H.P. Lovecraft's The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath
by Edward Martin III
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DVD Cover Information
Director: Edward Martin IIIProducer: Katrina Martin
DVD: Region Code 0
Format: Color
Running Time: 100 unknown-units
Published: 2005
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Guerilla Productions
Product features:
- DVD
Movie Reviews of H.P. Lovecraft's The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath
Movie Review: Half Brilliant, Half Crushing Disappointment
Summary: 2 Stars
I'm sorry, but I have to get this off my chest. I would have given this film 3 stars (4 if it had actually been animated) except for the horribly imbecilic visual representation of Randolph Carter's dream-form. In his waking state, Carter is drawn to resemble Lovecraft (nice touch, that), but in the Dreamlands, he is drawn as a billowing nightshirt inhabited by a pipe-cleaner body with the head of the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man stuck on top!!! No, I'm serious! Words cannot convey the truly offensive stupidity of this rendition. I cannot conceive what kind of thinking lay behind this idea. What really and truly grates is that, visually, the rest of the film is so nicely done. Admittedly, parts of the artwork are mere scribbles, but the elements that obviously engage the artist's loving attention -- the creatures, in short -- are nicely rendered. The ghouls, ghasts, gugs, zoogs and night-gaunts are extremely well-conceived and well-drawn. So I cannot fault the artist for lack of talent or lack of caring. Lack of sanity, maybe.
That said, there is much to appreciate in this film. The script is intelligent (if at times a little overly clever for its own good: sticking in quotes from Dickens' A CHRISTMAS CAROL and Sendak's WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE vary from wildly inappropriate to a touch on the precious side) and follows HPL's story faithfully (the producers deserve 5 stars just for that!) and the transformation of DREAM-QUEST's prose into dialogue is actually very well done. The ghouls in particular are worth the price of the DVD. They embody HPL's marvelously sardonic sense of humor, and their dialogue is a treat! I won't spoil any of the jokes by quoting them, but they're terrific. (My favorite is only three words long. You'll know it when you hear it.) Pickman in particular is very well-done, both visually and aurally.
All in all, if you can stomach the absurd caricature standing in for Carter's dream-self (I really & truly wish somebody would explain the reasoning for this to me, 'cause it really spoils the movie for me), DREAM-QUEST is obviously a labor of love and well worth the price. However, I will say that the bonus movies (including an extremely lame 40-second blackout skit ostensibly based on THE CALL OF CTHULHU) were pretty much a waste of time. THE TESTAMENT OF TOM JACOBY sent me to sleep.
Summary of H.P. Lovecraft's The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath
This animated adaptation of the 1926 classic features artwork by Jason B. Thompson from his graphic novel based on the Lovecraft talewith a musical soundtrack by Cyokha Grace O'Manion. Director: Edward Martin III. Includes two bonus shorts also adapted from Lovecraft storiues, theatrical teasers and trailers.Animation DVD Video
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