actually pronounce the words.
        • Actually, a systematic set of rules [zompist.com] covers about 85% of the words, and most of the rest are former loan words. *wry grin* Although, as someone who learned French in school, it's still kind of bizarre that "canapé" is pronounced "canopy" and "forte" is pronounced as a two-syllable word that rhymes with "Court A."
  • Slashdotting brings him to his knees... Er... Tentacles...
  • I got all the brushing with Cthulhu I wanted from playing Dungeons and Dragons [wikipedia.org].
  • Cthulhu lives (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Cthulhu is real. Here's [usatoday.com] the proof :)

    http://www.usatoday.com/news/science/2003-07-02-se a-creature_x.htm [usatoday.com]
  • Original Text (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 02, 2005 @04:42PM (#13700274)
    For those of you who have no idea WTF is this, here's the original text:

    http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Call_of_Cthulhu [wikisource.org]

    and one of my favourites, the Mountains of Madness:

    http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/At_the_Mountains_of_ Madness [wikisource.org]

    In general, wikipedia has lots of material on Lovecraft:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._P._Lovecraft [wikipedia.org]
  • Fantasic Talents (Score:5, Informative)

    by Quirk ( 36086 ) on Sunday October 02, 2005 @04:48PM (#13700306) Homepage Journal
    Fantasy, the more lurid the better, ate up great chunks of my childhood. Clark Ashton Smith [oceanstar.com] should be remembered with Lovecraft. C A Smith and Lovecraft [oceanstar.com] had a good friendship. From the above site: "The friendship of Clark Ashton Smith and Howard Phillips Lovecraft began in letters in 1922 and progressed over the years as each became famous to the readers of Weird Tales and other pulps of the 1920s and '30s

    Another great of the field was L. Sprague De Camp [wikipedia.org]

    The Elric Saga [stormbringer.net] by M Moorcock remains my all time favourite.

    • Night Shade Books [nightshadebooks.com] is producing a five-volume collection of Clark Ashton-Smith's work, The Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith [nightshadebooks.com].

      They also have multivolume collections of work by William Hope Hodgson and Manly Wade Wellman, both of which I would highly recommend for Lovecraft fans. The Carnacki stories are probably the most relevant Hodgson works, but there are quite a number of other supernatural stories, as well. Somewhat to my surprise, I found myself really enjoying most of the sea stories for

  • by Nihilist Hippie ( 905325 ) on Sunday October 02, 2005 @05:01PM (#13700361)
    Now that phase one is complete, we can look at "fixing" the administration;
    http://www.cthulhuforpresident.com/ [cthulhuforpresident.com]
  • by Stormwatch ( 703920 ) <rodrigogirao@noSPAM.hotmail.com> on Sunday October 02, 2005 @05:06PM (#13700385) Homepage
    - Hello Cthulhu [hello-cthulhu.com]
  • Teaser Trailer [cthulhulives.org], but the site is slow. Coral Cache didn't give me the cached version of the trailers and this specific Web page. :(
  • I've read The Call of Cthulhu and a few other Lovecraft stories that I dug up online in the past few years and really liked them. Does anyone have any suggestions for one or two good comprehensive compendiums of his works? The Library of America [amazon.com] book looks pretty good, but I just wanted to see if anyone else had any other suggestions before I order. Thanks for your help!

    "Kill your friends, Light your feet, Do what I want, Lovecraft." -Vaselines
    • by Mark_in_Brazil ( 537925 ) on Sunday October 02, 2005 @07:07PM (#13700844)
      Dos it have to be a print copy?

