This is H.P. Lovecraft's story The Call of Cthulhu dramatised as a 1920s era silent film,
and it's perfect.

Do you have any idea how many movies I've seen "based on" (if only I could make the quotes more sarcastic) the works of H.P. Lovecraft? Lovecraftian horror has almost become hackneyed at this point. But not really, because it's not, really. The majority of these movies have very little or in many cases literally nothing to do with Lovecraft nor his creations other than stealing a few names or sticking the word "Lovecraftian" somewhere on the packaging. So one could rightly expect a movie titled The Call of Cthulhu to be about, say, co-eds on Spring break encountering a giant piranha.

I don't know how to say this in a way you'll believe me, but this is actually H.P. Lovecraft's story The Call of Cthulhu presented as a film with virtually no deviation from the source material. I know I keep repeating that but it's like my brain can't fully wrap itself around the concept. Really, this is...like...yeah. They made it into a movie.

Who the hell are these people? Well it's a group of ultra hardcore Lovecraft fanatics calling themselves the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society. They do live action Call of Cthulhu roleplaying, to the extent of wandering around in the Mojave desert in full costume. These are exactly the people we want making Lovecraft movies. Not movie studios. Hell not even Guillermo del Toro or John Carpenter. These guys. If I ever get rich the first thing I'm going to do is park a van full of money in their yard and demand more movies like this one.

And yes this really is a no-talkie movie done just like it would have been in Lovecraft's day, and the effect is utterly charming. I don't mean that in a back-handed way either, like it's just campy or quaint. The homemade sets, miniatures, stop-motion Cthulhu and "Mythoscope" film process they used all perfectly transport the viewer into the weird, unreal world of the story. I could watch this for years.

I don't know what else to say. I'm floored. I didn't think human beings ever did anything this brilliantly cool. Sadly it's only the length of a TV show. I reckon it broke too many of the universal constants that make everything suck all the time and reality had to close in.