The Whisperer in Darkness

This black and white SF mystery is in every aspect designed to conjure up the experience of reading Lovecraft. Lovecraft is respected both with the story and atmosphere, which makes the film one of the rare true adaptations of this great horror-fantasy author. Its style resembles Film Noir quite a lot, and only quality of the picture breaks down the illusion that you are watching a movie from the first half of the last century. Even the opening and the ending credits are archaic. This is an independent low-budget film, produced by "The H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society". Despite the low budget and unknown actors, the film is very well shot and acted, and the lack of money for quality CGI is offset by excellent directorial tricks that are, at least for my taste, far more effective in intimidating than the technically costly, but essentially cheap CGI explicitness. Unfortunately, towards the end, they decided to break the tension, gradually built with quality hints, by an explicit depiction of extraterrestrial beings. But even that did not turn out to be so bad to completely spoil the experience, although I would personally prefer if they have abstained from this move. Overall, I am very pleased and I would like to see more of such adaptations of my favorite authors in the future. The only thing from this century with which I could compare it, on the basis of personal experience, is the video game "Undying" by Clive Barker from 2001. If you played it and liked it, you will probably like "The Whisperer in Darkness". If you did not, and you like this movie, you should try out the excellent interactive horror of my favorite video game.

7/10

An adaptation of Lovecraft's story of the same name, which I have read. Within seconds, I pegged this as the work of the people who made The Call of Cthulu (director Brannery wrote and produced that film). I liked that one, but felt it was perhaps too slavish to a short story which didn't really lend itself that well to such a literal adaptation. The Whisperer in Darkness perhaps lends itself a lot better to such a treatment, and this adaptation is therefore quite good. It's been probably ten or eleven months since I read the story, so I don't remember it perfectly, but I think this is very faithful (the ending seems different, but I can't recall how the story ended that well). This is very creepy, with nice black and white photography. I don't much care for CGI monsters, but, for some reason, I think they look quite good in black and white, and the flying crab aliens look very good. The acting is amateurish throughout, but I did like Matt Foyer a lot in the lead. He has a great look for this movie. Highly recommended.

The Whisperer in Darkness ranked in the "pretty good" range of Lovecraft adaptations, for me. The higher range would include Re-Animator, From Beyond, and A Color Out of Space, while the lower range would include Beyond the Wall of Sleep and The Deep Ones. The mid-range is populated by such movies as The Unnamable, Dagon, and Necronomicon, and is a fuller list than either of the other ranges of the spectrum. In The Whisperer in Darkness, we are plagued by poor acting by the little girl, and questionable acting by the lead and main antagonist. The special effects range from mid- to questionable, as well. But as an indie movie, it does really well, and way better than I had expected. I highly recommend to Lovecraft fans, as this one definitely held my attention, and I understand people consider it a pretty faithful adaptation.

It is notoriously difficult to bring a Lovecraft story to the screens without reinventing pretty much everything. The reason for that is that the emotional tension in his stories is all based on what he tells you the characters feel. He doesn't really construct a horror environment as much as place people who are easily scared, disgusted or appalled in circumstances that are usually light sci-fi.

Created by the same team that did The Call of Cthulhu in 2005, it is a black and white movie, only this time not a mute one. The story it is based on is also longer, but then so is the movie.

I liked it, but then I kind of understand what H.P.Lovecraft was all about. For other people I think this would be a waste of time.

I am an avid fan of the writings of Lovecraft, well, and anything Lovecraftian in general, and happened to come across "The Whisperer in Darkness" by sheer luck. I didn't have my hopes up, because most previous movies based on Lovecraft stories had been off key or had too much focus on special effects and putting the ominous dread of the core of the story in the background.

However, as with the 2005 version of "The Call of Cthulhu", I was more than genuinely surprised in a good way with the 2011 film version of "The Whisperer in Darkness". This was right on the spot in every aspect; focusing on the storytelling, the build up of the cosmic dread and the despair of the protagonist.

The actors in the movie were doing good jobs bringing the story to life through their characters. And director Sean Branney really capture the essence of the timeless writing of Lovecraft.

However, personally, I am not overly keen on movies in black and white, as colors add so much more flavor to the movie experience. But keeping it in black and white works well enough for the movie, given the thematic setting of H.P. Lovecraft's mythos and universe.

"The Whisperer in Darkness" is a MUST watch for any fan of Lovecraft. And I rate it a solid seven out of ten stars. If the movie had been in color, the rating would have been eight. Visuals are important in the movie media.