      If not, try this: The Complete Works of H.P. Lovecraft [dagonbytes.com], completely free (and legal!) in HTML. His works are available in a few other places online too, like here [wikisource.org] (see the copyright information at the bottom of the page-- most or all of Lovecraft's work is in the public domain), here [noveltynet.org] (complete works, mostly in PDFs-- probably your best source), here [polachek.net] (PDFs of several works), and here [blackmask.com] (a 100-page collection in a few different formats, including PDF and HTML).
      Since most of Lovecraft's work is in the public domain, you can find other sources around the internet.
      If you do want books, please consider buying from Arkham House [arkhamhouse.com], which has done a lot to promote Lovecraft's work, encourage and publish studies of it, and keep the genre alive by publishing the works of other authors. You'll find Lovecraft, S.T. Joshi (the leading Lovecraft scholar), and other authors like August Derleth on the authors page. You may notice on the main page that despite Lovecraft's works being available in the public domain, books of his works are three of the top five sellers at Arkham House.
      Whether you read Lovecraft in electronic format or in bound books, enjoy!
    • Does anyone have any suggestions for one or two good comprehensive compendiums of his works?

      I recommend the H.P. Lovecraft Omnibus vols 1-3. Here's the first [amazon.co.uk].

      z
  • by Nihilist Hippie ( 905325 ) on Sunday October 02, 2005 @05:42PM (#13700533)
    Lest we forget The Real Ghostbusters? http://archive.ghostbusters.net/episodedetail/rgh/ 28/ [ghostbusters.net]
  • Readers of Slashdot who also enjoy Lovecraftiana should check out Charles Stross [antipope.org] who has written a few 'Lovecraft-meets-Dilbert' stories.

    The Atrocity Archives [goldengryphon.com] comprises The Atrocity Archive & the sequel novella, The Concrete Jungle [goldengryphon.com] wherein the protagonist, Bob Howard, provides IT support for a fictional British Intelligence agency charged with stopping the horrors from the next dimension from encroaching into our universe.

    The stories are set in a universe where the running of certain esoteric code

  • I'm sure the special effects will be done with strange non-euclidean angles and planes.

  • by alasdair ( 213627 ) on Sunday October 02, 2005 @08:11PM (#13701104) Homepage
    Not sure if they're selling it, but I have the HPLHS cast recording of A SHOGGOTH ON THE ROOF, the brilliant re-writing of A FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, orginally by Bock, Harnick and Stein. The rewrite is by He Who (For Legal Reasons) Must Not Be Named.

    Henry Armitage, opening the show:
    "A Shoggoth on the Roof. Sounds crazy? No, certifiably insane! ... It's not easy having a shapeless, malevolent monster hanging over your head like that, but there it is... A big monster like that, on such a pointy roof, you may how it stays up there? That I can tell you in one word: TENTACLES!"
    Chorus of Old Ones and Townfolk:
    "Tentacles, Tentacles! Tentacles, Tentacles!"

    My favourite is "To Life, to life, I'll bring them! I'll bring all these bodies to life!" It's hilarious if you're into both FIDDLER ON THE ROOF and Cthulu, which is admittedly a select group...
    • Thery sell the CD and the Libretto. The documentary of them trying to track down participants in a set of 8mm footage of play rehearsals for the show is available on their website [cthulhulives.org]. *wry grin* I've had no luck getting my local community theater to produce it. Although, if you read the script, the stage directions are pretty insane at times.

      SPOILER

      The last scene involves Cthulhu towering over the local houses, picking up a cast member (!), and then destroying all of the buildings on set in an orgy of dest

  • by Txiasaeia ( 581598 ) on Sunday October 02, 2005 @08:54PM (#13701231)
    ...I just placed an order for the DVD: they charged me a whopping $1.60 USD for shipping, and they're apparently shipping with USPS. Finally, a US company that not only doesn't want to gouge their Canadian customers, but are actually charging a reasonable price for shipping!

    Bear in mind that the site is still slashdotted, so I'm essentially ordering the DVD sight-unseen, but with the Canadian dollar worth $0.85 of 1 USD, *and* the fact that I'm not supporting the MP** with this purchase, it's worth it already.

    • Thanks for the info! I'm always leery of US-Canada ordering for that very reason - some pretty outrageous shipping costs that have no basis in the reality of the postal system. I didn't expect the HPLHS to do this at all, but your confirmation of it is welcome.
    • Bear in mind that the site is still slashdotted, so I'm essentially ordering the DVD sight-unseen

      You're not taking much of a risk. I've seen the trailer and it is FANTASTIC! I imagine that the film will be pretty good.

