REVIEW: The Whisperer In Darkness (Book to Film)

The Whisperer in Darkness: Book to Film comparison

Book by H.P. Lovecraft, first published in 1930

Film created in 2011

The Whisperer in Darkness: Book to Film adaptation

·         The film is in black and white despite this being a modern movie.

·         Characters that served little purpose like Akeley’s son have more for the plot of the film.

·         The characters interact around the time of the letter exchanges as opposed to the interaction being close to the end of the tale. The letters between the Professor and Akeley were most of the parts of the book whereas the film deviates greatly.

·         The son leaves for San Diego in the beginning of the film as opposed to his leaving being already established in the book.

·         They added a character named Hannah in the film that deviate the plot in the third act.

·         The tale ends differently in the film as the Professor’s brain is taken from his body and placed in a jar as opposed to the book’s ending where it is implied that the Professor made it out safely but could still be hunted by the cultists.

·         The letters were not even narrated in the film save for the last one with the lack of paranoia. The growing madness of Akeley is disregarded in the film for the sake of narrative.

·         Despite this title being called “The Whisperer in Darkness” the film only takes the beginning part of the book as the foundation of the film and then changes the plot as the Professor attempts to fight off the cultists.

·         The DVD notably breaks off into its own fit of madness when I was trying to watch it on my laptop. Fitting given that this film is an adaptation of the Cthulhu Mythos.

·         Akeley being an alien was shown as too obvious given his change in dialogue tone as he sounds more aquatic in the film as opposed to an implied natural tone in the book.

·         They add science to the distortion of the creatures in that they finally are able to see the creatures on film as they use fancy star charting technology and tricks to see the dead carcass of one, an anticlimactic part of the mystery whether the Professor believes or not as he seems more in denial than doubtful after all the evidence until the audio recording.

·         The Professor seemed too submissive in the end to the creatures in his ending narrative given the horror of trying to leave and the implied death of Hannah.

·         Given that the film outright gives the concrete and objective details of the creatures, it is not as suspenseful as that of the subjective and flaws of the narrative of the Professor in the book.

·         The fact that the other scientists grew famous despite the efforts of the Professor seemed more spiteful.

·         The proactive nature of the characters doesn’t match the bleak inevitability of Lovecraft’s original tales.

·         The creatures look too CGI in the film t be considered scary and the effects seem too goofy, but the latter can be forgiven given the 1930’s feel of the film.

·         Overall, it was a thrilling and excellent film, even with its deviation from the source books. The fact that it was by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society gave it faith to the works of Lovecraft but the film adaptation itself is inferior to the source material in suspense.

Bibliography

Lovecraft, H. P. The Whisperer in Darkness. Ware: Wordsworth Editions, 2007. Print.

 The Whisperer in Darkness. Dir. Sean Branney. H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society, 2011.

REVIEW: The Whisperer in Darkness (Book to Comic)

The Whisperer in Darkness: Book to Comic comparison

Book by H.P. Lovecraft, first published in 1930

Graphic Novel adapted by Mark Ellis, first printed in1991

The Whisperer in Darkness: Book to Comic adaptation

·         While the graphic novel combines elements of all of the Cthulhu Mythos, the original short story by Lovecraft only briefly touched on elements like the Necronomicon, Azaroth, and even Cthulhu himself. The main focus in the original Whisperer in Darkness short story was focused on the Outer Ones and the cult that allied with them as opposed to the followers of Cthulhu in this comic adaptation.

·         The comic is a noted sequel to the short story in that the events of the comic takes place after the short story, with Professor Wilmarth being rescued by the Muskatonic Project protagonists, who are inserted into the story.

·         The suspense and doubt of the reality of the short story is uplifted in the comic as it is clear that there are aliens and other gods in the comic, with the cult of the Outer Ones about to kill and take the brain of the Professor had it not been for the Muskatonic Project.

·         They force the timeline of the Mythos onto the beginning of the series, which took several short stories of Lovecraft and even his successor authors to build.

·         For some odd reason the end talks about the writer and editors of this comic and feature a good third of the last part of the book about the DC, Marvel and other series titles they worked on that isn’t the Cthulhu Mythos.

·         The suspense and mystery of the original book is downplayed in the comic as it becomes a thriller shooter narrative with the Project members fighting off the cult members Indiana Jones style.

·         The madness-inducing gods are notably lackluster in the depiction in the comic.

·         The priests of the cult are wearing stereotype South American blood ritual clothing in the comic, though given the depiction of other ethnicities in Lovecraft’s own work (like him noting Middle Eastern people as “Arabs” and being superstitious) this isn’t out of context.

·         The story in both comic and book take place in Vermont of all locations, emphasizing the American-centered mindset of the authors of both works despite the cross-cultural context The Great Old Ones have on the world the Mythos is based on.

·         The comic ends in victory of the protagonists as they manage to fend off an agent of Cthulhu, as opposed to the tragic end of the canon Lovecraft stories and the bleak inevitability of mankind in the cosmos in said canon stories.

·         Overall, the comic was okay but the source material is excellent.

Bibliography

 Ellis, Mark, and H. P. Lovecraft. The Miskatonic Project: The Whisperer in Darkness. [S.l.]: Millennial Concepts, 2008. Print.

Lovecraft, H. P. The Whisperer in Darkness. Ware: Wordsworth Editions, 2007. Print.

REVIEW: Locke & Key

Locke & Key: Welcome to LoveCraft

By Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez

First published in 2008

Locke & Key: Welcome to LoveCraft

·         The book notably starts with the death of the father of the Locke family, a key figure who was implied to have had his own mystery adventures back in the day in the series

·         The girl in the well Echo (later to be revealed NOT to be Echo), reminds me much of Sadako from the Ring series.

·         The tale also notably starts with the rape of the mother, which has strained her relationship with her kids.

·         The tale is notably macabre showing the horror of the father’s astral form and the souls of the Locke children having fallen to a ‘dead’ state after going to astral form.

·         Though Echo is notably malevolent, she does keep her promises as in the end she does save the Locke family as promised to Bode and made the murderer Sam powerful by turning him into a ghost

·         Echo also haunts a random lady in the end, implying there is much more to the story than meets the eye

·         The young teenagers who committed the murder and rape are given close to no back story besides passing dialogue. The raping kid only mentions special education and sexual attraction to the mother, but this isn’t usually enough to commit such a crime. Also, Sam somehow manages to kill most everyone he sees, giving a sense of overpowering murder to a seemingly mortal killer in the series.

·         The series also depicts minors being brutally beaten and almost molested/killed on panel, a notably risky narrative style.

·         The keys of magic, so fittingly key to the narrative to the story, are only seen really at the end of the book.

·         The series is set originally in the San Francisco Bay Area, with the characters moving to Massachusetts after the murder.

·         The authority figures in the series are notably incompetent, again requiring the suspension of disbelief that a teenager could overpower a police station worth of police officers to even escape to begin with and had the resources to go cross country to hunt down a family who was more than likely being protected by even more officers. In addition, if Sam had left a string of murders in his wake then the authorities could have predicted a pattern of his moves and acted to redirect the manhunt according to a likely path for him to follow.

·         Fittingly the location in Massachusetts the place is located in is called “Lovecraft,” as the author is the son of another author inspired by  H.P Lovecraft

·         On page 39 there is a provided comic of Bode’s view of the events, which is done with a child’s style of art and narration.

Bibliography

Hill, Joe, and Gabriel Rodriguez. Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft. San Diego, CA: IDW, 2008. Print.