Among Steve Tompkins’ many interesting blog entries written here on The Cimmerian, there was this piece about Lovecraft-inspired motions pictures.  The movie he was looking forward to see (as I am), Del Toro’s At the Mountains of Madness, is not even in production yet, but another story written by the Man from Providence should make it to the silver screen sooner. Thanks to Grim Blogger, I learned a few days ago that the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society had released a new trailer for their adaptation of  Howard Phillips Lovecraft‘s horror/science-fiction short story first published in the August 1931 issue of Weird Tales, ”The Whisperer in Darkness.” The film is supposed to be released in October.

Beware, Howard fans, viewing the video embedded in this blog post (thanks to shieldbrother Al for helping out someone who is only semi-literate with computers) might be painful. To see the (impressive) effort of a bunch of enthusiasts, who are genuinely caring for the source material, with this attempt to adapt their favorite’s author creation into film format, is something we’re not accustomed too. No compromise, no update of the story to a contemporary setting in a lame effort to please a modern audience; just the honest attempt to adapt faithfully on the silver screen what was written in the tale. In short, a purist’s dream come true. Exactly what has always been needed for movies based on Robert E. Howard’s stories, and never been supplied. When will the Texan’s tales get this kind of treatment?

The HPLHS is the organization hosting Cthulhu Lives!, a group of live-action roleplayers for the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game. It was founded in Colorado in 1984 and is now based in California. Its purpose is to celebrate Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos by producing movies, audio CDs, live action gaming, and miscellaneous other stuff like props. In 2005, their first 46–minutes motion picture, The Call of Cthulhu, was also shot in black and white and in ‘Mythoscope’ –a blend of vintage and modern filming techniques used to produce the look of a ’20s/’30s–era movie.

The Whisperer in Darkness, unlike their previous effort, will not be silent. This week-end the crew shot the last scenes with cast members, as you can read in this blog, which regularly provides updates on the project. I’m really looking forward to see the full motion picture.