Summary
While James Wan is mostly known as a multiplex legend, the horror director could benefit from downsizing his ambitions when it comes to his H.P. Lovecraft adaptationThe Call of Cthulhu. While H.P. Lovecraft’s racism makes him a divisive figure in literary circles, his influence on the horror genre remains inescapable. The author is frequently credited with being one of the earliest writers to combine the tropes of cosmic horror into a cohesive whole, creating an immersive fictional world that has since been expanded by iconic writers like Stephen King, Alan Moore, and Thomas Ligotti.
Despite this outsized cultural impact, many ofLovecraft’s best stories still need movie adaptationsdue to a major issue with his style. Much of Lovecraft’s work concerns itself with nightmarish horrors that’s difficult to imagine on the big screen. Eventhe best Lovecraft movie adaptationstend to struggle with depicting monsters like Yog-Sothoth or Cthulhu, which may explain why Lovecraft’sThe Call of Cthulhustill hasn’t been made into a full-length movie. An experimental 2005 short film adapted the story, but even a modern master of horror hasn’t been able to make a big-screen, big-budget update happen yet.
James Wan’s H.P. Lovecraft Movie Risks Following Another Adaptation Into Development Hell
James Wan’s proposed Lovecraft movie The Call of Cthulhu sounds great but the project risks the same fate as Guillermo Del Toro’s canceled adaptation.
Why James Wan’s Call of Cthulhu Movie Is In Development Hell
Lovecraft Adaptations Are Notoriously Tricky
Director James Wan is one of the most financially successful horror directors in Hollywood history thanks to theSaw,Insidious, andConjuringfranchises and their spinoffs. Despite this,Wan admitted toEmpirethat hisCall of Cthulhumovie might never happenthanks to its “very esoteric” story.The Call of Cthulhuis among Lovecraft’s most famous and influential stories, but this doesn’t mean that it is easily translated to the screen.James Wan’s best horror moviesrely on implication as much as aggressive scares and gore, butThe Call of Cthulhu’s horror is intrinsically psychological.
The Call of Cthulhufeatures a monster whose appearance alone is enough to drive the viewer to madness, as well as entire settings that bend the rules of gravity and geometry by their very existence. All of this is tricky for readers to visualize, but almost impossible for filmmakers to realize onscreen. It doesn’t help that director Guillermo Del Toro’s Lovecraft adaptation At The Mountains of Madnessnever happened since that scrapped project could have proven the potential of Wan’s passion project. That said, another Del Toro effort might be able to save James Wan’sThe Call of Cthulhu.
James Wan’s Call of Cthulhu Could Work As A TV Series
Lovecraft’s Work Has Succeeded On The Small Screen Before
Although it might seem like the story’s cosmic scope makes the big-screen format a necessity, Wan’sThe Call of Cthulhucould be a better fit for television.
Although the director never got to make his ambitious $150 millionAt The Mountains of Madnessadaptation,Del Toro’s Netflix showCabinet of Curiositiesdid prove thatLovecraft adaptations might be better suited to television than film. Both the underratedLovecraft Countryand a standout episode ofLove, Death, and Robotsthat featured Cthulhu underlined this idea. Although it might seem like the story’s cosmic scope makes the big-screen format a necessity, Wan’sThe Call of Cthulhucould be a better fit for television.
While television budgets have ballooned in recent years, the format still comes with slightly lowered audience expectations when it comes to visual FX. On the small screen, Wan’s Lovecraft adaptation could aim for an aesthetic similar to 2017’sTwin Peaks: The Return. That experimental masterpiece offered viewers scenes of mind-bending horror and cosmic trippiness that, while not traditionally realistic, were unforgettably disturbing, weird, and effective.Wan’s many great moviesprove he can switch between horror styles, from the gritty realism ofSawto the ghost dimensions ofInsidious. Thus, this wouldn’t be a huge leap for the screen veteran.
A TV Show Gives Wan’s Call of Cthulhu More Room To Breathe
Lovecraft’s Iconic Story Would Be Tough To Condense
A big-screen adaption of the Lovecraft story would be expected to follow the same familiar story structure as Wan’s earlier efforts, which doesn’t gel well with Lovecraft’s style.
Since most of the original Lovecraft story’s scariest moments are reliant on slow-burn tension and subtle implications,Wan’sThe Call of Cthulhumight actually benefit from switching to televisiondue to the format’s longer runtime and more relaxed storytelling style. A big-screen adaption of the Lovecraft story would be expected to follow the same familiar story structure as Wan’s earlier efforts, which doesn’t gel well with Lovecraft’s style. Lovecraft’s story is slow and many of its most unsettling moments take place in the character’s mind, which is where the comparatively permissive medium of television could help Wan.
With its lower budget and longer runtime, a television version ofThe Call of Cthulhucould allow Wan to approach the story via a more experimental lens. The director could turnThe Call of Cthulhuinto a multiple-hour movie, with each chapter fleshing out more of Lovecraft’s famous story. In the process, Wan could introduce more characters and potentially even tackle some of the problematic elements of Lovecraft’s work with a more diverse cast. This would be harder to pull off if Wan turnedThe Call of Cthulhuinto a straightforward Hollywood horror movie.
