H.P. Lovecraft - The Terror Within (2005) User Reviews (5)

Lovecraft would hate this

[roelscheijde-1 · 1/10 · 28 April 2006]

This fake documentary is flawed on a lot of points, it's badly made, has uninteresting characters but the biggest problem I have with it is the basic premise.

This film uses the idea that H.P. Lovecraft has traveled to Italy and that some of his work is based on real supernatural events that he witnessed. I'm willing to go along with the notion that he traveled to Italy (only for suspension of disbelieve) but that some of his work is based on reality and that Insmouth exist is total nonsense.

First of all, Lovecraft didn't believe in the supernatural, in his letters he clearly states that he considered himself a mechanical materialist, his monsters where there to show that humans weren't so special after all. Another myth used in this film is that Lovecraft was an expert on the occult, he wasn't, all his knowledge on the subject came from the most basic sources.

So we end up with a film about people jelling at each other a lot and when we finally see the monster, it's so bad that you can't even laugh at it, you just feel a pain in your love for horror.

After seeing the film Frankenstein Lovecraft said that he felt sorry for Mary Shelley because he felt that her work was butchered. I feel sorry for Lovecraft.

Enthusiastic and courageous

[marco-d-1 · 9/10 · 7 September 2005]

I have just read a comic about this film (is that normal that people do comics for a film? Isn't it the other way normally?) and watched the faked documentary at Pesaro festival. It was quite a bit a hadn't seen anything like that. In the tradition of "Blairwitch Project" you see a documentary that is at least in it's main theme, the mysterious happenings in the Po Delta, a fake. But you also knew that in Blairwitch. Once you accept this you enter a film full of atmosphere and passion for the stories and the spirit of the greatest author of horror stories that ever existed. In the end the focus goes from the research more to the tensions in the documentary team, caused by all these strange and frightening things they explored. A wonderful idea and a great movie.

Lovecraft's not dead!

[marco-dreysse · 9/10 · 7 September 2005]

Who said Lovecraft is dead? Everyone who understands a bit the fascination about Lovecraft and his literature MUST see this film. It is just like his spirit lives in it. I did not know that Lovecraft had made vacations, this was fascinating. And still do not know if I can trust the end, but it doesn't matter. Thank to these guys who shot this documentary. I don't know if anyone before had used Lovecraft as it's main subject in a film. Just like in his books you Find yourself after a while being part of an endless nightmare that at some point began and would maybe never end. I just saw on a festival, hopefully it will be shown in regular cinema.

An original thriller, finally!

[nearer77 · 9/10 · 11 September 2005]

How difficult is to find an original thriller nowadays. As a matter of fact almost every thriller movie I saw was a copy, of a copy, of a copy of another thriller movie. But this time it's different, this time I can say that Il mistero di Lovecraft is just unique in his script, in his mood, in the way that is directed (maybe because sometimes two directors work better than one, just watch the Matrix trilogy!). I can say that the magic atmosphere of the Lovecraft's terrific books (if u know what i mean) lives in this movie. I saw it on a festival but i absolutely wanna see it again so i hope it will be shown in regular cinema too.

A real Italian digital movie

[KinemaZOne · 10/10 · 19 July 2006]

"Road to L." is surely one of most original, interesting and fresh Italian movies made in last ten years. I saw it in night time, excellent collocation for this kind of movie. This is a mockumentary, a false making-of of a real documentary about an hypothetical Italian trip of H.P. Lovecraft. I scared. The Federico Greco and Roberto Leggio's movie has just some debits with "The Blair Witch Project" (the end is a declared tribute) and is a product which shows an aspect of Italian popular culture unknown. This has been the first real digital movie made in Italy specifically for the digital playing (home video, computer, digital cinemas).