  • by cvd6262 ( 180823 ) on Sunday October 02, 2005 @10:47PM (#13701614)
    Okay, I'm confused.

    When HP Lovecraft wrote his work, IIRC, copyright was for 14 years, with a possible 14 year extension.

    He died in 1937, meaning all of his work would have been public domain by 1965. Specifcally, The Reanimator in 1922 would have expired in 1950.

    In 1976, the US extended copyright retroactively to the life of the artist plus 50 years. So, Lovecraft's work was then removed from public domain. All of his work would be copyrighted until 1987.

    Then, in 1996 - thanks to Sonny Bono - copyright was again retroactively extended to life + 70 years. So Lovecraft's work is now copyrighted until 2007.

    Even the supposed official HPL site says, "Please note that Lovecraft's fiction is still considered to be under copyright by Arkham House, and any texts presently available on the web without their consent are in violation of that copyright." ( http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/fiction/hwr.ht m [hplovecraft.com] )

    So, what's up with that?
    • No. And maybe. (Score:5, Informative)

      by Melllvar ( 911158 ) on Monday October 03, 2005 @12:02AM (#13701849)
      The Reanimator is definitely in the public domain by now; any creative works produced in the United States with a publication date prior to 1923 is considered to be public domain, no matter what. Reanimator just squeaks in at 1922.

      Anything published after that is iffy -- but could very well be free, depending on how careful Lovecraft or his estate holders were in renewing their copyrights after the initial period was up. This includes Call of Cthulhu, which was written in 1926, and thus I assume published sometime in the late 1920's.

      For much of the 20th-century, initial copyright and renewal [copyright.gov] was for 28 years, by the way, not 14. Later on the renewal period was extended to a whopping 67 years; this includes anything published after 1922 -- which, as I mentioned above, includes a substantial portion (but by no means all) of Lovecraft's work. This doesn't change the fact that it would have to have been renewed in order for Arkham House to claim ownership.

      As for the "death plus 50/70" situation, that was generally only applicable for unpublished works. So if you're digging through some murky basement, and you stumble across a pile of ichor-splattered, hand-scrawled notes of hitherto unknown Lovecraftian ghoulishness, you can publish that in 2007.

      Here's a nice site with a handy-dandy chart [cornell.edu] that can help clear away some of the murk for you.
      • So if you're digging through some murky basement, and you stumble across a pile of ichor-splattered, hand-scrawled notes of hitherto unknown Lovecraftian ghoulishness, you can publish that in 2007.

        If the horror of it doesn't drive you mad first, of course.
    • In "H.P. Lovecraft: A Life", Joshi (quite an expert on HPL's stuff) states that he thinks most of it is likely public domain. It comes down to whether or not Derleth renewed the copyrights, and no evidence has been presented that it was done. And the Bono law only retroactively extended copyrights for things that were still copyrighted. Stuff that has lapsed into PD (due to failure to renew back in the 1950s, for example), stays PD.

      But it's interesting that the best answer is a matter of opinion and gu

    • In countries which stick to the Berne conventions 50 year copyrights, Lovercraft is in the public domain no matter what. Of course the US is now trying to get its trade partners to go to 70-90 year copyrights that retrospectively affects works that have fallen into the public domain.
  • I've yet to see the film rendition of any horror story which comes even close to imparting the same feelings of dread and chills down the spine as occurs when reading the story in print. I'll probably buy the DVD but can't imagine it will do justice to Lovecraft's masterful descriptions.

    Back in my college dorm days one of the guys in the next room asked to borrow the paperback copy of Lovecraft which I was just finishing. Later that night, some time after midnight, there came a blood-curdling scream from
  • I made a portrait of Lovecraft with images and a quote from one of my personal favorite stories, the Dreams in the Witch House. You can view it here:

    http://www.spanishcastle.com/lovecraft.html [spanishcastle.com]

    It's silent, too :-)

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