Summary
- Wan’s Lovecraft adaptation faces tough competition from Dredge’s more indirect approach to cosmic horror storytelling.
- The success of films like Color Out of Space shows that a modern take on Lovecraftian themes can be more commercially successful.
- Wan’s The Call of Cthulhu could benefit from taking notes from Dredge and Color Out of Space by adding a contemporary spin to the original tale.
James Wan‘s upcoming Lovecraft movie already seems to be facing some rivalry from another horror adaptation. Given how James Wan’s long line of work as a filmmaker primarily includes mainstream films like Furiosa 7, The Conjuring, Aquaman, and Insidious, it is interesting how the director is now pursuing a passion project by adapting HP Lovecraft’s The Call of Cthulhu instead of solely focusing on mass appeal. As James Wan himself teased, his adaptation of The Call of Cthulhu is going to be hard to sell because of the esoteric nature of the ideas in Lovecraftian stories.
Wan’s early comments on the film are a little concerning because they make one wonder about the film’s eventual commercial performance. However, since Lovecraftian stories are supposed to be complex and mind-boggling, it is relieving that Wan is honoring the source material. Wan’s approach to adapting HP Lovecraft’s The Call of Cthulhu makes the movie an exciting prospect. However, it is hard not to ignore how it will face stiff competition from another promising cosmic horror adaptation.
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Dredge Has A Better Chance As A Lovecraftian Movie Than James Wan’s The Call Of Cthulhu
Dredge Perfectly Balances The Mellow Atmosphere Of A Fishing Adventure Lovecraftian Terrors
While James Wan is directly adapting HP Lovecraft’s renowned tale, The Call of Cthulhu, the upcoming live-action adaptation of the video game Dredge will also adopt Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos like its source. James Wan may be approaching the story the right way, but Dredge seems to have a better chance of working as a Lovecraftian movie. The reason being that most direct adaptations often struggle to accurately capture the indescribable horrors in the author’s stories.
In contrast, indirect movie adaptations, like Annihilation, The Endless & In The Mouth of Madness, have had a better success rate because they do not purely rely on the author’s original descriptions of the fear of the unknown and the unseen. Instead, they present their own unique storylines while only borrowing some Lovecraftian themes and concepts. One of the most recent successful Lovecraftian movies, Color Out of Space, also contemporizes the setting from the eponymous story instead of attempting to adapt it directly.
The game’s blueprint could traverse incredibly well to the big screen because it makes Lovecraft’s complex ideas more tangible.
The original Dredge video game treads a similar path by initially presenting itself as a simple fishing adventure game. However, the more a player progresses with its missions, the more the game unravels its cosmic undercurrents by introducing elements from Lovecraftian mythos. The game’s blueprint could traverse incredibly well to the big screen because it makes Lovecraft’s complex ideas more tangible. James Wan’s The Call of Cthulhu, in contrast, might struggle to achieve something similar because it bears the responsibility of being a direct adaptation.
What The Call Of Cthulhu Can Learn From Dredge’s Portrayal Of Lovecraftian Mythos
Dredge Captures How Lovecraftian Themes Can Be Made More Tangible
Just because Wan’s The Call of Cthulhu shares its name with the HP Lovecraft story does not mean it has to accurately adapt all its story beats. It can take Dredge and Color Out of Space‘s approach by staying true to the cosmic essence and spine-tingling ambiguity of its source while adding a layer of originality and modern interpretation. Since Dredge and Color Out of Space have both been appreciated by viewers and critics, James Wan‘s The Call of Cthulu would also be easier to sell and more commercially scalable if it attempts to spin the original tale with a more accessible and contemporary yarn.
Dredge
Dredge is a single-player adventure simulation game from Black Salt Games. Players will head into a mysterious archipelago known as ‘The Marrows’ to fish and salvage fish and treasure to fund their expeditions – but the deeper they go, the more the dark secrets of the deep are revealed, some more strange or terrifying than the last.
- Platform(s)
- PC , PS4 , PS5 , Switch , Xbox One , Xbox Series X
- Released
- March 31, 2023
- Developer(s)
- Black Salt Games
- Publisher(s)
- Team17
- Genre(s)
- Adventure
- ESRB
- E10+ For Everyone 10+ Due To Animated Blood, Fantasy Violence, Mild Language, Use of Tobacco
- How Long To Beat
- 10 Hours
- Metascore
- 81
- PS Plus Availability
- N/A